In a little-known variant text, after promising to be with the disciples wherever "two or three are gathered in my name," Jesus adds that "five or more" sounds like a committee, in which case He would just as soon be left out of it.

We are heading for Finland and Norway next week--back at the end of the month.

As a Seeker was making his way up a mountain in search of a famous Master, he came upon a ramshackle refreshment stand, and he stopped for a cup of tea. When he was done, he lingered awhile and finally asked the woman behind the counter for directions to the top of the mountain, where the Master lived. “All the paths lead to the top of the ( Read more... )

Heading off on a cruise to Australia and New Zealand, back on the 18th or 19th

A man (it could be me) walks down an empty street ( Read more... )

So I finally admit ( Read more... )

You walk toward me through the surf, new ( Read more... )

Well-mannered ghosts
stifle any screams
content to observe
with sad precision
the living partial living

Look and they are gone
hidden in the old barn
or at the second tee
behind those city shops
leaving only words behind

Close your eyes
and they return
insistent or worse
Even in this silence
we are what we have always been.

How much the world--or at least the corner drugstore--has changed since I was young! Now the sinus medications are behind the drug counter and the condoms are on display shelves. Our use of non-prescription drugs was pretty much confined to the theory that one could get high by putting aspirin in one's coke, while to get condoms without ( Read more... )

One of the joys of being an Episcopalian is listening to our respectable and rather elderly congregation recite responsively various unedifying psalms as part of the liturgy. The ones I like best are usually the bloodthirsty ones--"Lord, ravage the lands of our enemies and destroy their children"--but today's included this passage, which sounded ( Read more... )