oh, earth, you are too wonderful for anybody to realize you

[last summer, from a taxi window]

i am usually so astonished to be somewhere

that i will happily record what seems to be

somewhat mundane to others (although the

driver of this particular taxi made the ride

anything but mundane; a little car, rather

rickety, but capable of great speed on the

highway). anyway. thinking, today, of Thornton

Wilder's Emily, and how happy i am that the

Stage Manager had the best possible answer.

saints and poets, folks. saints and poets.

they do some

emily

saints and poets (again)

Emily: Does anybody realize what life is while they're living it -- every, every minute?

Stage Manager: No. Saints and poets, maybe. They do some.

Our Town

Thornton Wilder

"saints and poets...they do, some"

Just returned from back east; this, above, from the MOMA.

Saw, this morning, a column by Patty Fisher in the Merc about Father Timothy Meier, a Jesuit Priest who is a former Stanford biologist.

"I just never imagined myself doing this," says Meier, who joined the Army at age 51.

Chaplains in the military are men and women who go to war without guns. "I can't even hold a weapon for a person who has to put it down for some reason," Meier tells Fisher. "The non-combatant thing is supposed to be pretty cut and dried." Fisher gives us a wonderful quote from Meier:

"The prayer I pray these days

is that the hearts of stone of the enemy

might become hearts of flesh."

Artists, heroes, saints, poets, soldiers, statesmen. An interesting place, our world...

Surely, Father Tim's blog will keep us posted. And thanks to Thornton Wilder, for the saints and poets quote. Click on the title of this post for a bit more. Better yet, read "Our Town."