I finished reading the Gospel of John, all twenty-one chapters. Unlike the other three gospels this is not a copy and paste, vignettes of Jesus’s sayings and deeds. This is an esoteric interpretation of Jesus. He is human, but in a manner that defies the term ordinary. He has insight, access to the deep…
A friend sent this poem to me. I’ve read it before. Since the first reading several years have passed. Now the words evoke a more personal reality, something that could be autobiographical. I guess that is the whole point. A discussion of politics last night was passionate, mindful, with good insights being exchanged. This…
Strange the memories that present themselves in surprising detail. I remember falling in love with a Ford Mustang. It was 1965, my sophomore year in high school. An acquaintance who lived in the neighborhood was given a new Ford Mustang 2+2 fastback by his mother. It had a 289 ci motor and a four…
Heard this song on the radio yesterday. The lyrics keep coming back to me. I believe that it is much more than a simple love song. How difficult it is to make a pact with oneself to respect, to honor the integrity of one’s own one life. How difficult it is to accept ourselves,…
With all the disruptions swirling around us, even if one is not directly impacted, — these are troubled times. I am dismayed for my countrymen in Northern California, and in Puerto Rico. Those who live in Houston and in the Florida Keys will suffer the hard labor of recovery for many months, perhaps years…
Too much caffeine yesterday, I slept little last night. Today is another day. Like everyone else, a creature of habit, I begin my day with a cup of coffee. I know better, but here I am at Starbucks. Happened to hear this song playing on the radio: The Wind Cries Mary by Jimi Hendrix. …
Auschwitz (Laggiù, ad Auschwitz, lontano dalla Vistola) There, at Auschwitz, far from the Vistula, love, on the northern plain in a field of death: funereal, cold, rain on the rusted poles, and a tangle of steel fences: and no trees or birds in the grey air, or above our thought, but inertia and…
Another hot late September day. It promises to be 90 degrees. Between our president and the leader of North Korea, another session of bitch-slapping, saber rattling. A formation of B-1 bombers and F-15 fighters made a pass along the coast of North Korea. What is the next move going to be and who will…
I read a review in the New Yorker about a book of poems entitled Night by Etel Adnan. The next day I submitted my order to Amazon. For many years I have carried a copy of T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets in my briefcase where ever i go. Adnan’s work will join the Eliot…
There are seasons of life. In the late 1970’s I was a student learning to swim in the vast ocean of philosophy. With a bit more focus next I studied at Garrett Evangelical Divinity School in Evanston. I assumed the professional end of all of the study was to become a Christian minister. For…
