I chose to “sleep in” this morning.  Something which I seldom do.  I like the early morning, a habit learned from my mother who grew up on a farm.  Plants and animals elicit care, not scheduling at one’s convenience.  Farmers do not sleep in.

We visited a farmers market in Geneva where we purchased some sweet corn, and fall chrysanthemums.  In the world as I imagine it, we’d purchase all of our vegetables day by day, fresh, from a farmers market.  We’d be on a first name basis with the growers of the produce, and we’d feel fortunate to support their enterprise.

En route to Starbucks where I prefer to write, I passed by a large Catholic Church.  The parking lot was full.  Not quite the noon hour, Sunday Mass worship surely was in full swing.  Perhaps the host, or the chalice was being elevated in consecration…  I was not raised Catholic.

Of note as I passed — a jarring lawn display of hundreds of white crosses, to show the number of abortions performed in a designated window of time.  The display, — a public repudiation of every woman who chooses to end a pregnancy.  Such choice is almost always a lesser evil.  Women refusing to participate to bring a helpless human into this world, certain they do not have the ability to provide care.

I drove past, reminded again that religion is not the benign feature that one would think.

And your point is, you are thinking to yourself…

I offer these verses from Zhuangzi a classic of Chinese literature by Zhuang Zhou, 4th century BCE.  These lines comment on the negative blow-back when a politician, or a priest, or really anyone  — attempts to shape the thinking and attitudes of others. Or to say it plainly, “to fuck with someone’s mind.”

The following section presents an alternative.  There is a “way,” (tao) a rhythm of life available to anyone who is attentive to learn and to follow.  There is no limit to the fulfillment which one might experience.

Enjoy!

Zhui Khü asked Lao Tan, saying,
‘If you do not govern the world, how can you make men’s minds good?’
The reply was,

‘Take care how you meddle with and disturb men’s minds.
The mind, if pushed about, gets depressed;
if helped forward, it gets exalted.

Now exalted, now depressed,
here it appears as a prisoner, and there as a wrathful fury.

(At one time) it becomes pliable and soft,
yielding to what is hard and strong; (at another),
it is sharp as the sharpest corner,
fit to carve or chisel (stone or jade).
Now it is hot as a scorching fire, and anon it is cold as ice.
It is so swift that while one is bending down and lifting up his head,
it shall twice have put forth a soothing hand beyond the four seas.
Resting, it is still as a deep abyss; moving,
it is like one of the bodies in the sky;
in its resolute haughtiness,
it refuses to be bound;
–such is the mind of man!’

                   ***

…..’Come, and I will tell you:
(The perfect Tao) is something inexhaustible,
and yet men all think it has an end;
it is something unfathomable,
and yet men all think its extreme limit can be reached.

He who attains to my Tao,
if he be in a high position,
will be one of the August ones,
and in a low position, will be a king.
He who fails in attaining it,
in his highest attainment will see the light,
but will descend and be of the Earth.

At present all things are produced from the Earth
and return to the Earth.

Therefore I will leave you,
and enter the gate of the Unending,
to enjoy myself in the fields of the Illimitable.
I will blend my light with that of the sun and moon,
and will endure while heaven and earth endure.
If men agree with my views,
I will be unconscious of it;
if they keep far apart from them,
I will be unconscious of it;
they may all die, and I will abide alone!’

–Zhuangzi, Letting Be, and Exercising Forbearance trans. by James Legge