----- Original Message -----
From: Debbie Sawczak
Cc: 'Lance Muir'
Sent: March 24, 2006 22:00
Subject: from Gilead Hi David. I'm
reading the novel Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, a letter from a dying
pastor to his son. Just for fun, here's a paragraph I read a minute ago that
contained a few echoes, for me, of what you said in today's conversation (Lance,
I don't know if you were there for all of what David said):
I believe the old
man did indeed have far too narrow an idea of what a vision might be. He may, so
to speak, have been too dazzled by the great light of his experience to realize
that an impressive sun shines on us all. Perhaps that is the one thing I wish to
tell you. Sometimes the visionary aspect of any particular day comes to you in
the memory of it, or it opens to you over time. For example, whenever I take a
child into my arms to be baptized, I am, so to speak, comprehended in the
experience more fully, having seen more of life, knowing better what it means to
affirm the sacredness of the human creature. I believe there are visions that
come to us only in memory, in retrospect. That's the pulpit speaking, but it's
telling the truth.
Debbie -- |