This Week

Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah"--not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen. ----Luke 9:28-36

For a long time you had found your only entertainment in the quiet pleasure of looking at the sunset. I learned that new detail on the morning of the fourth day, when you said to me: "I am very fond of sunsets. Come, let us go look at a sunset now." "But we must wait, "I said. "Wait? For what?" "For the sunset. We must wait until it is time." At first you seemed to be very much surprised. And then you laughed to yourself. You said to me, "I am always thinking that I am at home!" Just so. Everybody knows that when it is noon in the US the sun is setting over France. … But on your tiny planet, my little prince, all you need do is move your chair a few steps. You can see the day end and the twilight falling when ever you like… "One day, " you said to me, "I saw the sunset forty-four times!"

----Antoine de Saint-Exuupery,

The Little Prince

My Grandmother was about seven when the last Kiowa Sun Dance was held in 1887 on the Washita River above Rainy Mountain Creek. The buffalo were gone. In order to consummate the ancient sacrifice - to impale the head of a buffalo bull upon the medicine tree - a delegation of old men traveled to Texas to barter for an animal from the Goodnight herd. She was 10 when the Kiowas came together for the last time as a living sun Dance culture. They could find no buffalo: they had to hang an old hide from the sacred tree. Before the dance could begin, a company of soldiers rode out from Fort Sill under orders to disperse the tribe. Forbidden without cause the essential act of their faith, having seen the wild herds slaughtered and left to rot upon the ground, the Kiowas backed away forever from the medicine tree. That was July 20, 1890, at the great bend of the Washita. My grandmother was there. Without bitterness, and for as long as she lived, she bore a vision of deicide.

----M. Scott Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain

As a pilot, I came close to being killed twice, once in a spectacular crash and the second time in combat, in Korea, though oddly enough not by the enemy. It was the airplane itself that almost killed me [when something went wrong with the hydraulic system]. This was an F-86, a Sabre, the first swept-wing fighter and at the time the best we had...Afterward, back in the States, I carried a feeling of superiority. I’d been a flight leader in combat, I had a victory. I’d been in the thick of it. Slowly all that faded. In the years of ordinary life that followed, I worried, felt anxiety, sometimes lost heart, but the facing of fear in the raw sense never came up. The lessons I had learned didn’t translate – I was living in a different hierarchy of values. Deep inside, however, there still exists that ethic, long drummed-in and well-remembered: Don’t lose your nerve, and , more importantly, don’t appear to be losing it. As the beach boys in Hawaii used to say, "Cool head main thing."

----James Salter, "A Few Words Before Crashing", Joe, vol. 1, number 2, 1999

• When have you not wanted a good time to end?
• When, like the Little Prince, do you try to increase to number of possible lovely experiences?
• When is it appropriate to try to extend a good or a sacred time?
• When is the ending of something an incredible loss, as opposed to something whose time it was?
• What are we staying on the mountain for?
• What is it that is hard to leave, but we have to?
• Is praxis in a comfy spot, or do we need to move somewhere as well?