Merry Christmas

Born in a barn. Accumulated nothing. Tortured to death. Christmas is a meditation on humility. Our institutions have very little in the way of humility. This blanket statement does not exclude the church.

The rich young man

We encounter many obstacles on the inner journey. Paradoxically, the most formidable of them all—a life of comfort and ease, of having more than we need—doesn’t look like an obstacle.

More amore

Doctors cited organ failure but the real COD was an excess of pleasure.

Moderacy

Whatever we do excessively, we do defectively. Thinking, for example. The less we think, the better we think. And (bonus!) the better our memory. Alzheimer’s is a state of exhaustion.

Mucking out

Perhaps you’re familiar with the term “mucking out.” One goes into a stall and shovels animal waste into a wheelbarrow for disposal elsewhere.

Too bad we can’t muck out the head. There is no ‘elsewhere.’ Our mental waste is dumped straight into the body, there to foment and ferment and howl for Maalox.

The body is so innocent. It takes for real this churning turbidity.