"We are beasts bounding through time," Charles Bukowski wrote. The persistent question is, Can Love exalt us above the rest of God's creatures? Can what we interpret in a pair of tomatoes & an avocado differentiate us from other life beings?

   Love's seekers may briefly touch the hem of her dress. Still, earth's love is fraught with fire. Most are burned by the encounter as well as illuminated. 

   Love engages excruciating pain. If we pursue her we will be locked in conflicting desires.

   She offers the best life can give. Can we survive her challenges? 

   Pioneers push boundaries the furthest. They meddle with the alchemy of our being & sometimes, after harrowing explorations, they stumble into the secret forests we covet. Laboring to bring back hard won gifts they return scarred. 

   The same is true with our saintly caregivers. To paraphrase Henri Nouwen, caregivers rush into burning buildings to save those in need & sometimes are burned themselves. 

   This is the challenge of Radical Loving Care. Bukowski describes it as "the impossibility of being human." He lists the tragic endings some artists found,

"…the impossibility of being human
Maupassant going mad in a rowboat
Dostoevsky lined up against a wall to be shot
Crane off the back of a boat into the propeller
the impossibility
Sylvia with her head in the oven like a baked potato
Harry Crosby leaping into that Black Sun
Lorca murdered in the road by the Spanish troops…

…These champions
these mad dogs of glory

moving this little bit of light toward
us
impossibly.”

   Many risk the journey but, like some daring mountain climbers, fall from the peaks.

   Admire the seekers. Admire the caregivers who risk everything to "move this little bit of light toward/ us/ impossibly."

-Erie Chapman 

Photograph by Erie