Friday, January 20<\/p>\n
Three sayings have come to mind over this week, each speaks to uncertainty and suspicion. \u00a0 \u00a0I think of them as poems though they were written as prose. \u00a0 I have long cherished these writers as brave enough, and wise enough, to pay attention to inner experience in a demanding world. \u00a0When I decided to place all three as a set for Inauguration Day, I was helped by a January 1 email from a soul friend; \u00a0she wrote: \u00a0\u201ccame across this line from Simone Weil.<\/p>\n
\u00a0“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.<\/strong>”<\/p>\n Best to read the three sayings out loud, with pauses, as if they were poems.<\/p>\n Have a blest weekend.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n john sj<\/p>\n One, President Lincoln\u2019s First Inaugural: Two<\/strong>,\u00a0Garrison Keillor: \u00a0<\/strong>(I cannot remember when I first read this, twenty years ago?) When the country goes temporarily to the dogs, Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J. \u00a0<\/strong> Nothing is more practical than finding God, \u00a0\u00a0Attributed to Pedro Arrupe, sj while he was Superior General of the Society of Jesus. \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Friday, January 20 Three sayings have come to mind over this week, each speaks to uncertainty and suspicion. \u00a0 \u00a0I think of them as poems though they were written as prose. \u00a0 I have long cherished these writers as brave … Continue reading
\n<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.
\nThough passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.
\nThe mystic chords of memory,
\nstretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land,
\nwill yet swell the chorus of the Union,
\nwhen again touched, as surely they will be,
\nby the better angels of our nature.”
\nAbraham Lincoln \u2014 1861 Inaugural<\/p>\n
\nA little\u00a0 faith will see you through.
\nWhat else will except faith in such a cynical corrupt time?<\/p>\n
\ncats must learn to be circumspect,\u00a0walk on fences, sleep in trees, and have faith
\nthat all this woofing is not the last word.
\nEven in a time of elephantine greed and vanity,
\none never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people.
\nLacking any other purpose in life,\u00a0it would be good enough to live for their sake.<\/p>\n
\nI often remind myself that this man of great hope and playful humor served as the Jesuit Novice Director in Hiroshima the day the atomic bomb fell upon that city. \u00a0As the scale of destruction began to be clear, he and the novices formed medical emergency teams (Arrupe had medical training before he became a Jesuit) and walked the city looking for people who were still alive. \u00a0They carried as many as could fit all over the floors their home to the Novitiate, and tended wounds: \u00a0Not many world leaders came so close to nuclear weapons in action as this man. \u00a0 \u201cAttention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nthat is, than falling in love in a\u00a0 \u00a0quite absolute, final way.
\nWhat you are in love with,\u00a0\u00a0 what seizes your imagination,
\nwill affect everything.
\nIt will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning,
\nwhat you will do with your evenings,
\nhow you spend your weekends,
\nwhat you read,\u00a0\u00a0 who you know,\u00a0\u00a0 what breaks your heart,
\nand what amazes you with\u00a0 \u00a0joy and gratitude.
\nFall in love;\u00a0 stay in love,
\nand it will decide everything.<\/p>\n