Date: Tue, Aug 30, 2005, 9:26am Subject: Perspective To several: The breaking dawn was exhilarating! The sky was clear and the air cool. There was a sliver of a dying moon. Starting just before daybreak, I walked about ¾ mile and felt good about it. Seeing that moon in is glorious purity was like reading a poem. It ought not to be called a dying moon just because it is nearing the end of this phase and ready to start a new phase next week. It was all there. I could see the outline of the entire ball. A small sliver of it was bright, and that small portion was indicative of the whole thing. It is like a cup of seawater. A cup of seawater is not the whole ocean, but it is nevertheless representative of the seven seas. Some aspects of life are like that. We do not possess (or even comprehend) pure goodness or genuine beauty or absolute truth, but the small portions we have are indicative of the whole, and if we have faith, this is a guarantee. No, the moon is not to blame because it appears to earth to be dying. It was my perspective that was lacking. From another location in space, the moon would appear in its full orb. I am reminded of that old Scottish poet who wrote, "Oh wad some power the giftie gie us / To see ourseles as others see us! / It wad frae monie a blunder free us, / And foolish notion." How much pain and grief, and "foolish notion" the world would be spared if we all took account of our limited perspective! --for whatever it is worth, David C. Paul