Texting on mouse removal on a Sunday! I’m sure the Rabbis have much to say on this, and how to do so while staying in rest, but i did my best! Having read the Talmud many times, or at least the cliff notes…..
Texting my wife today, about how to get a dead mouse our cat killed and dropped on our front porch (first breaking the central commandment to not murder, and then having the audacity to test the Sabbath–alas this cat!); how to get it onto a shovel and into a box. Alas, the things we find ourselves doing on a Sunday! As one comedian said: “Never mind if God exist, try finding a plumber on Sunday!”
As I texted…the UK already perfected the broom to box method…..and i have to deal with this issue weekly. I’ve become an experienced mouse getter ridder. And as a priest, i bury them in Peace! Ok, i can text someone through this! Experience can lead to wisdom!
I’m like Allstate (the insurance company), i’ve seen a thing or two! Or at least, buried a lot of creatures over the years.
Of course, it’s not easy to bury the dead in Texas; had to bury a dog once in Winter- alas, the earth isn’t forgiving no matter how many prayers you say, you pay for the burial in sweat and tears! Where i grew up in North Carolina, you just need a shovel and a little hutzphah and there you have it-a nice hole in the red fertile soiled earth-readied to hold the waiting (as they say there!). Not so in Texas.
This earth has more resistance, it’s recalcitrant, and you have to be a bit more steadfast, intentional and willful! I suppose it develops character or back bone, or at least back muscles! And back aches, from experience!
The things we get good at are not always pleasant.
But as Robert Plant said when i met him on a plane once, “as you get older, you will be doing more and more funerals and less weddings, so get used to it. And have music which when sped up works at weddings, and slowed down, at funerals” Practical advice that stuck with me.
I look forward to the period of earth history where the cat lays down with the mouse rather than kills it and brings it to you, or, a day, they just play around as friends! The Millennial reign years couldn’t come sooner for me! I’m ready for nature and nations to be in proper order! So, i can hang out with elephants!
And children will play with Cobras. And i get to pet tigers (which i’ve always wanted to do!)! We aren’t there yet.
In the meantime, as a counselor, i can only offer my best advice from experience, and a listening ear. And text my wife through getting rid of a dead mouse!
But text coaching someone how to get rid of a mouse is still an odd activity, especially on Sundays! I’ll look up the ramifications!

From the Bible turns out not to boring series!

Re-reading the book of Revelation today! One of my favorites! Requires your mind and heart and imagination to leap between the lines into this great cosmic but practical drama, which ends the Book with a great vision! We’ve been reading lots of fairy tales, but this might be the truest and most peculiar tale ever.

And John liked birds, angels, thrones, creatures with many eyes, and imaged Jesus in more dimensions and manners than any other book. A white robed, bronze footed Son of Man (from Daniel), a rain-bowed enthroned King, a Lamb with seven horns and more…if you traced just that image alone through the whole book, you’d have a great collage, which rattles all “Sunday school art” of Jesus, off the walls! A diademic, multi-faceted portrait!

John liked eagles too! (Which makes sense, as that is his symbol!) Loving re-reading Revelation! Filled with scrolls opening and horses flying off the page; locust with human faces and scorpion tails and hair, angels, thrones with glass seas, and eagles which talk! My kinda book, and requires you to use more than logic to enter. You gotta show up to read this one!

Imagination and spirit required, to read this last book in The Book! Must be a favorite with artists! As it’s symbol forward, or the symbolic is in the foreground. I suppose people have had trouble with it, if they just approach it with reason alone, or only look for time maps (imagination works a bit in and out of time!) but those people probably didn’t read fairy tales as kids!”

Like this quote: “I looked and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, ‘Woe, woe, woe…’ it said! The writer in a type of trance, looked and heard, and the eagle talking, predicting the coming woes! Great moment in the drama! And, of course, the eagle’s warning still applies!

John saw stuff! Great book if you get bored, and if you like really true fairy tales! It’s framed as a revelation of Jesus as well! So you know it’s going to be interesting!

My wife and i have been reading “Wrinkle in Time” out loud at night to keep the muscles of our imaginations in shape. This one’s a workout!

The writer of Revelation also gives a blessing to those who read it out loud! Makes sense. When you hear it read, you can see it better!

This book requires a fully engaged imagination to know what’s happening between the lines! I like art that requires more than logic. When i enter a building, there is the engineering, but there is also how light falls and fills each room-ambiance is hard to measure. This book requires reason and imagination to interpret! And has a unique tone. And i love tone, as a way in! Someone defined tone as, “An authors orientation towards the words!” That works for me! I always read for tone, and for what it meant to those who read or heard it then.
It’s one of the most cinematic books in the Book! Re-enjoying today! Read well friends! If you think the Bible is boring, read that book with an open mind and imagination! Wow. Love art that forces you to engage creatively in order to know the “from” it’s talking “about”! All language is a portal, as they say, but this one is a keyhole in the Sky!

Or as one theologian put it: “A true symbol, participates in the Reality to which it points!” That holds true with this fine art–the bible’s epilogue! Both bookends of the bible are pretty cosmic! Fun swimming in the ending this week, regardless! Why is this not cinema yet? They tried pretty well with “Noah” I thought–another great meditation! Why not Revelation! It’s got everything!

You don’t have to be religious to enter this one! This book is weird, interesting, scary in a good way at times, and filled with hidden pools of wonder to dive into and fish from! If you don’t like scuba diving or swimming or fairy tales of any sort, then the waters may be hard to fish. But if you like art, you’ll like fishing this huge pond! It’s fathomless. A nice ending on The Great Book!

When interpreting, as Rashi, the great Medieval jewish Rabbi said, fish the surface first (plain meaning, he called it), then pick a spot and let your sinker sink to find the hidden meanings just underneath. With this book, the bottom of the lake is on the surface, so you can see, to me, more clearly, what your fishing for! And this body of water, is definitely worth fishing!

Doctors and poets need one another….

My sister is not distracted as she drives to work. Thank God she’s like she is- focused on the goal; i want doctors to focus.
Me, on the way to somewhere, usually talk to a thousand people, pause and look at the stars which are still out, lingering in stillness of morning sky, the shape of people’s hands in certain light, notice a dog or two and at what pace people are walking them, and how the light is falling on them as they do. And ask everyone, how they are really doing, and wait to hear their real answer! It takes me a long while to even go get a coffee for my wife!
Alas, a poet has a hard time getting from here to there, but they do notice the journey, and bless many along the way! I hope. But we rarely get paid for these intangibles in life!
And yet, i wouldn’t want a poet being my surgeon. They would get fascinated by the shape and color of the organs as they cut. The lighting would need muting, music playing…don’t do surgery by candles, unless you must, it’s a nightmare!
Each of us has their own unique gifts meant to serve one another with!
I’m glad for surgeons and for poets. We need both. One, on the front line of physical, the other on front line of the metaphysical. They probably are meant to work in tandem!
But, it’s hard to pray and drive at the same time. And, please, never do surgery with your eyes closed! I need that kidney!
It takes so long to get coffee for me, just ask my wife; but thankfully, my sister gets to work on time and saves a few lives. Perhaps, i get to save a few hearts and visions, along the way. We’ll see how doctors and poets dance together in the end, I’m sure. But until then, doctors and poets need one another! Let’s work together friends!

What Crows know

Crows only have one song
which they repeat constantly, all day long-one hit wonders
in their black iridescent suits;
unlike true songbirds who humbly learn from their
parents to imitate a 40 song-at least-repertoire from
the best of the birds around them. Still, crows-
they know their own song well enough
to be crows, which may be enough as a solo artist to make it.
They know squawk really well. And scatter,
at the end of each painting-as Van Gogh knew. And, like their cousins
the grackles, how to take french fries off a picnic table
while you’re not watching. And how to steal
cat food at night. And to serve at least Edgar Allan Poe’s poems with
their singularly unique squawking flight.
Crows know, at least that much.
Ok crow, squawk on. Maybe
your brazen glory will win the day.
But, i’m for the songbirds for the distance,
And the sheer entertainment alone. Still,
One song, sung well, consistently can make
A mark on our days-for sure. Thanks Crow.
I’ll promise not to scare you off as quickly, next time.

Only that sea knows love….

My art response to Rothko’s simple painting today:

There is sea, sky, and
the unseen swirl between
two worlds,
two lovers…on an edge
between- that
is,
us
all.
That
kingdom
is always
in our midst;
(war and love commingle)
but too
Rarely edged awake, or just
seen.
much less
lived in.
For only
Love
can live
there-
by that
Sea.

This poem is
About the sun.
The Sun
Told me you
Were a poem
Forever.
I felt it on
Our shared skin that night.
And then
We wrote it
Everywhere
On this world-we could be enough song for us all
Until, we were
Graffities of praise…or giraffes of wonder in some distant continent’s glaze or listening glisten…that is…
Wherever we rose
Into our morning names, together forever,
We were, even before-shining like this.

From when i lived in Paris as a younger man- another from the “written on my napkin series”, when i was younger and falling in love with watching well:
this cafe
in afternoon-
a portal-
this middle aged woman’s wrist leaning
towards wine glass in this type
of white sheer pen hole vignnetted sun tone,
a kingdom
in itself. A new wave of knowing, again simple things.
And the old man who runs the place
and has been
watching afternoons like this
forever. His
knowing
smile, having
taken it all in,
gathered so many
afternoons
into a bouquet.
So, by the end of
his life, having learned to see well,
a single afternoon-this is his
eternity.
And she finally
spoke
after having had a sip or two-“life is
how well
you dwell
in afternoon
with one
another.”

From Paris, when i was younger and falling in love with watching well:

this cafe
in afternoon-
a portal-
this middle aged woman’s wrist alone leaning
towards another wine glass in this type
of white sheer pen hole vignetted sun tone,
a kingdom
in itself. A new wave of knowing, again simple things.
And the old man who runs the place
and has been
watching afternoons like this
forever. His
knowing
smile, having
taken it all in, having
gathered so many
afternoons
into a bouquet.
So, by the end of
his life, having learned to see so well,
a single afternoon-this is his
eternity.
And she finally
spoke
after having had a sip or two-“life is
how well
you dwell
in afternoon
with one
another.”

Translating ancient wisdom poems today. This one a scandinavian monk’s-about finding The Sea and how it helped him find meaning in taking out the trash-or how knowing the sea teaches us the value of simple daily activities!

we sailed
until
we knew
the sea
then stopped,
came home
and took out
the trash.

in Icelandic it sounds more wise, i assure you!

við sigldum
þar til
við vissum
hafið
hætti svo,
kom heim
og tók út
ruslið.

a response to hasidism’s-the jewish mystical movement’s-future:

they taught
that God is immanent
and found in mundane daily life
that the supernatural could be encountered
while shoveling a ditch, cleaning your toilet, or
walking your dog; then,
Jesus came walking along
beside them, and He
agreed