Presby-Musings

"Beauty will save the world." - Dostoevsky -  Today is my middle son's fourteenth birthday.   A little over fifteen years ago, my wife and I shakingly made our way out of an OB/GYN office in downtown Chicago stunned with the news that the barely three-month-old baby inside her would live.  A week earlier they'd told us the baby's heart rate indicated the pregnancy was unsustainable.    We were at the office that day because they fully expected to do a procedure following the miscarriage.   Instead, we discovered that not only was he alive, but his heart was strong and vibrant. I can still remember the way the cold and mist hit my face on that gloomy, cold December morning.  I could smell woodsmoke in the air from somewhere.  I found myself full of wonder at how the city lights provided a vibrant contrast to the grey sky.   It was beautiful.  All of it was beautiful.   The ancient Greek phil...

I've been thinking a lot this week about good and evil, and how we tell the difference between the two. You are probably thinking, "Dude...that's not so hard.  Why would it take you all week?"  It would seem like a pretty pointless exercise, I will admit.  Still, despite the fact that it seems simple, it's a lot more complicated to explain.  I mean, how do you know that something is good or evil... really know ? I remember reading about this town in Germany during the Nazi regime.  This town was full of ordinary people who lived ordinary lives.  The town was made up of farmers, postmen, housewives, shop owners, teachers and bankers.  Some of them happened to be Jewish.  When the persecution of Jews in Germany began in earnest, the people in the town who weren't Jewish not only encouraged it, they participated in it.  Neighbors turned on neighbors.  Property was seized. Families were destroyed and people were sent to concentratio...