90
We worry about where we came from and how we got here. We think about where we’re going. What about today? Is today not worthy of our attention? Eternity is simply living one moment and then another. If this moment is not worth living, why should the next one be? Right now, this very instant, you contain all worlds. Revel in your kingdom. It belongs to you.
91
Where were you a billion years ago?
In a different neighborhood.
What were you doing?
Oh, the usual things: drinking beer, raking the yard, watching pro football on TV.
Did a comet pass nearby?
It did! How did you know?
Lucky guess. I once rode a comet and it came close to your old neighborhood but that was only 500 million years ago.
92
Do we have to go?
Yes, they are expecting us.
But they’re not very friendly. In fact, they’re downright mean.
Just ignore their hostility. Let it bounce off of you like good ideas.
93
What day is it?
It’s the day we start over.
How many of us are involved?
We number the sands of the sea.
Not too many, eh?
No, but what we lack in numbers, we make up for in spontaneity.
94
Who will rebuild the temple?
There is no need to rebuild it.
But it lies in ruins.
Each man is his own temple, each woman is her own. All lie in ruins. First, rebuild the man and woman, then the temple.
95
Why is it so hard to understand?
Because you do not wish to understand.
But I try.
You try but it is for the wrong reasons.
96
The singer is from the North Country.
He sounds troubled.
That’s just the way his voice sounds. He’s really very happy. He just doesn’t know it.
97
What do you do if you’ve lost something and you didn’t realize you wanted it until it was gone?
You do something positive like working on your syntax.
98
Don’t you think turning water into wine promotes drinking?
No, it promotes the finding of better water supplies.
99
So Nero was fiddlin’ while Rome burned?
Actually he was performing a Greek ballet called ‘Gods of the Banquet Table’.
Tacitus doesn’t remember it that way.
Well, Seneca ought to know. He was there after all. Tacitus was writing 25 years after the fact. Also, he didn’t agree with Nero’s politics.
Nero had no politics other than peace at any cost with the Parthians and Druids. He didn’t like to kill unless it was a member of his own family.
He was somewhat depraved.
For the times he was almost normal.
So Rome burned?
They rebuilt it. Nero, though, was beyond repair.
100
This world we see is one of melancholy.
The poets are glad because it is such a place.
101
If God were to come down to earth, what would he look like?
He would look the same as where he came from.
Has he come down to earth before?
He came down once but no one recognized him.
102
Do you think there is a cosmic computer programming the universe?
Could be.
103
Why don’t you eat apples?
They do not yet exist.
104
They say in America that the people choose their own leaders.
What a strange custom.
Humorous too. Men and women try to depict themselves as visionary but pragmatic, honorable but cunning, peace-loving but strong. They become all things to all people and they’re not even trying to promote a new religion.
They go to all that trouble just to gain positions of leadership? What happens to their private lives, their inner kingdoms?
Sad but true. They are the true givers. They give themselves to serving others. And what thanks do they get? Very little, because to be chosen they have promised much more they can ever deliver. Strangely though, not many of them seem to be too bothered by their failures.
GO to UNIt VI
