[Johanna Fisher]

Richard,

Your thoughts here are so important to consider as I begin my day. I have been rather “sick” of seeing the sun-we have had no rain for so many days now and I see the sun “destroying” the grass, the flowers, the trees. It reminds me of two thoughts I have considered over time-one is that nature is ambivalent and that as Campbell said-“all life in the field of time is dual.” The forest fires raging in California at this moment attest to the destructive force of nature and the heat is not at all life -nurturing/nourishing.

How are we to see this side of that star in the sky admired by the ancients-source – revealer in some sense. That is to say revealer of the gifts that would otherwise not be seen. It is difficult to “see” in the night-the darkness. And yet, I crave the darkness-thing that is only seen because it reflects the light. It gives a moment of quiet -I am always happiest at the approaching night. So much of the energy that is pulled away by the constant appearance of the sun-the light , does not inspire as Apollo would have had it; rather I am left empty of the energy that really inspires contemplation, art and music.

As for your words regarding breathing and community-it makes me think of singing with the choir , we must breathe together, to produce sound as in one voice , as in the one breath that will produce the sound. I like to think of the universe in its creation as one breath, and sound brining into existence all that we see and cannot see. Breathing and sound join and we can hear the music of the spheres. Certainly, all that is earthly produces sound/music-a breath that we hear in the wind, the rain, the persons we encounter, the falling rocks, the rushing waters. Hildegard von Bingen suggests that music is the one way for humans -both in body and soul to incarnate the heavens-the universe and in this way we participate in the harmony of everything that is alive. She argues that the arts as “the arts as the breath of as the breath of God, the breath of God flowing through the human body…”. So, your suggestion regarding, Just as breathing requires inhaling and exhaling, a functioning and flourishing society requires the interaction of the individual and the community. [ Richard Sumpter], That kind of collective/ cooperative breathing ,might just save us all.

Thank you for these thoughts