starting off on the wrong foot

 Hey, you

    Me?

Yeah you

     What?

Come here

     Why?

…   …   …

[If this had been a real interlocution you would have been directed to mind your own business. We appreciate your compliance with this advisory.]

then, silence

 Car passes

Truck passes

Bird sings

This is 

What Saturday

Morning sounds like

If you

Want to know god

Know this

voici où j'en suis, pour l'instant

 Here 

(is where)

 I am, 

for now

Here

(My love)

Is

Here

There

(Is no)

There

There

How

(Difficult is it)

To be

Here

One

(Minute ago)

It was

4:44

Now

(It is)

Not, not

Anymore

I admit 

(my love) 

it is

Good

 To 

(See you)

As you are

Here

this clear no-awaring

 Something about anesthesia

room full of medical folks

being told "have a good nap"

wondering if you will go under

then . . .

opening eyes in different room

having been gone, gone, gone

now back from no-where

doctor from India patting shoulder

saying I'm ok, saying, if I want,

I could get heart surgery I could

get pancreatic surgery, or, if I didn't,

live well until time says, "hey, you

want to go back to that deep no-where?"

and I wonder what it will be like

this new un-timing, this clear no-awaring

cœur et étreinte

We hold these

Family members and

Ancestors fondly in heart

Everyone, everyone

Is family and ancestor —

It is large heart, wide embrace

joseph

 I've liked Joseph 

since I was a kid.

I also like the phrase 

"On earth, (as it is), in heaven"

in the prayer his kid spoke.

There's something Buddhist 

in the narratives about Joseph --

caring, protective, mostly silent. 

( I suppose he was a pre-christian 

Christian as well).

He disappeared silently

he lived mostly silently

He seems under-celebrated,

matter of fact, as it should be,

 as it is in heaven, as it is on earth

if that is so, this is no

 This

Is my last

Will and

Testament.

Really?

What is

This?

Do you think you

Want to know?

“Yes” [then] “No “

无心 (pinyin: wúxīn)

 If I had anything to say

I might try to say it

As it is

Nothing comes to mind

sip, beathaigh an madra, siúl

tea with no milk 

lemon poppy muffin

French monks chant

their obscure mystery

Ensō stretches on Tibetan rug

there is no reason to live

just sip tea, finish muffin

watch temperature on sunporch

rise, with gratitude to capable

cranky Irishman’s labor now lost

so much goes bye whether

you are looking or not

if only for comparison

I heard Leo XIV use phrase "Step toward Christ."

And I wondered -- is this stepping arising toward what is

already there, or, stepping closer to what is not yet here?

Wisława Szymborska's poem

We’re extremely fortunate 

 

We’re extremely fortunate

not to know precisely

the kind of world we live in.

One would have

to live a long, long time,

unquestionably longer

than the world itself.

Get to know other worlds,

if only for comparison.

Rise above the flesh,

which only really knows

how to obstruct

and make trouble.

For the sake of research,

the big picture

and definitive conclusions,

one would have to transcend time,

in which everything scurries and whirls.

From that perspective,

one might as well bid farewell

to incidents and details.

The counting of weekdays

would inevitably seem to be

a senseless activity;

dropping letters in the mailbox

a whim of foolish youth;

the sign “No Walking on the Grass”

a symptom of lunacy.

  

 --Poem by Wisława Szymborska

 --Translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh in (The End and the Beginning, 1993)

Perhaps it is fortunate not to know why what is happening is, in fact, happening. Perhaps it would scare me. Or, lead me to some depressive action incommensurate with my wellbeing.

In a sane time the rules of clear communication and reasonable expectation would provide a modicum of sanity and a sensible following of events.

Szymborska sounds a little Buddhist with her lines:

Rise above the flesh,

which only really knows

how to obstruct

and make trouble.

 And the nod, perhaps, to form and emptiness:

From that perspective,

one might as well bid farewell

to incidents and details.

I suspect not everything has to be reflected in Buddhism just because I'm a Buddhist. Nor should everything be reflected in Christianity because I'm a cradle Catholic, (catholique né d'une famille catholique).

Nor need every thought-provoking phrase be washed through my interest in Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Native American, Pagan, Agnosticism, and Atheism, much less the foreign languages that call to my attention. But that seems to be a choice I make.

 I am interested to:

Get to know other worlds,

if only for comparison.

(Thank you, Wisława -- poetry is the other great spiritual/religious touchstone while here.)

Papa Leo seems like the kind of guy, thoughtful and full of imagination, Wisława and I would like to take tea with. We could look to her empty chair at cafe table, her gentle smile and intriguing whereabouts part of her poetic soucier. 

We could "step toward" what is longing to be out there ahead of us, respectfully beckoning with quiet compassion our words, our bodies, and the extremely fortunate choices we might happily make to narrow the gap between there and here.

jhāna

 Waking up

Realizing

It is still

Only Tuesday 

buíochas le sinsir

 Happy

To be

Irish

Thanks Ma,

Da, all

Ancestors

la maladie mentale le paralyse

 Forget the pretend 

Adversarial 

Red vs blue

I’m afraid

Truth is

The man is insane

I’ll say it

You don have to

Keep up the pretense

Soon, he will

Be removed

His terrible derangement

let’s listen to the story, carefully

all we 

have is 

hearsay

so many 

stories

to sift

christianity

rehearses

raw narrative

no sé nada.

 ha!

finally

the truth

nothing to hear

 bell

everything sits

shikantaza

slaper wakker

From The Atlantic, Feb 2026, The Commons:

This summer, while visiting

Washington, D.C., with my

son, we went inside the Jefferson

Memorial and read the inscrip-

tions on the walls out loud. One

quote struck me deeply: “I am

not an advocate for frequent

changes in laws and constitu-

tions, but laws and institutions

must go hand in hand with the

progress of the human mind.

As that becomes more devel-

oped, more enlightened, as

new discoveries are made, new

truths discovered and manners

and opinions change, with the

change of circumstances, institu-

tions must advance also to keep

pace with the times. We might

as well require a man to wear

still the coat which fi tted him

when a boy as civilized society to

remain ever under the regimen

of their barbarous ancestors.”

This excerpt from a letter by

Thomas Jefferson resonated with

me immediately. Jefferson— the

original originalist— would have

been appalled at some of our

recent Supreme Court decisions. 

 

Brad Erickson

Iowa City, Iowa

 

Jill Lepore replies:

In high school I had a won-

derfully pudgy and eccentric

tenth-grade history teacher. He

taught in a second-story room

with a wide plate-glass window

that looked out at a mountain

in the distance, whose silhouette

resembled a sleeping giant. In the

middle of an especially boring

lesson—the accidental presidency

of John Tyler, say—he’d lumber

across the room and haul himself

up onto the radiator beneath

the window and lie down on it,

exactly lining up his belly with

the mountain’s summit, his head

and feet with its smaller peaks:

he, the giant. He’d sigh, settling

in, and then he’d appear to nod

off . We’d wait, a little nervously.

And then suddenly and in a

whirl of motion you could not

imagine as within the capacity

of so large and old and ungainly

a man, he’d roll off the radiator,

leap to his feet, and cry, “The

giant wakes!” And it would be

very thrilling, and we’d all snap

to attention, and he’d move on

and—somehow, somehow—he’d

make the fall of the Whig Party

gripping. In short, I heartily

agree with these readers, and I

hereby offer my assurance that

the whole point of my sleeping-

giant analogy with reference to

Article V of the Constitution,

aside from being a nod to a

beloved teacher, is that somehow,

somehow, and I suspect one day 

soon, “the giant will wake” ! 

https://cdn.theatlantic.com/media/magazine/pdfs/202602.pdf 

These recent months have been like being slapped in the face by some arrogant bully. For the immediate present it feels disorienting and shocking. But after taking some breaths, and maybe a refreshing nap, it becomes time for the sleeper to awake. 

so laufen diese dinge nun mal.

My body doesn’t want to leave the house anymore.

It loses its taste for food.

It sits in chair by window

Drinks seltzer in evening. Tea these mornings 

A student’s first task should be to abandon your idea of your self. To abandon your idea of your self means that you should not be attached to this body.

Even if you have understood the sayings of the ancients and sit all the time like iron or stone, if you remain attached to this body, it is impossible to attain the way of the buddhas and enlightened ancestors, even in myriad eons over a thousand lifetimes.

Dogen (1200-1252)

My body gets ready to disappear.

It’s ok.

It’s how these things go.