We’ve been telling ourselves that everything is fine – that the insurance policy is paid up, that the EMT’s are well-trained, and that our hospitals are top notch… but we have secretly suspected that something may not be quite right. And when a gun appears, we are stricken with flash of certainty – everything that society has done to create the illusion of safety – all of it, it turns out, is utterly useless.
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Pathfinder — September 2017
At our church’s August Chicken Barbecue all generations of folks helped –including me. I helped Ken Bacon by filling pitchers with cold water. Owen Houghton and I cut up watermelon (he taught me how to cut off the ends). I ‘shot the breeze’ with Archie Coll and Kathleen LaRou at the fire pit. Every few minutes Helen Coll would sing out that it was time to turn the chicken. At length, I settled down with a gang of corn shuckers–a crew of folks that ranged in age from 12 (or thereabouts) to 95. Community!…
Precious
We experience the eternal within the temporary, and we are filled with wonder! This is the poetic moment. The prayerful moment.
It is precious.
Pathfinder — July-August 2017
The black flies have come and gone. Saturday afternoons are filled with the grumble of lawnmowers.We’ve put anAmerican flag(in memory ofDavid O’Neil)and a new Rainbow flagon our flag poles.The High School seniors have graduated. Yard sales are popping up on the sidestreets.The peonies are in bloom.Roll down the car window… It’s July!…
Pathfinder — June 2017
Last Tuesday I wandered down into the basement of the church while the Food Pantry was in full swing. Spying me, Kathleen pulled me into one of the rooms where a box of canned food items was being inspected…
Pathfinder — May 2017
I wonder what is going to happen? When we think about time, we tend to imagine it as a line. We imagine a line that starts with our birth, way back behind us, moves up to the present moment, and then extends out into the future in front of us. Our language reinforces this idea: we say things like, “back, when I was a kid…” or “I’m really looking forward to Christmas…”But there is something strange about this idea…
05/07/17: Summer Kitchen (Hall)
Summer Kitchen by Donald Hall In June’s high light she stood at the sink With a glass of wine, And listened for the bobolink, And crushed garlic in late sunshine. I watched her cooking, from my chair. She pressed her lips Together, reached for kitchenware, And tasted sauce from her fingertips. “It’s ready now. Come on,” […]
Pathfinder — April 2017
Go well.Stay well… Every Tuesday during Lent, about ten of us have been meeting to discuss the book Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton.The book takes place in South Africa during the height of the apartheid era, and involves an oldman’s search for his lost son.
04/16/17: The opening passage of Dante’s Divine Comedy
Here is the opening passage of The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, as translated by Robert Durling: In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to myself in dark wood, for the straight way was lost. Ah, how hard a thing it is to say what that wood was, so savage […]
The Question of the Door
Open, or closed? That is the question of the door. When we shut the door, we ask the person on the other side “who are you?” If we leave the door open, we tell the person on the other side: “come in.”
An open door says “I trust you.”
A closed door says “I’m not sure about you.”