Perhaps we did need a balancing of good-bad, a greater acceptance of the challenges of being human. I read today of a hospice program within the prisons where prisoners help other prisoners die. They learn about death. They may have killed someone but they have no idea what that means until they are with someone as they die. We have an aging prison population. How do we help them and ourselves meet death?
Perhaps that is what is clear in the desert, how quickly without water and shelter from the sun we would die. I like that hammer of awareness. Perhaps that is why the senses are so honed. I realized that when one is in the desert there is a reason to talk about the weather other than rather to wear a coat or sweater. You need to stay aware.
Maureen Dowd comments today on how far we reach toward compromise until perhaps nothing is left. Our president does need to take some stands. Will he?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/opinion/18dowd.html?th&emc=th
