Current conditions in the tent

[Rabbi Akiva] used to say: Everything is given on collateral, and a net is spread over all the living."

Pirke Avot 3:20

"A net"--the plain meaning of this seems to be mortality. We living beings may go about our daily lives as if we were free, but we have no control over the inevitability of death.

This was my thought as I was falling asleep last night. Then I pictured the net, spread out over everyone, and it seemed more like a network. A web of interrelatedness. Living beings expending energy in ways that connected them to other living beings. A net made of lovingkindness, people reaching out to each other.

I realized it's all the same net. We live in the realm of khesed, the realm of human limitations and fragility. Our mutual vulnerability underlies the compassion we feel for each other. It is the same net. I think I see this so clearly because I have had an incomparable network of support. In the past few months, there have been times when I have felt terrified, horrified, traumatized, agonized . . . but I have never felt alone.

I will be away from the blog for a few days while I recover from surgery. Then, someone in my net is going to help me get back into this tent so I can blog some more ;-)