The Unclad Soul

The news carried a story this week of a couple in Sonoma, California who had lost their home in those raging fires. It came on them without much warning. They woke up in the night smelling smoke and before they knew it their house was in flames. They jumped in their swimming pool in order to stay alive. They would come up for air only when they had to. The heat of their burning house singed their backs every time they did. They had planned a trip to Indonesia, and instead of staying in California trying to deal with all the damage and loss, they got on a plane and left. In their fifties, they said they wanted to get out of there and enjoy time together. Good for them. The mess will be waiting when they get back. Why not get some relief and fly off to a beautiful place and live in the moment where there are no blazing fires to deal with? British novelist Martin Amis once wrote, “ The future could go this way, that way. The future's futures have never looked so rocky. Don...

"O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring;   Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill’d with the foolish;   Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)   Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—of the struggle ever renew’d;   Of the poor results of all—of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;   Of the empty and useless years of the rest—with the rest, me intertwined;   The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?   Answer.   That you are here—that life exists, and identity;   That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse."   ~ Walt Whitman