revisions

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A front page article in the local newspaper today says that the Catholic diocese will trim nearly 50 jobs -- reducing staff positions from 138 to 89 on July 1. A multi-million dollar deficit is laid at the feet of parish inabilities to meet their financial obligations. Catholic schools and programs cost money. Sex abuse payoffs were not part of the local squeeze, according to the diocese.

What were once rock-solid and soaring certainties are worn away by newer realities. In Buddhism, the observation is made more poetically that whatever has component parts is bound to come apart. Naturally, such wisdom may invite nods of intellectual approval, but there is often an underlying assumption that everyone else's ox may get gored, but mine will not ... my sand castle is secure.

Whether politically or personally, things do come apart. It's not some threat from on high and it's not some encouragement to "Repent! The end is nigh" although there are spiritual and other persuasions that can use such an observation to instill fear and compliance. It's just an observation of what actually happens and those who ignore or camouflage it do so at their peril.

Things come together. Things come apart. Isn't this true? I think it is, not least because I seem to visit an increasing number of doctors as age advances. There is no bulwark against what actually happens, or, if there is, it too is bound to come apart, shape-shift into a revised reality.

Everyone makes peace with such a reality in his or her own way. Some shield their eyes, some build churches, some make promises they cannot keep, some party all night ... the ways are endless.

But I think the subject is worth studying, worth investigating, worth tuning in to. Everything that comes together comes apart, over and over and over again. Now ...

What principle is this and is there a way I can stop whining about it?
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