a man who worked for the school whose connection to the ancients marked the way he thought and spoke. we invited him to be our abbot one summer as we, a group of three in a little house, began a monastic order of sorts. some reflections, things that came out of those days with the abbot:
Not necessarily an order, but a matured approach to life that is spiritual. Maturated, a delicious sense of grammar to our day-- good poetism; wisdom, gruffness, strategy, cheerfulness; a full manhood.
As opposed to a non-channelling non-direction; some grey always in the light, and dry pee all over the rim. The restaurant with the dirty bathroom which lets you know what the inner rooms are like-- more so an absence of attitude, areas absent of roughage, of constitution; no advisors, no good king. Use one dish, wash one dish, and with one prayer-- Keep us lord in the simple way, in the ancient path. Give our lives liturgy and our methods mystery. That we may live quiet and thankful lives, together and alone. Sing a solemn and joyful song. Even the birds obey gravity and will come down to eat and bathe. Solemnity, sought by all without their being aware, cannot be bought, nor packaged; but belongs to those reclaimed by a solemn maker. Even the birds will succumb, and come to eat and bathe in the light without grey, attracting other life even as they discover it.
