As Francis walked along the path . . . a man suddenly stumbled from out of the thorn-ridden bushes Francis was about to pass. With one startled look, Francis saw that the man's face was swollen with the deformity of a leper. Without quite knowing what he was doing, Franics leaped at the man, arms outstretched. Then he grabbed the poor man by the shoulders, pulled him so close that they stood breast to breast, and, without the slightest reserve, kissed the leper fully on the mouth. And in that moment, it is said, Francis became Saint Francis, and the leper revealed himself as Christ.

The ability for one person's act to gain a foothold and inspire the life of another is one of the attributes of human truth. Such acts enter the endless body of our own imaginations and dreams. This is part of the mysterious functioning of all authentic expression and art.

Peter Levitt, Fingerpainting on the Moon