"Six hundred years before the birth of Christ, the Chinese wise man Lao Tzu counseled, In times of adversity, make energetic progress in the good. This is still the real work at hand: for each of us to meet the bad in the world with the good in our own hearts. To energetically rouse ourselves out of tired habits and worn-out loyalties and replace them with bigger and broader circles of inclusion. It was time for me to let as many into the circle of family and tribe as I could: the president; the poverty-stricken people of the world hardened by years of war; the shortsighted corporate crusaders, gobbling up the resources of the world; the intolerant religious fanatics, clinging to simplistic answers in a mysterious universe. In widening the circle, I could still hold to my convictions. What I needed to surrender was my anger and judgment. What I needed to adopt was vision and humility.
"Sitting still in the dark closeness of the car, letting my guardian angel steer us through the night, I felt the hand of God changing the way I thought about everything: as if God was a waitress, late at night, in the dim light of the bar, and I was a wineglass she was drying, holding me by the stem of my heart, turning me around and around, cleansing the film from the lens of my vision, so that one day I might see the world as she does.”
