siloam's teeming pool

Monday, July 30, 2007

There is greater comfort in the substance of silence than in the answer to a question. Eternity is in the present. Eternity is in the palm of the hand. Eternity is a seed of fire whose sudden roots break barriers that keep my heart from being an abyss.
Journal of Thomas Merton, July 4, 1952

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not diving, so much as splashing --- in (or, "what is this site?")

This site is my attempt to gather together readings which are impacting me on my own spiritual path. Some are wise words from the periphery of my formal learning (the Eastern religions) but which have nonetheless settled in my bones. Some are at the center of my new world of study (the Judeo-Christian texts). Since I have been a student again, some of these thoughts are academic formation. Others are spiritual questing. And some are just gold dust that has collected on the shoes of my reading. It's my hope that the gold will rub off, and provide clues to meaning for others. Bite-sized bits and occasionally my own expressive thinking.

"Siloam's teeming pool" is the title of a series of chapters in a great book by Donald Harman Akenson called "Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds". The phrase is used to describe the explosion of Judahist literature in the late Second Temple era. In a period of seismic upheaval in Judaic culture, the run-up is rich with literary life. Are we in such a time now? I don't know. But the pool as a place of 'fecundity' and cleansing, seems apt as metaphor. So. Wade into the pool. Splash. Swim. Or just put your toe in and test the water. There are no snapping turtles here.