Aphorism of the Week

In reason dwells the divine.

Dedicated to the call for non-violence, progressive political and religious dialogue, and struggle for self-enlightenment ("self-jihad"), by the Ahmadiyya Muslim and Baha'i Faith Communities; and in admonishment of the religious persecution of the Ahmadis and Baha'i by the Shiite and Sunni majorities in Middle Eastern countries. The measure of a religion's maturity is the tolerance it offers those who believe differently.

Parable of the Week

The Spectator, The Participant
Two men each had a small, black-and-white television set.
On their TVs they watched the happenings of the day -- slippered feet perched upon cushions, hands dipped in bowls of pretzels and popcorn, potato chips and onion dip.
And the years changed only the size of their

Aphorism of the Week

The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it. -- via Brendan Behan

Dedicated to the Supreme Court's finding of constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act; and in admonishment of the GOP's rejection, for partisan politics, of the medical insurance law they themselves originally designed.

Parable of the Week

The Resigned, The Revolutionary
Born into poverty, near the army base of an invading power, were two sisters.
Without food, their parents forced them to prostitute themselves for money to feed the family.
One sister, pulling at her filthy dress and twisting a strand of oily hair, whispered to the other, "I know you hate this. I do too!" But the glint of hatred in her eyes faded into dullness, and her head dropped.
"This is how the world has always been,"

Aphorism of the Week

Break on the shoals of your dream.

Dedicated to Minnesota's same-sex couples who still cannot legally marry, but whose public commitment as couples for life shames the intolerance of the many divorced religious; and dedicated in admonishment of the anti-rational statement of the Reverend Mark Poorman, senior pastor at Woodcrest Baptist Church in Fridley, MN, who, to express his disappointment in another conservative pastor's refusal to lobby his flock to vote to prohibit same-sex marriage in the MN State Constitution, said, "It would have been nice to hear him be a little more dogmatic." May anti-rational dogma never again be touted, and may Minnesota become the first state whose people grow in enlightenment sufficiently to refrain from institutionalizing the inability

Aphorism of the Week

You have this time to help build the edifice -- or help bring it down.

Dedicated to the Pentagon saluting Gay Pride Month for its newly openly lesbian and gay soldiers; to the General Mills company publicly repudiating the proposed Minnesota state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage; and to South Dakota voters rejecting their own proposed constitutional amendment to let religious fundamentalists act unlawfully according to religious dictates. Also dedicated in admonishment of Christian fundamentalists firing Trish Cameron, a teacher in Moorhead, Minnesota at St. Joseph's Catholic School, for holding a personal, private belief that gay and lesbian couples have the right to marry; and for these fundamentalists' spate of verbal attacks against not only same-sex

Aphorism of the Week

All religions that respect others should be respected in turn. -- via Shawn Gilbert

Dedicated to the bravery of Shorter University's gay former librarian, Michael Wilson, fired for refusing to sign a contract renewing his job that demanded he agree to reject homosexuality; and in admonishment of the fundamentalist purge of Shorter University's Board of Directors by the Georgia Baptist Church, which has now made the moral stature of the university mimic its name.

Parable of the Week

The Retreat, The Charge
Dark thickets and ravines shrouded the countryside.
Toward this spectral wood ran two young sisters, on an urgent task from the town to carry medicine to their grandmama.
But upon hearing a hooting owl and the rustling of animals in the murky undergrowth beneath

Aphorism of the Week

If not now, when? If not you, who? -- via Rabbi Hillel

Parable of the Week

The Years, The Momentum
Youth and elder, they found each other, joined by infirmity, sitting on a park bench.
In talking, they found they were both near the end of their days, from untreatable illnesses -- the old man's after a lifetime of traveling and seeing the world, and the young woman's after a brief time founding and working at a shelter for battered women and children.
The old man looked pityingly on the young woman, and asked her, "Don't you find it sad that you'll die so young? While I've lived so long traveling the world and seeing so much, that I've grown tired of it?"
The young woman looked at the old man with a small smile, placed her hand on the old man's shoulder, and then

Aphorism of the Week

Our destiny is to reassemble the shards of the universe.

Dedicated to the historic flight of Earth's first private spacecraft -- SpaceX Company's Dragon capsule -- and to the future of space commercialization and prospecting.

Parable of the Week

The Mite, The Flea
Pedagogue and Pupil strode an ancient acropolis above a teeming city.
One evening the Pupil, dismayed at his childish writings after a long day's lessons, pounded his fist on his robed thigh and asked, "Master, do our lives even matter? Are we not insignificant?"
The Pedagogue smiled, his cheeks and forehead crinkling, as he walked. He stopped and bent down to stroke the head of a passing puppy, and brushed his hand under the dog's belly. Then he held his hand up to his Pupil's face, illuminated in a wall's

Aphorism of the Week

Loud is not the same as convincing.

Dedicated to the Camp David G-8 Summit's rethinking of austerity vs. growth to counter government debt in the European Union, triggered by the election of Francois Hollande as President of France and by German Chancellor Angela Merkel's new willingness to consider increased spending in Greece and other EU nations to counter recession.

Parable of the Week

The Mousetrap, The Cheese
In the wall of a prim countryside cottage lived two mice.
One night, when the two-pawed giants lay sleeping in their quilted nests, the first mouse ventured out into the kitchen for breadcrumbs -- whereupon he espied a large hunk of cambozola.
There in the middle of the moonlit plain of linoleum tiles the cheese sat -- like an offering -- perched on a

Aphorism of the Week

Sometimes the whole world is wrong, if you know why you alone are right.

Dedicated to U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's and President Barack Obama's belated but history-making affirmation of the civil right of gay and lesbian couples to marry, and in admonishment of GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney's and prominent black pastors' assertion that one's religious doctrine allows the denial and nullification of others' marriages. The Bible proclaims legitimacy for polygamy and slavery, no less than illegitimacy for adultery, divorce and homosexuality; why then do believers feel it is right to impose some biblical rules upon non-believers, while ignoring other biblical rules for themselves?

Parable of the Week

The Proclaimer, The Achiever
Banners flapped in the breeze