The subtle joy of the bat hitting the ball squarely needs no further appreciation from me. Many times previously I have celebrated the satisfaction that comes with this contact. Regrettably, however, it’s a pleasure that I have known too rarely in my Sunday softball games of the last four decades. Nowadays, for lack of a vigorous swing,I almost never experience this delight.
Secret Experimenters
Lurking among us in our cities and towns are older people who secretly experiment with truth. They have developed insight not shared by many younger than they.
Of course, the wise may not be easily recognizable as such. They do not walk around dispensing wisdom the way vending machines spew out coffee. In fact, they are probably reluctant to give any advice at all. The maxim about mystics holds here: “Those who say don't know; those who know don't say.”
Who Knows?
“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?” This question will be familiar to fans of what has been called the “golden age of radio.”
As a boy in the 1930s 40s, I certainly remember being scared by hearing the questioner’s sinister voice at nightfall. Nor did I feel reassured by the answer: “The Shadow knows.”
Who Is Wise?
Who’s right?
Ecclesiasticus: “Do not be contemptuous of what older and wiser men have to tell thee; by their lore live thou, if wise thou woulds’t be, and have the gift of discernment.”
Or Henry David Thoreau: “I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors. They have told me nothing and probably cannot teach me anything.”
Holy Cow!
Harvey Cox combines theology with imagination as he again demonstrated yesterday in Harvard Yard. There, to mark his retirement, he shared the spotlight with a cow imported for the occasion. It may have been the first time some of the highly urbanized Harvard students standing nearby had ever seen such an animal.
No Better?
A favorite passage from the First Book of Kings, written some 2,600 years ago, has set me thinking. It depicts the prophet Elijah in a moment of depression. He sits in the desert beneath a broom tree and moans about being no good.
He feels himself to be largely a failure in carrying God’s word to those in power. Despite his efforts to change them, these rulers have continued in their despotic ways. Confronted with failure, the prophet would prefer to die rather than to continue life on these terms.
Hurricane Reach
Waves, white-capped like old men, smashing against and over rocks, show the reach of Hurricane Bill. Seeing sea-nature proves one of the joys of visiting the Maine coast. Not so good for the fishermen, but awe-producing for us onlookers.