Sunday night rain fell in Baltimore. It fell like it does in the movies, dropping straight and hard and with purpose. I had, that same day, found out that my best friend's son had died. This friend had asked all her family and supporters to give her the night to herself and her grief. We honored her wish. Tom, upon hearing what had happened, invited me, my friend, and my brother out for a Sunday dinner. My friend declined, still needing time for herself. We went to a place called “Umami Bistro”. It is a kosher Japanese bistro in Pikesville. The place was brightly lit, and the seating comfortable. The waitress was a delight, laughing at our jokes, acting in agreement with the odd stuff we were saying, just being a sweet addition to the meal. We all ordered the same entrée, sizzling beef! It was an epicurean experience that enchanted. For a few moments, time seemed to slacken and some kind of odd mystical quality took hold. We were no longer just three guys fighting with our own little struggles of jobs, wives, fiancés, girlfriends, work stop fears, money woes, geopolitical concerns- we had become just three guys feeling together the unspeakable pain that was being experienced by the Mother who was at home with her grief. We designed how we would be helping this Mother in the weeks that follow... prayers in our places of worship, visiting and staying over as she needed, offering all our support and love. The good man, Tom, who had brought us here, paid the bill and we walked back into the raining night. We did not have answers, but we did have purpose. Do yourself a favor and try “Umami Bistro.”
From "Man's Search for Meaning"
A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth -- that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way – an honorable way – in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, "The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory...."
From "Man's Search for Meaning"
A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth -- that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way – an honorable way – in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, "The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory...."
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