The Light

The first time I saw him, I asked about him. I left him alone, though. I liked the way he was sitting, neatly cross-legged, and he was wearing a robe and a softly pointed hat. I went back to the little junk shop and bought him. Eight dollars. We went home together. I thought he […]

Sisterhood

The God I imagined looked sort of like Albert Brooks, but with a beard. We all know how holy beards are. After three days at the monastery, I expected this bearded comedian to wander in the room and say, “Everything going okay? Can I get you anything?” When God talk is constant and enveloping, when […]

Giving and Having

I woke up this morning to death. I didn’t cheer it like those kids in DC. My cat had killed a mouse. I screamed, and then I laid a towel over the corpse. My great-grandfather used to say, “It’s not the dead people you need to worry about– it’s the living.” He was a mortician. […]

Circles

Everyone was as still for Bach as they were bouncy for Al Green. As rabidly as I’d danced to the Jackson 5 Saturday night, I sat still for Bach on Sunday. I closed my eyes, even. Pop music goes forward, neatly, in a way you expect, and it reinforces what you want and where you […]