A Chinese man and a white woman in the airport lobby
In SD, that city by the sea,
On their way to San Jose, like me,
A quarter-size violin at their feet,
Chatting of movies and Suzuki
Recitals, busily checking their Blackberries,
While their sons, about five and three,
The younger watching the older quietly
Playing Nintendo DS; and me –
Across the aisle – they do not see,
A figurant in their biographies.
A dream fulfilled by others, at least,
Gives me hope to keep living.
Me and Emi D
“Faith” is a fine invention
For Gentlemen who see!
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency!
–Emily Dickinson
The difference between religion and science, as far as I can see, is summarized above. God might be so cruel to deny salvation to those who don’t believe, but science operates whether you believe it or not. Medicine will (or won’t) work even you don’t believe in it; same with gravity. And if God will save the faithless, then is there need for faith?
My life closed twice before its close
My life closed twice before its close –
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me
So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.
–Emily Dickinson, aka “Emi D”