Fyodor Dostoyevsky – Author, Philosopher, Hero

When I was early in my teens my reading habits began to move away from science fiction and fantasy literature that occupied my imagination, providing content for my dreams.

Just when I was beginning to lift my face from the acid washed pages of my comic worlds, looking past the American authors they were teaching in school…Lewis, Fitzgerald and Steinbeck, I found Dostoyevsky resting on the shelf…and a whole new dimension of literature opened up for me.

Dostoyevsky wrote from the crossroads where literature becomes philosophy; he exposed the human condition at that juncture.

He was a novelist, and through him I came to understand the power that narrative has to convey certain truths that touch all human beings.

There are no authors more adept at this function than the Russians, with Fyodor Dostoyevsky being the foremost practitioner.

His influence on me was profound.

From Crime and Punishment and Notes from the Underground, to The Idiot and the Brothers Karamozov, I spent years reading the body of his work, from my mid-teens through my twenties and into my thirties. I tracked down his cannon until all that was left were translations of his notebooks beginning…which I read.

I purchased the notebook for A Raw Youth at a bookstore in Minneapolis (Majors and Quinn). I was in the Navy, I was home on leave, my friend Lucy was with me.

In those pages I could see the way Dostoyevsky constructed the arc of his narrative, how he developed his characters from ego to id, from false-self to true-self, from privilege to despair and back again...the movements of the soul.

The book was used and there was an imperial ruble tucked into its pages. I think it was serving as a bookmark, left by whoever was last to read to it.

Dostoyevsky I found, was the father of modern existentialism, and through him I learned to admire Charles Dickens, whom Dostoyevsky considered to be the greatest author of all time.

It has been one hundred and forty-three years since Dostoyevsky went into the dirt, his influence has not waned, human beings have not changed and his insight into the dilemma of existence remains sound…I think…it is well suited to the digital age.

Observation, February 9th, 2024, Friday

a warm February

today is cooler than it has been

 

there is a breeze,

it rattles my windows

A Homily – The Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Job 7:1-4, 6-7 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 146(147):1-6 ©

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 8:12

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 8:17

The Gospel According to Mark 1:29 – 39 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 Consider the ancient wisdom of Job.

 Life is brief and often a struggle; there is no guarantee of joy, even though we were made for it.

 Let me say this again, we were made for joy, but suffering is universal. Therefore, be kind to one another, we cannot tell what tomorrow may bring.

 Consider the words of the psalmist who teaches that God, creator of the universe, that God establishes the conditions for all things to come into being. In wisdom God established the cycles of life and death. Material power of no concern to God, and God does not seeks honors, title, or glory...though it is good to our thanks and praise.

 We honor God when we emulate God’s love for creation, when we pursue a ministry of justice through the exhibition of mercy, when we bend our will toward healing, when we feed the hungry, welcome the exile, clothe the naked and house the homeless.

 For those who seek to follow the way of Jesus, these are not metaphors, these are the concrete steps that must be taken.

 Be mindful of the apostle, pay careful attention to how he thinks and speaks of himself, and remember, like all men the apostle is liable to the vice of vanity.

 Paul chose to follow the way; it was a choice he to accept the ministry. God did not coerce him.

 Know this.

 The apostle does not deliver people to salvation; God, and God alone is the savior. We are saved by grace; we are saved because God wills it. The work of Christian ministry is to demonstrate it.

 Be mindful.

 We are all in the way, and the way does not exclude anyone. Through the way we are all moving toward God, the divine source of all being; we are moving inexorably toward fulfillment in the divine.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today.

 In Mark’s the mission of Jesus is often treated as a mystery, though not a total mystery, his purpose on earth is presented like an open secret.

 Jesus cast out devils and cured those who were afflicted by them, then he forbade those whom he had healed from speaking about him or his works. According to the narrative they knew who he was, Christ the Messiah, but he did not want them to spread the news, not at that point in time.

 This pattern plays over and over again in Mark, encouraging the reader or hearer to regard this as a matter of cosmic significance, as if keeping the secret until the exact right moment mattered in some way to Jesus’ mission. It is depicted as a stratagem, as if the salvation of the world and the ultimate triumph of good or evil, of God’s victory over the Devil, is somehow dependent on this secret being kept.

 Reading the Gospel this way may be viewed as a later interpolation, something placed into the narrative as a means of explaining to the audience that Jesus, who was in fact God’s own self, knew everything that was about to transpire, from the beginning of his mission to the resurrection, and that he did not broadcast it because not broadcasting it was a part of the divine plan.

 Set this aside, it is fantasy.

 This is what the Gospel tells us: from the beginning of his mission Jesus was concerned with healing, the cure of souls and service to his neighbors. His mission was to save them, to provide some comfort, show some love and give some relief.

 To be saved is to be made well, that is the literal meaning of the word salvation, and the savior is not engaged in a cosmic conflict, the savior is concerned with the resolution of ordinary suffering.

 Jesus taught the way, and the way is a path to liberation; he did not want the powerful factions in Jerusalem, in the temple or the synagogue, the power of the royal family, or the power of Rome to come down on him or his followers. Therefore, he made the way, a way of peace and perseverance, of communitarianism and service.

 In this he summarized the whole of the law and the teaching of the prophets. 

 

First Reading – Job 7:1-4, 6-7 ©

My Life is but a Breath

Job began to speak: Is not man’s life on earth nothing more than pressed service, his time no better than hired drudgery?

Like the slave, sighing for the shade, or the workman with no thought but his wages, months of delusion I have assigned to me, nothing for my own but nights of grief.

Lying in bed I wonder, ‘When will it be day?’

Risen I think, ‘How slowly evening comes!’

Restlessly I fret till twilight falls.

Swifter than a weaver’s shuttle my days have passed, and vanished, leaving no hope behind.

Remember that my life is but a breath, and that my eyes will never again see joy.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 146(147):1-6 ©

Praise the Lord who heals the broken-hearted.

Alleluia!

Praise the Lord for he is good;

  sing to our God for he is loving:

  to him our praise is due.

Praise the Lord who heals the broken-hearted.

The Lord builds up Jerusalem

  and brings back Israel’s exiles,

he heals the broken-hearted,

  he binds up all their wounds.

He fixes the number of the stars;

  he calls each one by its name.

Praise the Lord who heals the broken-hearted.

Our Lord is great and almighty;

  his wisdom can never be measured.

The Lord raises the lowly;

  he humbles the wicked to the dust.

Praise the Lord who heals the broken-hearted.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading – 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23 ©

I Should be Punished if I Did not Preach the Gospel

I do not boast of preaching the gospel, since it is a duty which has been laid on me; I should be punished if I did not preach it! If I had chosen this work myself, I might have been paid for it, but as I have not, it is a responsibility which has been put into my hands. Do you know what my reward is? It is this: in my preaching, to be able to offer the Good News free, and not insist on the rights which the gospel gives me.

So though I am not a slave of any man I have made myself the slave of everyone so as to win as many as I could. For the weak I made myself weak: I made myself all things to all men in order to save some at any cost; and I still do this, for the sake of the gospel, to have a share in its blessings.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 8:12

Alleluia, alleluia!

I am the light of the world, says the Lord; anyone who follows me will have the light of life.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 8:17

Alleluia, alleluia!

He took our sicknesses away, and carried our diseases for us.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 1:29 – 39 ©

He Cast Out Devils and Cured Many Who were Suffering from Disease

On leaving the synagogue, Jesus went with James and John straight to the house of Simon and Andrew. Now Simon’s mother-in-law had gone to bed with fever, and they told him about her straightaway. He went to her, took her by the hand and helped her up. And the fever left her and she began to wait on them.

That evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were possessed by devils. The whole town came crowding round the door, and he cured many who were suffering from diseases of one kind or another; he also cast out many devils, but he would not allow them to speak, because they knew who he was.

In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house, and went off to a lonely place and prayed there. Simon and his companions set out in search of him, and when they found him they said, ‘Everybody is looking for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns, so that I can preach there too, because that is why I came.’ And he went all through Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out devils.

 

The Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B)

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Patron Saint of Philosophy, Angelic Doctor of the Church

When I finally made it to university, I went to a school named for Saint Thomas Aquinas in Saint Paul, Minnesota; I studied philosophy and theology, and the classics too.

The University of St. Thomas was a grand place. It felt like a university, with its tall stately buildings made from massive blacks of light-tan sandstone, a stone that is ubiquitous quarried from the river bluffs along the Mississippi. The moment I passed through the arches into the quad I felt like I had arrived.

My time at St. Thomas was reasonably well spent; my studies adequately prepared me for advanced studies elsewhere (barely); I continued my theological work when I had graduated from there.

My work thus far, in the philosophy and history of Christian soteriology, is not as exhaustive as our Patron Saint’s achievement with his Summa Theologica (thus far), which remains a unique accomplishment in the history of Western thought. Nevertheless, my work is ongoing, and may one day make the mark.

The Summa, it should be noted, is more important for the mode of thinking St. Thomas  transmitted his ideas in than for the conclusions he presented in its pages. His revolutionary mind was ultimately constrained by a careful, cautious and conservative approach to theology that made him a defender of Church’s errors, rather than a reformer.

Regardless, St. Thomas successfully bridged the gap between the ancient philosophers: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle et al, and the proto-renaissance period of Western Europe, re-discovering the use of intellectual tools such as formal logic and discursive reasoning; he re-employed them in a way that allowed Europeans to leave the Dark Ages, clearing a path for the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason that followed.

Saint Thomas died on March 7^th, 1274.

In 1969 the Church moved the day we celebrate his feast to January 28^th, we celebrate his sainthood today.

Thomas Aquinas was Italian by birth and a member of the Dominican order; he is counted  among the “scholastics” and he was famous in his day. He died while making a pilgrimage, going along the Appian Way. Death took him at the Cistercian Abbey of Fossanova, and the monks there, fully cognizant of his fame, knowing that he would become a saint of great renown, coveted the relics of his body.

His hosts boiled his carcass down to the bones, and polished those to keep them clean and preserve them in good order. They kept all the water from the cauldron his body dissolved in for distribution in the relic-trade; they refused for years to turn his remains over to his Dominican brothers, parceling out his bones and the water bit by bit over years, keeping his skull until the very end.

The University of Saint Thomas has a vial of that water in its collection of sacred artifacts, a silly business, really, and beneath the dignity of the intellectual giant that Aquinas was known to be.

On his death bed it is reported that he gave an estimation of the value of his own contribution to the doctrine and dogma of the church, of which he said: everything is just straw.

There is a prayer that Thomas wrote, it is carved into a column of the main entrance to the school grounds at the University, the same arches that I walked through, my first day on campus, two stories below the offices of the Philosophy Department (which I belonged to). I recited that prayer aloud every day I attended classes.

It is a prayer that I carry with me, as if it were written in my heart:

Grant, O Merciful God

That I may ardently desire,

Prudently examine,

Truthfully acknowledge,

And perfectly accomplish

What is pleasing to thee

For the praise and glory

Of thy name

 

In the year 2024 CE, seven hundred and fifty years after the death of Saint Thomas, the world has become lost in another kind of dark ages, which is odd and sadly ironic because the current tide of anti-rational, anti-intellectual sentiment that has taken its grip on us has been seeded through the prevalence of digital media platforms that are in themselves a function of our mastery of light as a means of communication...there is some irony here.

We now find ourselves living in a milieu that disdains the truth, scientia, science and knowledge, and which undermines the roll of reason in public discourse.

It is saddening.

 In Western Europe the so-called dark ages are considered to have begun around the year 500 CE, with the reign of the emperor Justinian who insisted on a homogenous cultural throughout the empire, that all Roman citizens become Christian or leave. Tens of thousands of artisans, merchants, traders and teachers did just that…they left. This was roughly the same length of time, seven hundred and fifty years after the golden age of the philosophers, and roughly seven hundred and fifty years before Saint Thomas wrote his Summa.

 Let me be clear, I am not suggesting that there is anything inherently ominous in the pattern of years I have articulated, the numbers themselves are arbitrary and it would be unreasonable to suppose otherwise. However, we would be wise to acknowledge the trend, the descent of darkness has a cycle all of its own. We have fallen into this before and we are susceptible to do so again; this is what it means to be human.

 Once we have fallen it could take centuries to find the light again, and we are teetering on the brink of disaster.

 The overall fragility of our situation, our sitz im leben, our setting in life, brings to mind St. Thomas’s final words when reflecting of the body of his work…it is all straw, he said, nothing but straw.

 Everything we have built since the St. Thomas paved the way for the enlightenment, including liberal-democracy and acquiescence to human rights, could blow away with the wind, or burn up in a flash.

 Reason save us!

A Homily – The Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Deuteronomy 18:15-20 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 94(95):1-2, 6-9 ©

Second Reading - 1 Corinthians 7:32-35 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 11:25

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 4:16

The Gospel According to Mark 1:21 – 28 ©

 

(NJB)

 Listen!

 The priesthood is not ordained by God; this is true of any existing order of priests and priestesses, and it is true of every priesthood that has ever been. It will always be true. These institutions are not ordained by God, they represent the limits of the human imagination in its effort in our continuing efforts to order the point of contact human beings have with the divine.

Priests and priestesses were ordained to serve the interests of human beings, typically those of the ruling class, including their own. Even those priests who are well intentioned, nevertheless serve in hierarchical structures formed and governed by motivations. Even when an individual comes close to approximating the divine, it is only the image of the divine they hold in their hearts, an image they are attempting to approximate, while failing at every turn.

We are only human beings, and though the image of God dwells within us, representing the fullness of our potential in its perfection, none of us are able to see it clearly.

While human beings do possess an innate ability to recognize what is true. We are all compromised; every expression of the truth coming from a human being is conditioned by that compromise, only the most simple expressions may be trusted everything else is necessarily flawed.

Consider the words of the psalmist!

It is God who makes us well, it is God who creates in us the possibility of wellbeing. Our wellbeing is rooted in the divine, there are no gods save God, and God is not a king.

All creation belongs to God, all that is good and all that we fear; everything, no matter how blissful or troubling, everything comes from God and everything we endure will redound to the good in the end.

It is good to show our respect for the creator, to sing in praise of God, our loving parent. It is good to praise the divine, who has prepared the way for each of us.

Be mindful!

Even the apostle is liable to asserting his personal beliefs and foibles into the rubrics of the Church; not everything he says should be accepted on its face...he is not always wise and good.

Paul believed that people should withdraw from public life, stop procreation and wait on God to deliver humanity from the miseries of the world. If he could have, he would have had all of us living chaste and celibate lives behind the walls of a cloister, men living with men and women living with women…until the end.

The apostle errs.

The church is not obligated to follow him in his error, the more humble thing would be to acknowledge the truth…that we have erred, and move on.

This is the truth:

It is the desire of God, the creator of the universe, it is God’s desire that we follow the way that Jesus taught, to be merciful, love justice and walk humbly all the days of our life. It is God’s desire that in so doing we prosper and multiply.

Know this!

The teachings of Jesus cannot be treated like a shell game, though they often are, and have been since the beginning, as Matthew’s Gospel illustrates. The way of Jesus is not a long con, it is not a bait and switch, it is a simple teaching that cannot be controlled or owned by any one group of people.

God has hidden nothing from us; the truth is in the open for anyone to bear witness to, live by and understand. The wise and the powerful, the learned and the clever, the weak and the meek, everyone has access to the same truth, to the knowledge of God, of justice, of hope and love.

Who are the wise and powerful, who are the learned and the clever, who are the faithful and childlike?

In every generation, you will see a new group labeling the elder group as out of touch, blind, privileged, in the dark…corrupt.

It is an endless cycle, and the calling for us remains the same; we are called on to love justice, be merciful, do good, serve God through the loving service we provide to one another: to our families, to our friends, our neighbors, the stranger, even our adversaries.

Just because a person may be wise and powerful, learned and clever or a child of the Church, does not mean they recognize the truth when they see it, or that they will act upon it when they do.

It is not your station in society, it is not how other people regard you, it is not the titles you have earned or the ways that you have been marginalized that give you “the tell” on how you will fulfill the calling to follow Jesus. What matters is what is in your heart and your willingness to trust in the content of your hope.

Be mindful.

Take care when you speak from the scriptures.

When you observe the authors attempting to fit their narrative of Jesus’s into a picture that makes it look as if he is fulfilling a prediction someone has made about the future. Be wary; this is always a false. Even if a prediction had been made, and even if Jesus did the thing that was predicted, it is false to suggest that Jesus’ actions were in fulfillment of prophecy.

Prophets only speak of the future for two reasons; to engender hope and to warn of danger. The words of a prophet are always addressed to the people in their own time, in their own place.

Prophecy is never meant to guide the lives of future generations, except in the cases when the prophet is addressing an issue of universal truth, such as the nature of justice, which is itself unchanging.

Know this!

The Gospel writers were propagandists; they fabricated many of the details of Jesus’ life to suit their own narrative about who Jesus was, why he was necessary, and what his life and death meant for the early church.

In today’s narrative the Gospel writers place Jesus directly in the tradition of John the Baptist, with the words “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” This is an effort on behalf of the early church to subsume the ministry of John the Baptist into its own. It is a continuation of that narrative, meant to harness the energy of John’s movement after his arrest and murder.

Consider the Gospel for today, it is packed with nuance.

Begin by unpacking:

This is the first record of Jesus in his ministry as a public teacher, now depicted as picking up where the Baptist left off. He is still in Palestine, on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. He is beyond the borders of Judea, half-way between Jerusalem and Damascus.

Jesus is a Rabbi, he begins his ministry in a synagogue

The synagogues are of the diaspora, Jewish communities outside of the Holy Land. Synagogues are the seat of the Pharisaic sect of Judaism. Pharisees are a distinct group of teachers; they promulgate the law, and Rabbis are teachers in that movement. They are different from the Scribes, and the priests of the temple. All of these distinctions are communicated in the opening paragraph:

Jesus the Pharisee, Jesus the Rabbi is teaching with authority, unlike the Scribes in Jerusalem.

One man calls him out. Not because he is possessed by demons, but because he afraid of what Jesus’ teaching represents.

He asks a good question, “What do you have to do with us?” Indicating that in this particular community, Jesus is an outsider. His teaching authority is recognized, but he is a visitor.

The man asks, “Are you here to destroy us?” Indicates that he perceives Jesus’ teaching to be a threat to the established order, and therefore quite possibly to his entire community.

He addresses the claim that Jesus’ followers are promoting: he addresses the claim that Jesus is the “Holy One of God.” His manner is unfriendly, even adversarial, it is quite possibly that he is leveling an indictment against Jesus: a charge of hubris at the least, though it is potentially a charge of blasphemy. By raising this charge he intends to undermine Jesus’ authority in the synagogue. Then Jesus commands the man to silence, and Jesus prevails.

This scene is depicted dramatically in the gospel, as if Jesus were commanding an unclean spirit to come out of the man, a spirit of disobedience and falsehood. It is presented as Jesus casting out a demon or demons, and healing a man who was possessed. This scene could be depicted with less drama, metaphor and allegory. It should be presented simply, as Jesus commanding his authority, to convert a dissident and make them a believer.

The narrative does not depict a supernatural challenge to Jesus’ authority, but an ordinary challenge from a member of the community. It was not easy for Jesus to convince the man, it was a convulsive struggle, but Jesus prevailed; he prevailed because the community had been ready to receive Jesus’ teaching at the outset, and his victory in the disputation with the man who argued with him was a foregone conclusion, but how Jesus managed the situation, as a healer, bolstered his authority.

Be like Jesus in your ministry, be a healer; it is the best way to serve the interests of the divine. Heal with humility, heal with love, heal in the interest of justice, as servant of mercy, in pursuit of the way to God.

First Reading – Deuteronomy 18:15-20 ©

I Will Raise Up a Prophet and Put My Words into His Mouth

Moses said to the people: ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like myself, from among yourselves, from your own brothers; to him you must listen. This is what you yourselves asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the Assembly. “Do not let me hear again” you said “the voice of the Lord my God, nor look any longer on this great fire, or I shall die”; and the Lord said to me, “All they have spoken is well said. I will raise up a prophet like yourself for them from their own brothers; I will put my words into his mouth and he shall tell them all I command him. The man who does not listen to my words that he speaks in my name, shall be held answerable to me for it. But the prophet who presumes to say in my name a thing I have not commanded him to say, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.”’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 94(95):1-2, 6-9 ©

O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’

Come, ring out our joy to the Lord;

  hail the rock who saves us.

Let us come before him, giving thanks,

  with songs let us hail the Lord.

O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’

Come in; let us bow and bend low;

  let us kneel before the God who made us:

for he is our God and we

  the people who belong to his pasture,

  the flock that is led by his hand.

O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’

O that today you would listen to his voice!

  ‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,

  as on that day at Massah in the desert

when your fathers put me to the test;

  when they tried me, though they saw my work.’

O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’

 

Second Reading - 1 Corinthians 7:32-35 ©

Give Your Undivided Attention to the Lord

I would like to see you free from all worry. An unmarried man can devote himself to the Lord’s affairs, all he need worry about is pleasing the Lord; but a married man has to bother about the world’s affairs and devote himself to pleasing his wife: he is torn two ways. In the same way an unmarried woman, like a young girl, can devote herself to the Lord’s affairs; all she need worry about is being holy in body and spirit. The married woman, on the other hand, has to worry about the world’s affairs and devote herself to pleasing her husband. I say this only to help you, not to put a halter round your necks, but simply to make sure that everything is as it should be, and that you give your undivided attention to the Lord.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 11:25

Alleluia, alleluia!

Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom to mere children.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 4:16

Alleluia, alleluia!

The people that lived in darkness has seen a great light; on those who dwell in the land and shadow of death a light has dawned.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 1:21 – 28 ©

Unlike the Scribes, He Taught Them with Authority

Jesus and his disciples went as far as Capernaum, and as soon as the sabbath came he went to the synagogue and began to teach. And his teaching made a deep impression on them because, unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority.

In their synagogue just then there was a man possessed by an unclean spirit and it shouted, ‘What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus said sharply, ‘Be quiet! Come out of him!’ And the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions and with a loud cry went out of him. The people were so astonished that they started asking each other what it all meant. ‘Here is a teaching that is new’ they said ‘and with authority behind it: he gives orders even to unclean spirits and they obey him.’ And his reputation rapidly spread everywhere, through all the surrounding Galilean countryside.

 

The Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B)

Ursula K. Le Guinn – Author, Hero

It has been six years since this great thinker moved on to the next world; she was a hero of mine.

The first book of hers that I ever read was her novella titled: The Lathe of Heaven, the genre was science-fiction and it was so much more. Through this brief masterpiece she spoke to me about the nature of reality, the function of consciousness, of what it means to be human.

She took the title for this book from the writings of the Taoist, Chuang Tzu (book 23, paragraph 7), which says:

 

~ To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do so will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven ~

 

Her book dramatized this sentiment and recapitulated this warning, the consideration of which took me outside of myself and allowed me to see the world…the whole of it, in an entirely different way.

I was fifteen years old at the time, and without realizing it I found that I had been introduced to Taoism (the esoteric tradition), which provided me with a perspective that would subsequently shape the future-history of my life.

Later, when I was in the Navy I found comfort in the Earth Sea Chronicles, a series of four short books in the fantasy genre, complete with wizards and dragons. She introduces a hero, Sparrowhawk, whose greatest enemy is himself and forces him to address the existential dilemma expressed in the question: How do we live with ourselves?

In the Earth Sea Chronicles, the hero’s enemy is not exactly himself, rather it is the shadow of the specter of guilt, a shadow that most if not all human beings carry with them because we are unable to ask for and accept forgiveness for the things we have done that have hurt or harmed those near to us…even our adversaries. The shadow is relentless on account of the fact that we are not able to forgive ourselves.

The Earth Sea Chronicles are so simple and brief that they can be engaged as fairytales, they can be read to children (which is why I found them comforting…I think), they can be read on that level. Yet, her writing is so masterful that adults may also find them engaging/ They communicate a depth of insight into the human condition that is hidden below the surface of the narrative.\   

Six years ago this luminary departed from our world, leaving a legacy of literature to light the way for us. We need this light more than ever.

If we liken our civilization to a garden, the garden we live in has been long under shadow; the fruit of our progress has been wilting on the vine, fellowship and common purpose have suffered accordingly. Such themes of discontent are the ideas that she explores in her collection on the Hainish cycle, beginning with the fifth book in the series, The Dispossessed.

 We need heroes and teachers like Ursula K. Le Guinn to light the way for us, to guide us into the cloud of unknowing…I miss her.