Me and Jesus (aka Leaf)
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
On a Day I met Jesus
An epiphanical day in New York City! Started with prayer--for family, for friends, for others and for discovering God’s plan and purpose for me. Next was breakfast at Joe Jr’s, a humble but excellent little coffee shop on 16th and 3rd just down from our apartment on 17th, for fruit, cottage cheese and coffee.
Then my lively meeting with Ronny “Armani” Wurtzberger and the boys at Peerless clothing, where I buy lots of suits under such labels as Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. We are one of their very first customers and they have always treated me, and our company, great. Ronny held court with his customary jokes, advice and a “special” price for me!
With no other appointments I just let my feet go hither and fro. Turned left at 5th, headed uptown into the heart of couture. Went to Bergdorf Goodman men’s, the cream of cream, the finest in colors, fabrics and style---‘OOH LA LA, SASSON’!
Found a café on the 3rd floor and with some trepidation about, in a store chock full of shirts for $250, what a cup of coffee might cost found a seat at the counter. I noted the verdant green of the Sweet Pea soup, so I had a bowl. Unreal good! The packed house attested to Bergdorf’s quality in food, as well as fashion.
Back on the street, the Plaza Hotel, with its famed Oak Bar, where Cary Grant is mis-identified as a CIA operative by James Mason’s henchmen in my all time favorite movie, North by Northwest. Just beyond it was the park no…THE park.
I’ve grown really fond of parks thanks to my trips to Europe and especially to Amsterdam’s Vondel Park. Even more so since my discovery of meditation, which is NOTHING more than: a) emptying the mind to nothingness (easy for me, right), b) focusing on the breath, totally and solely on the breath—the sense of the air on nostrils in, the flow out, the sense in. When the mind wonders, no biggie, just come back to the breath. Back to the breath focus.
Central Park on a cool, gray day was STUPENDOUS! The colors were so much more real with the cover of clouds: stone, woods, grasses, ponds, ducks, doves, starlings, squirrels, windy paths up, down over and under, people—young, old, foreign, local, happy, pensive, boisterous, quiet, some arm-in-arm, others alone.
In the distance, way to the northeast corner from where I started, on Central Park West was the famed Dakota, where John Lennon lived—and I suppose, died. I made that my destination.
A way’s in, I entered Sheep’s Meadow, a huge grassy field where Tavern on the Green sits on the west side. You might remember the climactic meeting between Gordon Gekko and Bud Fox at the end of Wall Street.
Have ever really stopped to see and listen to children on the playground? Whiffle ball. Bobby swings—crack—“RUN BOBBY RUN!” “Throw it, HURRY, throw it to me—H-U-R-R-EEE!” A girl in left field, where the ball NEVER goes, keeps screaming at the top of her lungs, a banshee scream. All of them were screaming so passionately, as if the future of humanity depended on getting Bobby out—or safely to the next base!
I prayed again, for direction, for a purpose, and just for thanks for this great day I was having. Lit my cigar and waded into that panoramic field of green, nearly fluorescent against the misty gray day. On the other side was a snack area, with a well-timed toilet.
Then pressing on, nearly to the west side, I entered Strawberry Fields. There is a monument of sorts to John Lennon, a marble circular piece of pavement carved with “Imagine.” Some roses with an admirer’s love note was laid there, as I’m sure is an everyday occurrence.
A bench beckoned, so I sat and did my breath-focused meditation, where time just slows down to the here and now, people passing in pairs or groups, most stopping to “Imagine”.
After a while I rose from the bench and just floated—no purpose in my step, no hurry or focus. It was…bliss.
I continued on one pristine path after another, up to the cut-stone Belvedere Tower, which is roughly in the middle of the Park. Then a steep path down to Shakespeare Gardens, full of flowers and plaques with the bard’s quotes every 10-15 feet. NEAT!
I went up to the tower and veered off another path, higher and higher, then went off the path onto a rocky mount and there he was—JESUS!
Of course, I did not recognize him as such, he was just another isolated being finding solitude in nature. I simply nodded my head and said hi as I meditated my way past him.
Then from behind I heard “say, sir, I’m hungry for some Chinese food, can you help me out?” “Sure I can,” and I reached in my pocket as I turned back. Feeling particularly generous I felt a bill, and after sneaking a look to insure it was not a 5, 10 or 20, but a ONE, I gave it to him.
On the streets a quarter will bring “thanks, brother, God bless you.” But on this rocky mount Leaf just said, “man, this Chinese meal costs five dollars.” “Sir, look, I usually give just a quarter, so I am way ahead of my game already!”
He thanked me and I said something about I’d pray for him and God bless him, etc. and as I turned to leave he asks me sharply…”YOU BORN AGAIN?” “Well, no, not really, but I believe in God and Jesus is MY pathway, but not necessarily the ONLY pathway, why do you ask?”
I truly wish I could recall the whole conversation, but I tell you it was Karma--as if God responded to my prayers, at least partly, with this most unlikely encounter.
Leaf first asked me if I had heard of the book, Conversations With God He then spoke of God, of Jesus, of Universal truth in such a commanding way, yet in his words and manner that it all seemed so familiar.
In fact, I nodded and said “amen, brother” throughout our conversation. None more than when he said, “man’s way is so contrary to God’s plain-spoken words…Jesus was called ‘Teacher’ by his contemporaries…as he went lighting our way….Yet we—our government, our society, our world—while professing with our lips failing utterly to act with the FAITH of the divine.”
He pointed to the dollar bill and said, “Look, ‘In God We Trust’ BUT in MILITARY MIGHT we trust! In private profit, trickle down, greed is good, I’ve got mine, you get yours we trust.”
“Listen to their rationalizations…’they hate our freedoms so they attacked us.’ Man, you mean they gonna kill themselves for that, come on!” “The rich have so much to protect, they get the masses to help them by puttin’ the scare into ‘em.”
“But Jesus would NOT stand for that. He went to his death to LIVE as an example his message of non-violent peace and love to show US the way OUT! And we aren’t learnin!” Leaf was definitely on a roll on this rock.
“We stay trapped in fear. The old nukes aren’t good enough, look—they’re making new ones to make us safer!? HA! In that fear we forget all about FAITH. If we would follow the WORD and act with real faith, we could save ourselves. All the military might, the highest walls, the deepest trenches will not save us, but acting with real faith, and real love, WILL!”
“Amen, amen!” I repeated, you’re preaching to the choir!
He continued, “We are human BEINGS, not doings, we just need to BE—God loves us and is with us, we just need to forgive—others AND ourselves, too…learn from experience and go forward, but LEARN.” “Women were dissed from the start, treated with no respect. That’s why the custom of men taking off hats in church—to throw a bone to the women—why can’t women lead a flock, man, why not?”
“Under President Carter, good man, but they developed the neutron bomb—kills people but saves PROPERTY---how bad is THAT!?” Jesus spoke of the end of an AGE, not the WORLD. We’re killing ourselves down here, but it won’t be the end of the world, just the age. Tsunami’s, hurricanes—the earth’s burping, getting ready to flush us away.”
He said a lot more, and especially interesting were these acronyms:
H.O.P.E.—Help Other People Everywhere.
B.I.B.L.E—Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth
E.G.O.—Edging God Out
P.R.I.D.E.—Principle Reason why I Die Early
The thing is it was softly raining. I had a raincoat, but still I felt I was ready to leave, but he kept pulling me back saying, “No, wait, I got more, and I want you to have my best stuff” and sure enough, each time it was something I needed to hear!
Out of the blue, “What’s your purpose, Richard?” Whoa! I did NOT tell him I had been praying about that exact question. Instead I told him I was concerned about the state of our world much as he had been expounding upon and that perhaps I saw a role for myself as part of a solution to these problems.
Leaf said to remember a small group can change a community, then a village, a county, a state, a nation then the world! But we must not forget GOD. Why keep God out of the schools? Because ONE atheist objects. But this is majority rules, with protection for minorities.
“We need LESS RELIGION, but MORE GOD!” He said. Religion is just man’s interpretation and manipulation of God to fit in MAN’S image. We say ‘my God’ and ‘your God’ but there is just ONE God.”
“Jesus, taught us to pray: ‘OUR FATHER, who art in heaven…’ not ME the father, but OUR father—we’re all brothers and sisters with Jesus. Jesus said we are ALL sons and daughters of God.”
He ended with a joke: a Jewish couple married 40 years; the wife did everything for the husband. One morning he asked where his coffee was and she said, “you make it yourself.” Surprised he asked her why, and she said the bible said so. WHAT? That’s right, here it is and she opened it to HEBREWS. HA!
We hugged and wished each other well, knowing we’d be connected spiritually henceforth and then I continued on, going down the hill to a grassy opening below.
Jesus said we’d find him in the likes of Leaf. I’m sure I’ve been face to face with Jesus—with the Devine—often. I’ve felt it with strangers on the street with whom I’ve come in contact, whether I be the giver OR the receiver.
Today’s unlikely encounter, coming as it did after an especially prayerful sojourn through the park, leaves me with no doubt that once again I had met Jesus—and he had LOTS to say.
Then my lively meeting with Ronny “Armani” Wurtzberger and the boys at Peerless clothing, where I buy lots of suits under such labels as Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. We are one of their very first customers and they have always treated me, and our company, great. Ronny held court with his customary jokes, advice and a “special” price for me!
With no other appointments I just let my feet go hither and fro. Turned left at 5th, headed uptown into the heart of couture. Went to Bergdorf Goodman men’s, the cream of cream, the finest in colors, fabrics and style---‘OOH LA LA, SASSON’!
Found a café on the 3rd floor and with some trepidation about, in a store chock full of shirts for $250, what a cup of coffee might cost found a seat at the counter. I noted the verdant green of the Sweet Pea soup, so I had a bowl. Unreal good! The packed house attested to Bergdorf’s quality in food, as well as fashion.
Back on the street, the Plaza Hotel, with its famed Oak Bar, where Cary Grant is mis-identified as a CIA operative by James Mason’s henchmen in my all time favorite movie, North by Northwest. Just beyond it was the park no…THE park.
I’ve grown really fond of parks thanks to my trips to Europe and especially to Amsterdam’s Vondel Park. Even more so since my discovery of meditation, which is NOTHING more than: a) emptying the mind to nothingness (easy for me, right), b) focusing on the breath, totally and solely on the breath—the sense of the air on nostrils in, the flow out, the sense in. When the mind wonders, no biggie, just come back to the breath. Back to the breath focus.
Central Park on a cool, gray day was STUPENDOUS! The colors were so much more real with the cover of clouds: stone, woods, grasses, ponds, ducks, doves, starlings, squirrels, windy paths up, down over and under, people—young, old, foreign, local, happy, pensive, boisterous, quiet, some arm-in-arm, others alone.
In the distance, way to the northeast corner from where I started, on Central Park West was the famed Dakota, where John Lennon lived—and I suppose, died. I made that my destination.
A way’s in, I entered Sheep’s Meadow, a huge grassy field where Tavern on the Green sits on the west side. You might remember the climactic meeting between Gordon Gekko and Bud Fox at the end of Wall Street.
Have ever really stopped to see and listen to children on the playground? Whiffle ball. Bobby swings—crack—“RUN BOBBY RUN!” “Throw it, HURRY, throw it to me—H-U-R-R-EEE!” A girl in left field, where the ball NEVER goes, keeps screaming at the top of her lungs, a banshee scream. All of them were screaming so passionately, as if the future of humanity depended on getting Bobby out—or safely to the next base!
I prayed again, for direction, for a purpose, and just for thanks for this great day I was having. Lit my cigar and waded into that panoramic field of green, nearly fluorescent against the misty gray day. On the other side was a snack area, with a well-timed toilet.
Then pressing on, nearly to the west side, I entered Strawberry Fields. There is a monument of sorts to John Lennon, a marble circular piece of pavement carved with “Imagine.” Some roses with an admirer’s love note was laid there, as I’m sure is an everyday occurrence.
A bench beckoned, so I sat and did my breath-focused meditation, where time just slows down to the here and now, people passing in pairs or groups, most stopping to “Imagine”.
After a while I rose from the bench and just floated—no purpose in my step, no hurry or focus. It was…bliss.
I continued on one pristine path after another, up to the cut-stone Belvedere Tower, which is roughly in the middle of the Park. Then a steep path down to Shakespeare Gardens, full of flowers and plaques with the bard’s quotes every 10-15 feet. NEAT!
I went up to the tower and veered off another path, higher and higher, then went off the path onto a rocky mount and there he was—JESUS!
Of course, I did not recognize him as such, he was just another isolated being finding solitude in nature. I simply nodded my head and said hi as I meditated my way past him.
Then from behind I heard “say, sir, I’m hungry for some Chinese food, can you help me out?” “Sure I can,” and I reached in my pocket as I turned back. Feeling particularly generous I felt a bill, and after sneaking a look to insure it was not a 5, 10 or 20, but a ONE, I gave it to him.
On the streets a quarter will bring “thanks, brother, God bless you.” But on this rocky mount Leaf just said, “man, this Chinese meal costs five dollars.” “Sir, look, I usually give just a quarter, so I am way ahead of my game already!”
He thanked me and I said something about I’d pray for him and God bless him, etc. and as I turned to leave he asks me sharply…”YOU BORN AGAIN?” “Well, no, not really, but I believe in God and Jesus is MY pathway, but not necessarily the ONLY pathway, why do you ask?”
I truly wish I could recall the whole conversation, but I tell you it was Karma--as if God responded to my prayers, at least partly, with this most unlikely encounter.
Leaf first asked me if I had heard of the book, Conversations With God He then spoke of God, of Jesus, of Universal truth in such a commanding way, yet in his words and manner that it all seemed so familiar.
In fact, I nodded and said “amen, brother” throughout our conversation. None more than when he said, “man’s way is so contrary to God’s plain-spoken words…Jesus was called ‘Teacher’ by his contemporaries…as he went lighting our way….Yet we—our government, our society, our world—while professing with our lips failing utterly to act with the FAITH of the divine.”
He pointed to the dollar bill and said, “Look, ‘In God We Trust’ BUT in MILITARY MIGHT we trust! In private profit, trickle down, greed is good, I’ve got mine, you get yours we trust.”
“Listen to their rationalizations…’they hate our freedoms so they attacked us.’ Man, you mean they gonna kill themselves for that, come on!” “The rich have so much to protect, they get the masses to help them by puttin’ the scare into ‘em.”
“But Jesus would NOT stand for that. He went to his death to LIVE as an example his message of non-violent peace and love to show US the way OUT! And we aren’t learnin!” Leaf was definitely on a roll on this rock.
“We stay trapped in fear. The old nukes aren’t good enough, look—they’re making new ones to make us safer!? HA! In that fear we forget all about FAITH. If we would follow the WORD and act with real faith, we could save ourselves. All the military might, the highest walls, the deepest trenches will not save us, but acting with real faith, and real love, WILL!”
“Amen, amen!” I repeated, you’re preaching to the choir!
He continued, “We are human BEINGS, not doings, we just need to BE—God loves us and is with us, we just need to forgive—others AND ourselves, too…learn from experience and go forward, but LEARN.” “Women were dissed from the start, treated with no respect. That’s why the custom of men taking off hats in church—to throw a bone to the women—why can’t women lead a flock, man, why not?”
“Under President Carter, good man, but they developed the neutron bomb—kills people but saves PROPERTY---how bad is THAT!?” Jesus spoke of the end of an AGE, not the WORLD. We’re killing ourselves down here, but it won’t be the end of the world, just the age. Tsunami’s, hurricanes—the earth’s burping, getting ready to flush us away.”
He said a lot more, and especially interesting were these acronyms:
H.O.P.E.—Help Other People Everywhere.
B.I.B.L.E—Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth
E.G.O.—Edging God Out
P.R.I.D.E.—Principle Reason why I Die Early
The thing is it was softly raining. I had a raincoat, but still I felt I was ready to leave, but he kept pulling me back saying, “No, wait, I got more, and I want you to have my best stuff” and sure enough, each time it was something I needed to hear!
Out of the blue, “What’s your purpose, Richard?” Whoa! I did NOT tell him I had been praying about that exact question. Instead I told him I was concerned about the state of our world much as he had been expounding upon and that perhaps I saw a role for myself as part of a solution to these problems.
Leaf said to remember a small group can change a community, then a village, a county, a state, a nation then the world! But we must not forget GOD. Why keep God out of the schools? Because ONE atheist objects. But this is majority rules, with protection for minorities.
“We need LESS RELIGION, but MORE GOD!” He said. Religion is just man’s interpretation and manipulation of God to fit in MAN’S image. We say ‘my God’ and ‘your God’ but there is just ONE God.”
“Jesus, taught us to pray: ‘OUR FATHER, who art in heaven…’ not ME the father, but OUR father—we’re all brothers and sisters with Jesus. Jesus said we are ALL sons and daughters of God.”
He ended with a joke: a Jewish couple married 40 years; the wife did everything for the husband. One morning he asked where his coffee was and she said, “you make it yourself.” Surprised he asked her why, and she said the bible said so. WHAT? That’s right, here it is and she opened it to HEBREWS. HA!
We hugged and wished each other well, knowing we’d be connected spiritually henceforth and then I continued on, going down the hill to a grassy opening below.
Jesus said we’d find him in the likes of Leaf. I’m sure I’ve been face to face with Jesus—with the Devine—often. I’ve felt it with strangers on the street with whom I’ve come in contact, whether I be the giver OR the receiver.
Today’s unlikely encounter, coming as it did after an especially prayerful sojourn through the park, leaves me with no doubt that once again I had met Jesus—and he had LOTS to say.
Monday, April 25, 2005
God in Government
Friends:
I have determined to differ from my Democratic/secular brothers and sisters. I now believe--TRULY BELIEVE--that our country, our governments need now more than ever to get GOD/GOD'S VALUES into the conduction of our public affairs.
PLEASE NOTE: this would be a drastic 180 degree change from the conduct now prevalent in our highest elected officials! Especially the conduct of those who so ardently drape themselves in the cloak of Christianity!!
My view of the GODLY values not now present that should be are:
1) LOVE--for truth, for each other--neighbor AND so called enemies. This kind of love need not be emotional, indeed often it will NOT be a warm, fuzzy love. This kind of love is simply a wish of good will to others and the intent to further the interests of the other as well as yourself, i.e.seek WIN/WIN SOLUTIONS.
2) TRUTH--seeing, admitting, dealing with reality, with an eye to staying on the LOVE track above (getting win/win solutions).
3) PEACE--Just what it says...seeking peace and rejecting thoroughly the notion that peace can be had through war and weaponry. True peace can only be had with ONE AND TWO, above AND...
4) JUSTICE--Acting with real justice here and abroad consistent with Truth, Love and Peace. "Prayer in schools" "The 10 Commandments" "Under God" in thepledge---these are all RED HERRINGS! While technically they don't fit in with the constitutional separation of church and state I for one do not feel comfortable fighting them.
In fact, I always thought prayer was GOOD, and I BELIEVE in God. Now I know that just like "JUSTICE SUNDAY" God can and is hi-jacked so that proper references to God filled with Good Will and Love are instead twisted into the narrow, exclusionary, hateful themes which we on the left rightfully and constitutionally reject.
But the REAL battle is in the policies, laws and warped leadership by those herding the flock; fighting against prayer and God plays into their hands. If we, and what we believe are God's real values--or for those of us who are non-believers--UNIVERSAL MORAL VALUES--are to prevail we must be "as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."
Respectfully, Richard F. Dawahare
I have determined to differ from my Democratic/secular brothers and sisters. I now believe--TRULY BELIEVE--that our country, our governments need now more than ever to get GOD/GOD'S VALUES into the conduction of our public affairs.
PLEASE NOTE: this would be a drastic 180 degree change from the conduct now prevalent in our highest elected officials! Especially the conduct of those who so ardently drape themselves in the cloak of Christianity!!
My view of the GODLY values not now present that should be are:
1) LOVE--for truth, for each other--neighbor AND so called enemies. This kind of love need not be emotional, indeed often it will NOT be a warm, fuzzy love. This kind of love is simply a wish of good will to others and the intent to further the interests of the other as well as yourself, i.e.seek WIN/WIN SOLUTIONS.
2) TRUTH--seeing, admitting, dealing with reality, with an eye to staying on the LOVE track above (getting win/win solutions).
3) PEACE--Just what it says...seeking peace and rejecting thoroughly the notion that peace can be had through war and weaponry. True peace can only be had with ONE AND TWO, above AND...
4) JUSTICE--Acting with real justice here and abroad consistent with Truth, Love and Peace. "Prayer in schools" "The 10 Commandments" "Under God" in thepledge---these are all RED HERRINGS! While technically they don't fit in with the constitutional separation of church and state I for one do not feel comfortable fighting them.
In fact, I always thought prayer was GOOD, and I BELIEVE in God. Now I know that just like "JUSTICE SUNDAY" God can and is hi-jacked so that proper references to God filled with Good Will and Love are instead twisted into the narrow, exclusionary, hateful themes which we on the left rightfully and constitutionally reject.
But the REAL battle is in the policies, laws and warped leadership by those herding the flock; fighting against prayer and God plays into their hands. If we, and what we believe are God's real values--or for those of us who are non-believers--UNIVERSAL MORAL VALUES--are to prevail we must be "as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."
Respectfully, Richard F. Dawahare
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