Dear Brother Brian,

Avoid the auger in the month of May?

I had an associate who claimed that he wanted to live without stress. 
Looked to me like he was doing a good job of it. I am always in stress 
and had more than enough to spare to cover for him. I could delegate to 
him things that required more focus and patience than I could maintain.

I don't remember wot I said exactly about Jesus but I think it was my 
interest in the promise of a life without fear. Regardless of wot he 
said I look to wot he is claimed to have done which is to the illusion 
of death that he was reborn (not actually having died) and hung around 
long enough to make it remarkable and for a whole lot of ppl to wonder 
about it ever since. The promise of a life without fear is a shade 
different in my mind to the actuality of a life without fear. None of us 
escape fear and yes it is a portion of a healthy existence to have it. 
It can be comforting and hopeful to wonder if there is an alternative.

Though I was wandering around yesterday thinking on this a bit more. My 
bent on 'eternal life' is oriented towards a perspective that when we 
find those places in ourselves where we transcend our deepest fears we 
experience the present life as eternal. Be here now, yada yada. There is 
ample Christian precedent for this perspective. I also believe that when 
we get to that place in ourselves where we transcend fear we project 
less of it around us onto other folks. If one can take in the fear, face 
it, and place it on the shoulders of Jesus it works for me. Though I get 
confused over the idea that we are all created in God's image and hold 
Jesus within us as ourselves. The whole thing about free will confuses 
me also. Not to say anything about original sin.

About a week before 9-11 I was sitting down near GZ in a cast-concrete 
park watching the sparrows flutter over bread crumbs.

][<en

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