After 18 years it was time for a new car.  The battery died last week; the front left tire leaks.  The intermittent wipers are REALLY intermittent, as in I have to press the connection on the windshield.  It was tired, and had, at least figuratively, that Old Car Smell.  And obviously nothing to do with Pilgrim Life. Wrong. But it will take a moment to explain.  Let’s start with this citation: “We live not by things, but by the meaning... Read more

Heard of Mattering Maps? Some years ago I happened on a philosopher who talked about Mattering Maps.  It happened when I was adding to a literal map I keep at home.  Sorry it is sideways to you, but it fit my dining table best this way.  I will say more about mattering maps shortly.  First, let me talk about this actual map. You can just see lines.  These trace journeys we have made since 1992, many as a family, when... Read more

You gotta be a certain age to catch the references here.  “I Wish I Was Homeward Bound” is a song by Paul Simon.  It’s also a very different movie, and both are from the 1960s.  Yes, that is now old. ICYDNN, though, my title is slightly different, as I use the subjunctive mood which he does not. While it sings better as “I Wish I Was Homeward Bound,” it reads better as “I Wish I Were Homeward Bound.”  Thank you,... Read more

Each day, while walking, ideas come to me and I think to myself, “Hold that thought until you get home and can write it down.”  I rarely succeed.  Call it absent mindedness, which would be true, but it is also the cost of living the Pilgrim Life. Life vs The Meaning of Life You may know the quote from  Søren Kierkegaard, “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”  That’s the problem with pilgrim life in... Read more

It was lovely, Walking in the Valley of Death. That sure sounds strange, but it was true back on my third day in Israel in January, I happily walked through the Valley of Death. Time to resume my journey through Israel.  Not only was the weather that far better than Midwest American Winter, the place I went was a park that happened to be an ancient cemetery – Bet She’arim.  But let me start with a quote my diary that... Read more

Fate handed me a gift With time to spare I am standing by a bookstore looking for something to read.  The store is closed but there are $1 books on tables with a box for dollar bills.  The one I chose took me back to a song my mother used to play on the Hi Fi: “Lost in the Stars.” I am in Claremont California for a day, to see two of my oldest friends, but until the afternoon.  Rather... Read more

Those with brains like mine ought to have a sign on our foreheads that says, “Under Construction.”  That is to say, we are never complete. which is a good thing but frequently frustrating. By good I mean we are ever learning.  Bioscience, which once thought our brains stop making new cells around 25 years, now knows we make new cells as well as thicken the connection between those that remain.  One reason we geezers are encouraged to learn new things... Read more

Other bloggers make points; I tell stories, because pilgrim life is a never ending story.  That’s fine with me, because stories are what make the Bible, the Mahabharata, the Iliad, and Paul Harvey memorable.  Remember Paul Harvey?  He ended his radio reports with the phrase, “and now you know the rest of the story.”  Wrong Paul.   There is no ‘rest of the story.’   True, the story I am telling now is of my pilgrim journey to Israel, which does have... Read more

Where  Am I? I got little sleep those first two nights, and upon waking I actually heard myself ask, “Where am I?” (After a detour owing to the Christian holy days, and too many days, it is time to get back to Tel Aviv, where I landed setting out from Grand Rapids 36 hours earlier). “Where am I” is a very Buddhist question.  All forms of Buddhism teach that what we perceive is illusory, not reality.  Take me 7000 miles... Read more

Though I am many posts away from my day spent on the Mount of Olives, today, being the holiday, the agnostic pilgrim ruina Palm Sunday.  That picture is pretty much what we imagine.  Until recently, we did not notice that everyone is too white and too clean, but aside from that it looks about right.  Until you actually go there.  Shall we? Having spent my morning wandering the valley directly below the Temple Mount, a place stuffed with biblical references, ... Read more