In Many Ways, Constancy Is An Illusion.

Fear Is Not A Good Teacher. The Lessons Of Fear Are Quickly Forgotten.

The Capacity To Combine Commitment With Skepticism Is Essential To Democracy.

The Christian Tradition Was Passed On To Me As A Great Rich Mixture, A Bouillabaisse Of Human Imagination And Wonder Brewed From The Richness Of Individual Lives.

Orthodox Judaism Is A Thicket Of Detailed Injunctions, Biblical Commandments Elaborated During Centuries Of Prohibited Proselytizing, Functioning To Limit Interaction With Outsiders. At The Opposite Extreme, Islam, Still The Most Rapidly Expanding Of Faiths, Demands Little Immediate Knowledge From Those Who Would Convert. The Convert Is Permitted To Enter And Then To Learn By Participation, Although There Are Plenty Of Detailed Regulations And Abstruse Theological Ideas To Be Pursued Later, And The Regulations Do Effectively Separate Believers From Nonbelievers.

Jazz Exemplifies Artistic Activity That Is At Once Individual And Communal, Performance That Is Both Repetitive And Innovative, Each Participant Sometimes Providing Background Support And Sometimes Flying Free.