Letters To Nonexistent Editors
                                       
 G. David Schwartz




         To consistently say: this is my understanding, this is the way I know to behave, does not mean to repeat, but to study, to speak, and by our studies and speaking -- which are social occasions for rendering "the more" -- to grow. Study and action are both self-assessments.
         Insight cannot be summarized. They must be repackaged. Correct packaging does not give insight into the insight. It gives a new insight. What is necessary now is not admiring the package but . . .
        There is one race: the human race. But the one race continually breaks down into two families: the have’s and the have
not’s.
        We can refuse to allow anything to touch us, or we can permit things to touch and taint us. We can choose, in other words, to be a creature from space or an embracing set of arms.
        To truly forgive a wrong is to tap a capacity within myself, a depth which is my "better self" committing to community.
        What if politically correct means not watered down language but making statements which a more inclusive population might ascent to sharing?
        What is the relationship between political correctness and positive confession? Between political correctness and the power of
positive thinking?
        Insofar as rightist and leftists agree on ending poverty, ending homelessness, caring for the environment, ending racism and sexism, promoting education, and ending abuses to spouses, children, and through drugs, but disagree on the means, I prefer either leftist or rightist or, especially, both in conversation.
        It only comes upon me at odd moments - listening to some particular John Mellencamp song, seeing Hamlet performed on stage, reading the social justice passages of the Bible, speaking with intimates, doing virtually anything with my children. It is the
overwhelming desire that this is life, that I desire life, that I want to live life, and am living life, to the fullest. Laughter generally
accompanies the experience. It is the experience of the holy.
        The one and the many debate themselves through human minds and hearts. Inhibition of one leads to anarchy and inhibition of the other to fascism. Politics is the result of inhibitions? Democracy is the state of tensions.
        The world does absolutely not owe me a living. We do, however, owe it to each other and ourselves to make the world as accommodating to human beings as possible. If so, our obligation includes owing a living to others.
        Every surprise is a bit of the transcendent and a bit of liberation. Humor is a socially acceptable, even queried, means of
surprise.
        Personal growth bodies forth into intellectual and material accomplishments which, by nature, are beneficial for all. If so, we
have an obligation to ourselves to promote the conditions of the growth of all.
        We will always require shelter. But diverse habitats prove that where there is heart, there will be more concrete and wood
dwellings. We dwell out of the heart.
        Building one's "dwelling" on dogma is to build on a very shaky Foundation.