Where I Find You: an additional thought or two

My most recent contribution, “Where I Find You,” to “Close Reading”/Slant Books is up today. There’s something I didn’t say in it, at least not explicitly. My life is braided. One braid is Jewish. One is more broadly spiritual. One braid is literary. And, of course, there are other braids: husband, father, grandfather, friend, educator, etc. It’s not surprising to me that in seeing Jacob Lawrence’s “Migration Series” I see the Torah, Exodus in particular. Nor is it surprising to me that in bumping unexpectedly into my friend in the exact same spot where my wife and I met her seven months earlier I am reminded of Yehuda HaLevi. Once, I was asked to speak to a group of donors at UNC Asheville’s Chancellor’s house. I said that I was very lucky in that in my position at UNC Asheville I was able to integrate all (I probably should have said some) the parts of my life: my life as a poet and writer and reader, my life as an educator, my life as a Jewish person, my life as a spiritual person, my life as a meditator. Integration. Maybe not exactly the same as braided. But related. A braided life. A beautiful life. I’m grateful for all of it. Grateful for you, dear reader.