Shakespeare in the Park. (Schweitzer too)

On my walk through Woodland Park today I stopped at Black Swan bookstore. My friend Mike Courtney is a book expert who has thousands of books, many rare and valuable along with others that are well, just books. Books of all sorts and all ages, on all topics.

I happened across "The Wit and Wisdom of Albert Schweitzer" a thin book (with large print) from 1949 of musings from this great humanitarian and seeker of truth. While chatting with Mike I picked up a little green suede book of Shakespeare's songs and sonnets--100 years old! Both were only $10. Can you imagine--a 100 year old book of the master bard's work--oh and the cool thing is that each page contains one short sonnet, not a long hard-to-read tome.

As I went back through the park the colors of the books seemed to blend in with those of the park, so it was a natural instinct to capture the moment--Shakespeare (and Schweitzer) in the Park!

Rejecting Barabbas

Eliot Spitzer's fall from grace is easy to judge and to joke about. But coming as it did during this high holy season should give us pause before doing so.

Many will replay the Passion story and deride the crowd who shouted "give us Barabbas!" instead of choosing Jesus, the Way to life, and to truth and to peace and to heaven. Yet the choice must be for all of his Way. Believers must therefore seek not merely righteousness, but also mercy and charity and humility. Their offers of prayers and support are due the fallen, especially for brethren who admit error and strive for reconciliation, as has Spitzer. A refusal to do so is a rejection of the Way and a choice for Barabbas.

To be human is to err. We choose Barabbas when we knowingly do an unethical or dishonest act or, conversely, fail to act mercifully when others have chosen Barabbas. When we consider that we all have chosen Barabbas, willingly or not, at one time or another it becomes much easier to show such compassion.

Ultimately, it is in our openness to removing the board from our own eyes that we can help others remove the speck from theirs. In the process, we find our own redemption.

Rejecting Barabbas, we have risen to the highest choice.