Monday, October 21, 2002

Pain

One of my favorite blogs, field notes has a current post about pain.
When I was 21 or so I met my first teacher, Rudi. One of his sayings, that I hated then, and I hate even now over 30 years later, was "Pain is a sign of God's Love." He meant it from a very deep place. I think he meant that it breaks open the heart, crushes the ego, and makes us malleable. It still sucks, though.

10:10:04 PM    

A Better World

Here is another story from Elie Weisel.

There is a marvelous anecdote in Hasidic literature that recounts how a young student came to Rebbe Mendel of Kotzk and said, "Master, I am terribly disappointed in God." "Why?" "I'll tell you why," said this student. "It took him 6 days to create the world, and look at it. It's terrible." So the master said, "Tell me, could you do better?" And the student, not knowing why, said, "Yes." And the master said, "In that case, then, what are you waiting for? Start doing it."

-Elie Wiesel, Conversations with Elie Weisel

9:56:56 PM