What Never Went Away

Dear Friends,

It seems appropriate to prepare today for the Day of the Dead, by considering the presence of the absent.

Fall seems to be about the loss and absence of summer, but for those of us in New England who love the Fall leaves, Fall is about the presence of their outrageous colors.  Turning a corner or raising your eyes you may suddenly be overcome by a tower of maple like a trumpet blast.  Then Fall falls, and winter comes with its snow and its inwardness, further bewildering our sense of what is here and what is not here.

The divine, or the generative mystery in Spangler's term, seems to be absent until, in its occasional apparent presence in our lives, it is revealed as always already with us.

This is how it can be with the "dead."  Sometimes they seem unfindable, and only to survive in fading memory and mementos, and then sometimes they too show themselves as always already here.

Emily Dickinson:

The Infinite a sudden Guest
Has been assumed to be --
But how can that stupendous come
Which never went away?  

Today we will use her help to feel, not a stupendous, but an intelligible and faithful presence.

with love,
Michael