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THIS IS NOT: AN APOLOGY
This is an apology I never wantedor thought I would have to write butnow, my grandchildren, it is necessary. This is not the world I wantedto leave to you, what I had hopedwas a world at peace, a world whereyou could be anything without beingjudged or shunned, where wordshad meaning and books were treasures. Instead…
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SUIGAN’S EYEBROWS
If you sitwith two teachersand ask themto explain the Dharmaeach may givea different answer.Both are right,both are wrong.Which do you believe?Does it matter? A reflection on Case 71 of The Book of Equanimity (従容錄, Shōyōroku)
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HEAVEN CAN WAIT
A Rabbi once told me thatif you want to get to heaven,something Jews don’t believe in,you must atone to those youhave harmed, or injuredbefore you die. I’ve started making a list,and it feels like I am insome wierd version ofHigh Fidelity, but mineis more than a top five. I’ve made a few efforts,some accepted, some…
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OF DREAMS
Last night in my sleepI though I heard an angelalthougn I could not, for trying,understand what it was saying,and it is odd since Ido not believe in angels. Perhaps it was the cat,but if so she has come upwith a new voice, using wordsnot formerly in her vocabulary,but you put nothingpast a cat, ever. I…
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CHURCHES
I have already visitedcountless churches basilicas, shrinesand admired the art, the simple beauty,free of liturgy and belief. I did not stopto pray, to implead, merely to see,to listen, to absorb. for I was a Jew.a nonbeliever in a Christian worldsilently tolerated. Now, I have learnedI was only half Jewish, half, hidden a polyglotof Christianity, a…
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HAUNTING MOMENTS
All too soon, I will returnas a ghost and how youand others deal with thathas yet to be seen, althoughknow that ghosts arereflective, and your thoughtswill determine both my presenceand mood during such visitsas I choose to make to you. You may not believein ghosts, I did not for years,but as you approachthat state of…
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WAITING FOR HEAVEN TO CALL
He says he is waiting patientlyfor the arrival of heaven on earth. He is not sure what that will be likeand the descriptions he has seenare too fantastical to be believed,all clouds and angels and music He is hoping the things he lovesmost will be available in heaven,a good Alfredo sauce and Germanchocolate cake, for…
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IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES
It is all well and good to believethat you will know it when you find it,that it will be so obvious you could not miss it. You’ve been down that road before,and on several occasions were certainthat you’d found it in her face, or hers,in her smile, or her laugh, or oneof their soft touches…
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BANDAGE
She wants to know if it is even possibleto make a bandage large enoughto bind the wounds we have inflictedon a planet which we were toldwas ours over which we wereto exercise our wise dominion. She says it isn’t fair that she will beleft to try to clean up the messthat we have made for…
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FAITH FULL
It’s a question of faith.You have to have someeven if you doubt it, in factyour doubt is proof you have faithif only in doubt, for you knowyou cannot prove doubt,you just cling to itas a matter of faith.Your faith need not be religiousthough much of faith is,it can be philosophicalor whimsical if you prefer.It can…
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an old writer and his words 