In [community], people [are] hungry for input from others, to the point where they let their guard down and [accept] you through kindness. That [is] what fuel[s] so much of the creativity.
Bob Weir, Rolling Stone, June 2007
“Too much time is spent
trying to chart God on a grid
and too little allowing our hearts
to feel awe.
By reducing spirituality to formula,
we deprive our hearts of wonder.
I was happy… I was free to love. I didn’t have to discipline anybody, I didn’t have to judge anybody, I could treat everybody as though they were my best friend, as though they were rock stars or famous poets, as though they were amazing, and to me they became amazing… I have lost an enemy & gained a brother. And then he began to change. It didn’t matter to me whether he did or not, but he did. He was a great human being getting even better. I could feel God’s love for him. I loved the fact that it wasn’t my responsibility to change somebody, that it was God’s, that my part was just to communicate love & approval.
When I am talking to someone there are always two conversations going on. The first is on the surface; it is about politics or music or whatever it is our mouths are saying. The other is beneath the surface on the level of the heart, and my heart is either communicating that I like the person I am talking to or I don’t. God wants both conversations to be true. That is, we are supposed to speak truth in love. If both conversations are not true, God is not involved in the exchange, we are on our own, and on our own we will lead people astray. The Bible says that if you talk to somebody with your mouth, and your heart does not love them, that you are like a person standing there smashing two cymbals together. You are only annoying everybody around you. I think that is very beautiful and true… now… when I go to meet somebody, I pray that God will help me feel His love for them. I ask God to make it so both conversations, the one from the mouth and the one from the heart, are true.”
Space Case 