I rode the bus to campus this morning and overheard a conversation between the driver and a passenger. The two men talked ardently about the distinction between theology and religion or religious practice. The bus rumbled through corn fields and housing developments on a cold, snowy Iowa day and these two unassuming guys had a smart conversation about Zen Buddhism and the parables of Jesus and then, as the bus pulled up alongside the big shopping mall downtown they promised to get together for coffee. Some days it's nice to live in a college town where everyone is most assuredly not what they appear to be. I mean that in the best sense. I mean this the way Walt whitman meant it when he said: "Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself." I wish more Americans had the luxury to live out their contradictions with curiosity and support from their neighbors. Why then we would be free of course. Why then we would be free.
S.K.
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