Good day, Frank,
Regarding your essay "The Meaning of Life."
Yes, well concluded; what makes us uselessly labor away is the "fear of non-existence."
"Natural selection" as a stand-in for random mutations producing the undirected "tree of life" is utter nonsense, though a pleasant hindsight construction that continues to hold in place a scientific paradigm from which there is no easy escape. The uniqueness of our planet as a random event? So many hits producing a win all at once? Let's calculate the probability. Well, then, forget it. Also note the difference between Niel deGras Tyson and Albert Einstein, the former a contemporary TV artist, and the latter a thinker. I know who I'd opt for.
And then also our insolence and presumptiveness in accusing God of allowing suffering. We have nothing but our limited minds to make this assumption. Yes, we have to go through trials and tribulations to find the joy that follows sickness, disease and a life spent in an evil quagmire. If all this were "fixed," then we'd already have paradise here on earth. But that's not the deal at all. Faith, acting the faith, and the fruits that follow from it have to be earned. And, yes, it ain't easy. Why should it be? Jesus has shown us how bad it can get; we've got to bear our cross and try to make it to our resurrection. It's the way to go but we have the choice.
Have you ever watched marine angelfish? They come in a great number of different colorful coats, all sharing one thing: beauty. We have been given the power of perceiving that beauty. Could we live without it? I doubt it. When we see a great design, a pattern, a painting, or read the books we love the most, we want to know who was behind them, who "created" them.
Every cell of the roughly 35 trillion cells making up our body contains the complete genetic helix. How do these cells "know" how to compose a human body, no more and no less, over and over again? To do the job, each contains information, and also receives more information from its neighbors, one cell at a time. And where does that information come from? Well, you figure it out. What we know is that no one has yet managed to produce a "first" cell. Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?
And isn't it a wonderful coincidence, through advances in the science of life's origin, in fact, that we can begin to understand more and more, and with increasing humility and admiration, that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." You needn't be a linguist to see the connection. Einstein had this inkling; Newton felt its power.
Nicholas Maync-Matsumoto
Dear Author, very interesting research. I am 87 years old, not eager to die now neither want to be in a CLOUD!
Ute Craemer
RE: Exile
Estimado Frank,
Gracias por compatir este invaluable testimonio. Compré el libro por Amazon, me llegará aquí, a la Ciudad de México, a fines de enero.
Abrazo,
Marcelo Delajara
RE: The Pope and I
Wow, Frank! Bob couldn’t get home by next morning, so maybe it isn’t true. But I like your answers. Thank you.
Nice idea. Why no comment on abortion?
Marcos Smith
Dear Frank, Having spent 13 years in Catholic schools (8 years-Franciscan nuns, 4 years-Jesuit priests and scholastics, 1 year-Jesuit university) and having served as an altar boy regularly for 6 years, I can attest that though many of the teachers and counselors I had were top notch in character and academic prowess, some were not. One in particular was abusive emotionally (sexually), and another verbally, at pivotal moments in my maturation as a teenager. A short time later during break in the jungle on a combat operation as an infantryman in Vietnam I reached for a pack of cigarettes (Kools, BTW) and instead pulled out a pocket-size Bible given to me by a member of the USO prior to deployment. I casually tossed the Bible into the cloying jungle foliage and reached for my pack of smokes. Apparently, a shot of nicotine was superior and more necessary for assuaging my quiet despair and fear than the word of God as I had received it during those 13 years. I’ve never looked back since that casual schism from the RCC.
Sincerely, James Zderic
OMG! You are a wonderful storyteller...but this was a real doozy! I
so hope it is really true...I can imagine it might be! IF we have a Pope
who really cared like this it would be very important.The adversarial
forces are really booming. Hate is rampant and I pray constantly as I
don't know what else to do. I too am a lapsed Catholic. I prefer
attending the Christian Community service, where I am a member(Movement
for Religious Renewal)...but there is not a service less than 5 hours
away. IF I feel I need a church experience I attend "Mass." We have a
Catholic Church near where I live that offers the Mass in Latin. By the
way, I have been working on the concepts of time and space. I have been
an Anthroposophist and member of Class for more than 30 years and I
find the more I study, the less I know...Did you ever have an issue on
time and/or space? By the way, are you REALLY in your 90's?? I somehow
imagined you as a 48-50 year old guy, with a straw hat and flip flops or
sandals?
Wishing you all the Blessings of this Holy Season,
Sue Mueller
Fascinating story Frank. And I do not believe you are the kind of person to make such a story up.
Maurice McCarthy
LOVE it ! Wowser. Belief not withstanding, nothing wrong with your Imagination. Go, Boy!
Raun
Great story, Frank. It starts by making one laugh, and it finishes with one hoping it was all true. It also reminded me of similar stories by Borges about unlikely encounters- meetings outside regular space and time.
Thanks,
Marcelo Delajara
Hi Daddy,
you didn't tell us the Pope visited you! Mamma mía!
By the way, I think Reincarnation is the most important topic. If everybody believed in reincarnation, they would take more care how they treat the earth….
Beatrice Smith
A valuable service to have translated and published this, Frank.
Appreciatively,
George Young
RE: Abramowicz by Jorge Luis Borges
Dear Frank,
In the last two months of 2025 I had the pleasure of meeting you through Borges. And it has been one of my biggest joys of the year. Now I read you on Southern Cross Magazine and I enjoy your humor and savvy rendering of current affairs.
Cristina Shly