Excerpts from "Footprints of an Angel"
Excerpt Page 1
The angel does not deal with space, only time. Time is as far down from duration as an angel can penetrate. Therefore the footprints of all angels resemble bookmarks and can only be found in every single biography and in the cumulative story of mankind, the multitude of human biographies we know as history.
Excerpt Page 7
We seem to be formed in such a way that we are vulnerable to space behind us. Our faces look forward. Our eyes see straight ahead of us with a little peripheral sensitivity. We generally know what is ahead of us in space. What is behind us in space is unknown, unless we turn to look. Our spacial vulnerability is located at our back.
In time we are organized differently. We know what has happened yesterday, last week and even years ago. We are so organized that yesterday is a clear experience, but do we know what is ahead of us? Not at all! We can only look backward in time through the organs in us connected with memory. We have no idea what will be happening the next moment in time.
Once I was driving north on a highway when I saw the most terrible accident in the opposite lanes going south. Everyone slowed down out of shock and also a morbid interest in the tragedy on the other side of the median.
A little later after I had passed all the cars stopped in all the opposite lanes going south, the traffic began to thin and cars were moving slowly as they approached the accident area. Even further along north, the cars were moving quite freely; they had no idea of the accident they were moving toward. Still further I saw a convertible with its top down, a man and woman in the front seat and two children in the back. I noticed their smiling faces; hair blowing in the wind and fragments of their singing came through my open window.
That’s when I realized, “They don’t know what’s ahead! They have no idea of the pile up down the road and that they will soon have to come to a screeching halt and take their place in two miles of standstill traffic!”
Their happiness and joy, singing their way into the unknown, began to have new meaning for me. Do we ever, ever know what is ahead of us? Are we actually, in time, at the brink of a precipice? Is the unknown in time invisible to us at every moment and we mask it by projecting across the precipice our plans and intentions? Do we look straight forward in space and delude ourselves that we know what is coming to meet us in time? Our time vulnerability is constantly before us.
In time we are organized differently. We know what has happened yesterday, last week and even years ago. We are so organized that yesterday is a clear experience, but do we know what is ahead of us? Not at all! We can only look backward in time through the organs in us connected with memory. We have no idea what will be happening the next moment in time.
Once I was driving north on a highway when I saw the most terrible accident in the opposite lanes going south. Everyone slowed down out of shock and also a morbid interest in the tragedy on the other side of the median.
A little later after I had passed all the cars stopped in all the opposite lanes going south, the traffic began to thin and cars were moving slowly as they approached the accident area. Even further along north, the cars were moving quite freely; they had no idea of the accident they were moving toward. Still further I saw a convertible with its top down, a man and woman in the front seat and two children in the back. I noticed their smiling faces; hair blowing in the wind and fragments of their singing came through my open window.
That’s when I realized, “They don’t know what’s ahead! They have no idea of the pile up down the road and that they will soon have to come to a screeching halt and take their place in two miles of standstill traffic!”
Their happiness and joy, singing their way into the unknown, began to have new meaning for me. Do we ever, ever know what is ahead of us? Are we actually, in time, at the brink of a precipice? Is the unknown in time invisible to us at every moment and we mask it by projecting across the precipice our plans and intentions? Do we look straight forward in space and delude ourselves that we know what is coming to meet us in time? Our time vulnerability is constantly before us.
Excerpt Page 38
Mr. Barrett stared at me and marveled at my guts.
“What makes you think you can sell Bibles?”
“Well, I know a little about the Bible, and I studied yoga for a while. I graduated from High Mowing School, a college prep school in New Hampshire, and I have a feeling I could do almost anything I put my mind to.”
“I am glad you know only a little about the Bible. Too much knowledge will just get you into trouble when you’re selling. Getting into an argument about religion is the best way to lose a sale.”
“Did I mention that I am a fast learner?”
“God help us!” he laughed. He reached into his pocket and gave me $20. “If you still want to join us, be back here in front of the building at 11:00 a.m. sharp dressed in a decent pair of slacks, a tie and shirt and a sports jacket.”
“Do I need to have my own Bible?”
“No. I’ll take care of that! And by the way, you have to take my training program!”
“Oh,oh,” I thought. But it seems I also must have said it.
“Is there something wrong with that?”
“No, no. It’s just that I need to start earning enough to eat pretty soon.”
“No problem! My training program is only five minutes long, but woe to you if you don’t listen.”
“Oh, I’ll listen real good!”
“What makes you think you can sell Bibles?”
“Well, I know a little about the Bible, and I studied yoga for a while. I graduated from High Mowing School, a college prep school in New Hampshire, and I have a feeling I could do almost anything I put my mind to.”
“I am glad you know only a little about the Bible. Too much knowledge will just get you into trouble when you’re selling. Getting into an argument about religion is the best way to lose a sale.”
“Did I mention that I am a fast learner?”
“God help us!” he laughed. He reached into his pocket and gave me $20. “If you still want to join us, be back here in front of the building at 11:00 a.m. sharp dressed in a decent pair of slacks, a tie and shirt and a sports jacket.”
“Do I need to have my own Bible?”
“No. I’ll take care of that! And by the way, you have to take my training program!”
“Oh,oh,” I thought. But it seems I also must have said it.
“Is there something wrong with that?”
“No, no. It’s just that I need to start earning enough to eat pretty soon.”
“No problem! My training program is only five minutes long, but woe to you if you don’t listen.”
“Oh, I’ll listen real good!”
