The Unclad Soul

I was at Starbucks the other day to settle into a vanilla latte and do a little catching up on my reading. I’m trying to finish Tana French’s “The Likeness.” Which by the way is a fantastic novel. I was struck by how nearly everyone in the room was on their phone. Even couples or groups of people sitting together; they were all texting, or doing some kind of data or app stuff. No one was talking. Except one lone woman who was on her phone going on and on to an invisible person on the other end having some insipid discussion about flooring. Apparently she was remodeling her extravagant kitchen and couldn’t decide on a pattern or color or whatever. I’m not judging. I do it too. Check my email. Send texts. Search websites. Download tunes. We are all constantly on our phones. No one though really talks to anyone anymore. Our society is sick with inattention, blather, bullshit, indifference, blocked emotions, blank stares, or being lost in some smart phone fog. We really...

Children's books are often some of the best reading for adults. Here is a terrific little book that teaches our children and ourselves that everyone is different in one way or another and that is okay. Spirituality & Practice: Book Review: What If Your Best Friend Were Blue?, by Vera Kochan

After the red leaf and the gold have gone, Brought down by the wind, then by hammering rain Bruised and discolored, when October’s flame Goes blue to guttering in the cusp, this land Sinks deeper into silence, darker into shade. There is a knowledge in the look of things, The old hills hunch before the north wind blows. Now I can see certain simplicities In the darkening rust and tarnish of time, And say over the certain simplicities, The running water and the standing stone, The yellow haze of the willow and the black Smoke of the elm, the silver, silent light Where suddenly, readying toward nightfall, The sumac’s candelabrum darkly flames. And I speak to you now with the land’s voice, It is the cold, wild land that says to you A knowledge glimmers in the sleep of things: The old hills hunch before the north wind blows. ~ Howard Nemerov, American Poet There is so much beauty in the language of this poem. The words carry such solid wisdom. We are in this seas...

I was at my favorite watering hole the other night after work. It’s a great little dive in a sort of run down part of Dallas not far from downtown. The Dallasite Bar and Grill is full of character and characters. I like it because the crowd is older and people call one another by name and it’s usually quiet during week nights. I was on the phone with my buddy Charlie Johnson and we were cracking jokes and reminiscing about the old days and commiserating about the current ones. Charlie is a minister who looks like a New York stock broker. He’s not one of those religious fanatics or greedy preacher tyrants who make church some kind of circus show. He’s his own person and one hell of a communicator. Plus he has a heart which most ministers today seem to be missing. Anyway, after getting off the phone with Charlie, Mary the bartender poured me another one and someone was playing some great tunes on the jukebox and I thought of the theme song to the old TV series, “Cheers”: ...

If you don't know the kind of person I am and I don't know the kind of person you are a pattern that others made may prevail in the world and following the wrong god home we may miss our star. For there is many a small betrayal in the mind, a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood storming out to play through the broken dyke. And as elephants parade holding each elephant's tail, but if one wanders the circus won't find the park, I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty to know what occurs but not recognize the fact. And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy, a remote important region in all who talk: Though we could fool each other, we should consider-- lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark. For it is important that awake people be awake or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep, the signals we give - yes or no, or maybe - Should be clear; the dar...