Letters, we get letters ...

The old Perry Como show had a segment "Letters, we get letters ..."  during which he read and responded to letters from viewers. It always began with a catchy little song and dance by young women dressed as postal carriers or some such.

1) I am not sure if Ur-Spo's comment -- "What a brilliant and succinct quote - I am grateful you made me aware of it" -- refers to the quote from John of the Cross or not, but since it is the succinct quote in that post, I will assume it does. 

I love that quote and used it on the holy cards for my solemn profession.

Interestingly, in Spanish the quote is  A la tarde te examinarán en el amor. Which is wonderfully ambiguous and richer than the English translations. 

For one thing, it does not say "in the evening of life" but "in the evening" (or even "in the afternoon.") Which could just mean at the end of each day, not only at the end of one's life. Since it was the tradition (still is) for the Discalced Carmelites to take time at the end of each day to look back and take note of how things had gone, he may have been telling someone the primary thing to look for in that daily examen.

Also, the literal translation of the construction te examinarán would be "they will examine you." They? God/the Trinity, one's peers, the ages? The passive construction found in most English translations is an interpretation, not a precise translation. But every translation is a betrayal in some way, as I well know from having worked as a translator and as an editor of translations done by others.

And being examined en el amor could mean that one will be examined ON love or IN love -- that is, one will be examined on how one loved or one will be examined in a loving way. Or both, the Spanish containing both meanings in one. 

2) Sunny asked apropos the post on moving, "Which of the moves was your most interesting and life changing?"

I cannot choose the most interesting and life changing. The move to Michigan was exciting and life-changing because it made me realize that the world was not only bigger than Huntsville, Texas, it was a great deal bigger than Texas. It was in Michigan that I first became really acquainted with Catholics and entered the Catholic Church. In Michigan, I had a black roommate and came to know much more about the urban black experience through him.

The move to Little Rock took me into a totally new world of monasticism, where I would spend three decades of a most interesting life, one that very few people experience.

The move to St. Louis for a year of studies with men and women from around the world made me realize that the world is not only larger than Huntsville, Texas but way larger than the United States, something my summers in Mexico had already begun to teach me. Many people told me that I came back from St. Louis very changed, and I think definitely in good ways.

The move to Maryland, although for only a few months, was life-changing because it helped me get a grasp on all sorts of health issues, both physical and emotional, and I met people who made my life richer, happier, funnier and free-er.

The move out of the monastery felt like I was stepping out over an abyss. The monastery was safe, familiar, secure. I was leaving all that behind and starting a new life at the age of 53. No pension to take with me, no financial security, no job security.

The move to the apartment with Tom and then the move here to Wisconsin Dells was major and clearly initiated a new phase of my life.

Which was most life-changing? Every day, I have come to know, is life-changing, every hour. And it is all interesting. And when it's is not, as I have said before, I know how to be bored.

 3) About that same post, Mitchell said, "I wonder if our paths ever crossed. We might have even passed each other on the road!"

 We certainly passed each other -- though the roads may have been hundreds of miles apart! 

I did a lot of traveling besides those moves: trips back and forth from Boston to Washington every few months for years, regular trips between Boston and Milwaukee, trips to give retreats in Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, California, Iowa, Florida, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Minnesota, Virginia, Delaware, Connecticut, Maine, North and South Carolina, trips to Canada and Italy and Spain -- including Málaga, which is near where Mitchell lives today!