Panning for Profundity

I believe I discovered the word “PanDeepening” (without a hyphen, capital "D"), when coming across a March 18, 2020 eponymous blog post by Prairiewoods Franciscan Spirituality Center director, Jenifer Hanson. She wrote, “Like many of you, I have been struggling with my own fear and anxiety as this pandemic continues to unfold”.  This grappling feels familiar to each of us, doesn’t it? She was concerned with how the Prairiewoods Center could survive and even thrive during the sure-to-be-earth-shaking times, and concluded that the solution resided in “staying centered” in what the organization believed to be true. Those essential, Franciscan values include being “instruments of peace”, that “nature is our best teacher and a source of deep wisdom”, and “focusing on our own worries is not enough for a fulfilled or well-lived life”. 

Jenifer, talking about how the Center would be posting regularly during the pandemic, said, “We are coining the phrase #PanDeepening as we work to see this unique moment in history as an opportunity to go more deeply into all our relationships and interconnections”.

As one who savors words, and enjoys trying to come up with the correct word, existing or not, to describe what I want to say, I was impressed.  I wished I had thought of it myself.

Judith Valente’s May, 2020 reflection, How To Make This Chaotic Time A Chance For “Pan-deepening” (with hyphen, small "d"), was also written right in the great maw of the pandemic. In this insightful, engaging (Judithesque) piece, written at the request of the lay associates (aka oblates) of Maryland’s Emmanuel Monastery, she asked oblates and others from differing faith traditions about the opportunity to go deeper into their lives during the pandemic. “Many [of the oblates] related how they are processing both the pandemic and our country’s current social turmoil as a time of 'pan-deepening'", she wrote, and concludes with, “How can we, like the early followers of Christ on Pentecost, emerge from our locked rooms stronger, more compassionate, and determined to change what ails our country and our world?” This question can be generalized to all times of suffering or uncertainty in our lives. How might we make difficulties into opportunities for going more deeply into our interior lives?

This question begs a response. ARE we emerging now from those deadly times of physical isolation as people with more substance or did we fritter away the opportunity? WILL we continue to seek more consequential meaning post-pan-deepening?

It is a skillet’s worth of pan-posing, but I shan’t take up the sluicing just now.

These uses of PanDeepening (or pan-deepening), if I am reading Jenifer and Judith’s intentions correctly, depend on the conflation of two words – pandemic and deepening – into a portmanteau. This word seems to mean deepening in the midst of the pandemic or, more broadly, deepening through troubled times. This seems such a wise and enriching way of embracing any kind of change, I think. Metaphorically, this might be likened to “panning for gold” in the middle of the rapids or, more foundationally, recognizing that all the sediment that flows down the sluice box or into the pan is valuable, whether bright as gold or as grounded as any of the many colors of mud. 

Life Sluicing

Lately I have been thinking about pandeepening (no hyphen, small "d") as a term representing the fundamental and continuing processes of profound learning and living. Pan, in this sense, is not short for pandemic, but is a modifier representing holistic, all, or completely (technically, per Merriam-Webster, this is a combining form of pan). Thus pandeepening here means moving continually deeper in all areas of life.

This perspective of pandeepening suggests an ongoing and pervasive fecundification throughout the entirety of our lives and our society. In this sense, pandeepening is a process that transcends a particular time (say a pandemic, a troubled time, or even an abundant period), or segment (say relationships, or health, or career) of life or community. To the extent pandeepening, (shall we just call it profound learning), is intentional, and then buttressed with practices that are continuously developed and supported, it should lead to an increasingly meaningful, rich, abundant, and vital life.

I am smitten by the word pandeepening (my grammar isn't good enough to understand the nuances distinguishing PanDeepening from pan-deepening. Six of one...so...).

And plan to use it often.

Sources

Jenifer Hanson, March 18, 2020, Pandeepening.  https://prairiewoods.org/pandeepening/

Judith Valente, May 31, 2020, How To Make This Chaotic Time A Chance For “Pan-deepening” https://link.medium.com/Ggmst7WXDhb

Merriam-Webster Online, “pan”, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pan.

To the extent pandeepening, (shall we just call it profound learning), is intentional, and then buttressed with practices that are continuously developed and supported, it should lead to an increasingly meaningful, rich, abundant, and vital life.