Dear All of Us,
Truth to tell
and quite (John) frankly,
I am a lifelong, inveterate,
Quirky.
My quirks are legion.
They come in all sizes and shapes.
On a scale of one to ten
I'm somewhere around fifty!!
Just ask my family and friends.
Transparency is all in these days,
indeed de rigueur,
so an example:
I have exactly two wardrobes.
At home it's grey shorts,
blue tee shirt and soft slippers.
For church, the street and company,
it's khaki pants, light blue shirt,
dark blue sweater and sandals -
preferably L.L.Bean.
That's it.
That's all and always.
If all that doesn't do it,
there's more.
I simply must
get everything done right away
and I sleep with my toes uncovered.
So there!
I'm outed.
Being a tiny tad more "serious,"
one quirk that I just can't
let go of is this.
I like my friends
to be friends with my other friends.
I just want to share the goodness
by cross pollinating even though
it often doesn't work.
Well, here goes a try at it.
Friends to friend.
Hope this works.
A blessing in my life
is to be befriended
by Abraham Heschel
through his writings.
"He wrote seminal works
on the Bible, the Talmud,
medieval thought,
philosophy, hasidism, and
contemporary moral problems.
He was a theologian, a poet,
a mystic, a social reformer,
and historian. Indeed, the best
of the whole tradition of Israel,
its way of thought and life,
found a unique synthesis in him.
Rooted in the most authentic sources
of Israel's faith, Heschel's audience
reached beyond creedal boundaries.
He was easily the most respected
Jewish voice for Protestants
and Catholics: his friendship
with Reinhold Niebuhr
was memorable and
his critical role at Vatican II
has yet to be described...
The years since his passing,
far from dimming his person,
cast in ever brighter relief
the unique role he played
on the contemporary scene,
a role no Jew,
or Gentile for that matter,
has since filled.
Rabbi Heschel sings to my soul
in a song of insights.
Two themes course through
the composition.
First :
I am convinced that
to be a Christian
we need to first be a Jew.
Jesus was Jewish.
Jesus lived as a Jew.
Jesus thought and taught as a Jew.
Jesus died a Jew.
To understand him, to follow him,
we have to join him in his Jewishness
and go on with him from there.
To not know Jesus the Jew
is to not know Jesus
and how to take him.
Heschel so well connects us
to the Jewishness in which
we meet and merge with Jesus.
Second :
He gives profound lead
to the mystical journey,
lived in community,
seeking justice.
A few Soundings:
"How shall I live the life I am?"
"I did not ask for success;
I asked for wonder.
And You gave it to me."
"Prayer is arrival at the border.
The dominion is Thine.
Take away from me
all that may not enter
Thy realm."
"The essence of Jewish religious thinking
does not lie in entertaining a concept of God
but in the ability to articulate a memory of
moments of illumination by His presence.
Israel is not a people of definers
but a people of witnesses:
'Ye are My witnesses' ( Isaiah 43: 10)"
"To pray is to regain a sense of
the mystery that animates
all beings..."
- and this -
"What message have you
for young people?" asked Carl Stern
of NBC in concluding
a television interview
with Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
shortly before his death.
Rabbi Heschel replied:
"...Let them remember
that there is a meaning
beyond absurdity.
Let then be sure that
every deed counts,
that every word has power,
and that we all can do our share
to redeem the world in spite of
all the absurdities
and all the frustrations
and all the disappointments.
"And, above all, (let them)
remember...to build a life
as if it were a work of art."
In the hope that you my friends
may share a spiritual friendship
with my friend, Rabbi Heschel,
through his writings,
a few sources follow.
Thanks for letting me Quirk away.
Hope the intro works
to everyone's good.
To sign off this week here's one
of my most cherished sharings
from Rabbi Heschel:
"Man is man because
something divine is at stake
in his existence."
Your friend and brother,
quirks and all,
John Frank
******
The citations above are from
I Asked for Wonder,
Crossroads, New York 1996
Also of great depth are
Who Is Man?
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California 1965
and
The Sabbath
The Noonday Press
Farrar, Straus and Ciroux
New York 1993
******
A warn welcome all the fine folks
joining with us for the first time.
Also, a shout out to all those
from all around our planet home
who are so faithfully part of our
weekly spiritual community here.
Happily this week there was
a significant increase in our gathering.
Among the many, lets celebrate
our brothers and sisters
from Maldova and France.
******
Please share
"frankly speaking"
spirituality for the street
it is posted early Thursday mornings
east coast USA time
johnfrankshare.blogspot.com
(easily bookmarked)
an email version arrives Fridays
sign up for it is top right of the online version
retrieval of all past postings is available at
Blog Archive
lower right column online version
******
Happily some quirks are also spiritual quarks.
******
