Temet Nosce (Know Thyself)

This page exists as what used to be known as a "Commonplace Book" for the purpose of maintaining a log of the poetry and philosophy that inspires and propels much of my own thought and writing, and to share, with fellow sojourners, a collection of the beauty and wisdom of kindred souls throughout time. My hope is that we will collectively work towards the goal of a deep and sustaining self-knowledge that will, then, inspire and guide us to pursue beauty, peace and justice in our world.

“He who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth.”

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe



Thursday, December 29, 2016

"A NOTE OF GRATITUDE" John Jeremiah Edminster


"I'm a retired craftsman, a midlife convert to Christianity and Quakerism, grieving the ongoing destruction of the earth by my ignorant people, and the loveless way we often treat one another, praying to the God who loves us all to show us a better way: I’m prepared for it to be challenging. I’m deeply grateful: I’ve lived sinfully and felt myself washed clean. I’ve now consecrated my life to the service of God, by whose grace my wife and I were called to come to ESR as residential Masters of Divinity candidates, and given scholarship funding sufficient for us to live on my Social Security income, simply but comfortably, while we study. By God’s grace I still enjoy a spry body in my mid-seventies, a mind open to new wisdom, and a merry heart. I don’t expect to need a paying position once I leave ESR, but to continue to serve as one of Christ’s unpaid odd-job men: a healer and comforter, a tract-writer and bearer of prophetic ministry, a hearer of confessions, a good husband, father, and friend, and at the end of this life a cheerful relinquisher of the body. I want everyone in heaven and earth who facilitated my seminary education to be happy that they did so."

~ John Jeremiah Edminster
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