Life and Love Tumbles In

 I am grieving today with and for my grandson who lost a close high school friend in an accident last weekend.  I’m also thinking of my granddaughter who experienced recently the sudden death of a friend.  I grieve not only their loss, but remember, and grieve still, over the death of my own high school friend from leukemia some sixty-eight years ago.  My suspicion is that each of us in our youth experienced the death of a friend.  

The death of a friend is a traumatic experience for a young person (and for old people, too)..  It leaves an indelible mark on our spirit.  It hurts. It makes us angry. It makes us sad. It makes us cry.  It raises all kinds of questions about Life, the existence of God (Love) in the world, and a host of other questions for which we never seem to find answers.

Rilke wrote that we should “be patient toward all that is unsolved in our heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue.  Do not seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them.  And the point is to live everything.  Live the questions now.  Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

I’ve lived into that “distant day” now and I still do not have an answer (after 68 years) for why my high school friend, Art, died at the age of 15 from leukemia!  I still “live the question(s) now.”  I do not know why my grandson’s friend died in that accident.  I do not know why the children of Gaza have to die of starvation in a world of plenty.

Is it really possible to grieve without having loved? Perhaps some “distant day” I shall live into the answer.

Easter Language

 How do we see ourselves, our neighbors, and the future of our world?  Do we speak the language of despair and complaint as in the following statement?

“Planet Earth’s on a path of obliteration.

And I refuse to believe that

we can help humankind survive self-destruction.

I realize this may be a shock, but

our diverse and inclusive global society can live in harmony

is a lie.  The reality is that

“Humans are incapable of caring for each other & planet Earth”

within three decades, global warming will destroy our planet.

I do not concede, that 

planet Earth and civilization can be saved.

in the future,

ongoing senseless and brutal world wars will be inevitable.

No longer can it be said, that

you and I will find a way to reach for the stars and beyond.

It will be evident, that

humans are selfish, indifferent and greedy.

It is foolish to presume, that 

There is Hope (Credit:  Tom Vassos)

Or do we see ourselves, our neighbors, and the future of our world by  reading the above statement backwards?  Do we speak the language of an Easter people—the language of faith and hope?

The Vacation

 THE VACATION (“an extended period of leisure and recreation, especially one spent away from home or in traveling”) for my brother and me was booked in November 2024—a 12-day cruise to the Southern Caribbean—visiting the islands of St. Croix, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Dominica, and St. Kitts.  We invited our sister and her husband to join us.  We had a wonderful time together.  The “vacation” was good therapy for me following my daughter Rachel’s 3-month ordeal in the hospital and rehab.   Rachel returned  home the day before we left for the cruise.  

One of the lecturers onboard the ship was Tom Vassos, who unveiled the infinite cosmos in which we are but a grain of sand.  His talks reminded me of the hymn:  “How big is God, how big and wide His vast domain.  To try to tell, these lips can only start.  He’s big enough to rule His mighty universe, yet small enough to live within my heart.”