174 - For Seth

I am amazed, again and again, by the power of cyberspace. A brief comment to my website can result in a burgeoning relationship as I reply and the email begins. I adore that disembodied voice that announces that I’ve "got mail." I cherish the intimacies that flourish, the mutual support, the shared confidences.

Last November I made such a friend. A member of her synagogue’s Bikor Cholim committee and an oncology social worker, she confided, as our correspondence continued, her anguish over her son’s struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Three months after our "meeting," a psalm appeared in my head. The image was so clear, that I’m sure there was special guidance in its composition. She wrote me: "The story of Isaac, always moving and complicated, will have another deeper layer of meaning for me. I will draw strength and courage from your words since I believe that many of our connections to God come from our connections to other people."

We are electrons on a screen. We are part of a sacred community made possible by those bits and bytes.

One Hundred Seventy-Four

For Seth

Bound like Issac upon the rock,
Held fast by thought terrors:
Mind grasping, pulse booming, gasping
Bands of breathlessness.

Where is the angel with the ram
Come to rescue this beloved son?
When will he arrive, loosening the bonds
That hold my child to the precipice?

I did not offer up my son,
Though my love for You is steadfast;
I cannot untie him,
Though my faith in You is firm.

Give us strengths, Almighty One,
To work free the mind-made knots,
Worrying them with our worries
Until a rush of wings clears the air.

Give us courages, Almighty One,
To cope with snarls and tangles;
Binds loosen and return,
Abide with us.