Religious faith . . . erodes compassion. Thoughts like, “this might be all part of God’s plan,” or “there are no accidents in life,” . . . these ideas are not only stupid, they are extraordinarily callous. They are nothing more than a childish refusal to connect with the suffering of other human beings. It is time to grow up and let our hearts break . . . .” –Sam Harris
“Write soon and let me know how your heart is,” she wrote on the Christmas card.
“How is your heart?” someone else asked.
“When I had that panic attack and got sent to the hospital, the E.K.G. I had was –“
“No, no. Your HEART,” she said, holding her hand over her breast like she was pledging.
I don’t know how my heart (anatomical or otherwise) is … or isn’t. ? “BEING: That which exists, or is real (unchanging reality). Gotta love the “or” in this definition.
The problem with living in my head* is that I know my mate is gone. This knowledge, however, does not do much for my heart.
The problem with being a skeptic (sane-ish person) is that I cannot pretend to believe in spirits or ghosts or messages from beyond. Not that my love would send me a message—it was more Kent’s style to write it on a bar napkin and send it in a bottle. And even though I know the Coriolis Effect does not change the direction in which water drains in the northern versus the southern hemisphere, I still feel like I am going the wrong way around the earth—always just missing the spot that tells me where I am.
The problem with technology is that I could hear him again on Around the World Radio and I just don’t have the eggs to do it…yet.
The problem with being alone is that I am not. I am just without.
*“There’s something curious about professors . . . they live in their heads.” -Sir Ken Robinson
“A Short Poem for My Heart”
I will take irony over cruelty,
and I will bear the heartbeat of remembering you always.
But I am old again, and
halos around the moon used to be beauty—not clouds.
I could stir this into something other than a restlessness,
but I am no chef.
I will make mounds of my sorrow and hide them in plain sight.
And this, these words you speak; you type; you publish; you mutter; they speak directly to my mis-shapen fractured heart; even though… I; we; have not spoken in weeks, even though… I never saw your lips move, or your mind grow, or your heart flutter, somehow I feel you. I don’t recall your presence near by and yet, somehow, your words have spoken directly to me… Be open to the possibilities of your words traveling throughout the universe and beyond, just because we don’t see or hear doesn’t mean we are not heard… Thank you my friend… <3