11/15/2023

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            In a conversation with a former PhD student yesterday, we attempted to make sense of this crazy world we live in & contemplated God, faith & religion. She worries that she will die before she has solved the puzzle of our existence. I shared that seeking is what Quakers do best. Sitting in silence, waiting for revelation, soothes our souls.

In today’s piece in the NYT, R Douthat highlights revelation as a key to the “origins of religion.” He writes, “People want meaning, societies need order, (so) our minds naturally invent invisible beings.”  He notes that this explanation is insufficient because it does not account for ecstatic experience, “which is just much weirder, unexpected & destabilizing than psychological & evolutionary arguments for its utility would suggest.” He concludes that we need religion because, “the world is much stranger than the secular imagination thinks.”

Have you had an ecstatic experience? I have & perhaps someday I’ll tell you more.

            On a different matter, please stop worrying about your reelection & do whatever you can to end the madness in Gaza. While you’re at it, stop the madness in Burma, too.

An article in today’s WP illuminates the horrific conditions endured by the families in one camp in Rafah. Menstruation & pregnancy are particularly difficult under those circumstances. About 50,000 pregnant women are in Gaza, with 5,500 babies due in the next month. Accouchement is dangerous enough when done in a sterile setting. Mothers should not have to go through it under squalid conditions. One woman compared living in the camp to living in the Stone Age & lamented “whoever does not die by murder will die of hunger, disease, fear & pollution.” No one should have to endure her fate.

            I hope your conversation with XJ is constructive today. Thanks for coming to some agreements with him about climate change. Tripling energy capacity by 2030 is a fantastic goal!

            BYBS,