Your Life Is Your Message: A Toast
An older Gujarati man was sitting in a train about to leave When a reporter came up to his compartment window and asked “Do you have a message I can take back to my people?”…
Written in the Margins of a Page in a Book by George Steiner
Pain is our teacher Our nurturer of memory Our judge of the quotidian Our provocateur for empathy Give pain your respect
Simple
One Zen Master When asked to explain the wonder of reality Pointed to a cypress tree and said “Look at the cypress tree over there.” –Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness: A Manual on Meditation…
Poem of the Morning
I came across this poem by Adrienne Rich, and thought of the work you two do at Queen of Peace. My heart is moved By all I cannot save So much has been destroyed. I…
An Exemplar of Gramsci’s “Optimism of the Will”
My optimism rests on my belief in the infinite possibilities of the individual to develop non-violence. The more you develop it in your own being, the more infectious it becomes till it overwhelms your surroundings…
Take Your Pick/2
Pascal raised the question: How do you know whether God exists? He said, if I assume that he exists and he does, I’ll make out OK. If he doesn’t, I won’t lose anything. If he…
The Politics of Dispossession
for Sharifa Barakat “The climax to this campaign occurred when, in West Beirut, Israeli soldiers carted off Palestinian archives, destroyed the private libraries and homes of prominent Lebanese nationalists and Palestinian personalities, and literally heaped…
Washing the Dishes
While washing the dishes one should only be washing the dishes, which means that while washing the dishes one should be completely aware of the fact that one is washing the dishes. At first glance,…
One Day
When you are twenty-seven And at last done Done DONE with medical school We should do a marathon/festival of words Reciting poetry to each other Then writing off of the lines of Neruda, Szymborska And…
“We’re Proud to be St. Louis Grown”
I was just visiting with my friend Suzanne Renard at Park Avenue Coffee She told me that her relatives in France decry that she lives in “the most evil city in the world”–Saint Louis Evil…