prairie? While science gives us answers, it doesn’t give us all the answers; in fact, it’s messy and is constantly under revision. Knowing all of these things doesn’t diminish the sense of mystery and awe in the apparent “rightness” in life. Understanding the processes of mutation and natural selection doesn’t diminish the wonder at the diversity all around me. Nothing is ever fully understood. This fact shows me that curiosity is essential to the human experience. It is a part of us, and the world seems set up in a way that allows us to constantly be discovering new things, pouring out more knowledge on top of knowledge, giving us the grace to revise our understandings and look back and see how far we have come. That, to me, is confirmation of the Divine, always providing us with the opportunity to discover and learn more about the mysteries of this wonderfully messy world. The Sending: Wild Geese
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – over and over announcing your place in the family of things.
Mary Oliver
Fall 2020/Agora
39
