"Why Don't We Do It In The Road?"  --Billy Shears after being asked about the "Abbey Road" album cover.

"Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that makes the flowers grow, not thunder."  --Rumi

 “Ah, but if less is more, then just think how much more more will be."  --Dr. Frasier Crane

I didn’t suddenly become reckless when I stopped believing in God. I became more intentional.

And in some ways, more afraid — because now there was no cosmic excuse waiting for me if I got it wrong.

Losing my belief in an afterlife has only intensified this sense of responsibility. When I believed eternity was guaranteed, suffering in this life felt temporary. Tragic, yes — but ultimately part of a larger, divinely ordered story.

Now, this life is all I believe we have. And that makes other people’s pain feel unbearable in a new way.

It makes injustice feel urgent instead of theoretical.

It makes kindness feel like a moral emergency instead of a spiritual bonus point.

I feel more obligated now — not less — to help people, to show up, to reduce harm where I can, because there is no heavenly reset button waiting on the other side.

If something matters, it matters here.

If someone is suffering, it matters now.

And if I make a harmful choice, I can’t outsource responsibility to God, fate or a divine plan.

I have to own it.

That’s the part no one warned me about when I left religion:

Morality doesn’t get lighter.

It gets heavier.

--Sami Garrison 

On her way to work one morning

Down the path along the lake

A tender-hearted woman saw a poor half-frozen snake.

His pretty colored skin had been all frosted with the dew.

"Oh well," she cried, "I’ll take you in, and I’ll take care of you."

"Take me in oh tender woman

Take me in, for heaven’s sake

Take me oh tender woman," sighed the broken snake.

She wrapped him up all cozy in a curvature of silk

Then laid him by the fireside with honey and some milk

Now she hurried home from work that night as soon as she arrived,

She found that pretty snake she’d take in had been revived. She was happy.

"Take me in, oh tender woman.

Take me in, oh heaven’s sake.

Take me in oh tender woman," sighed the broken snake.

Now she clutched him to her bosom, "You’re so beautiful," she cried.

"But if I hadn’t brought you in by now, heavens, you might have died."

Now she stroked his pretty skin and then she kissed him and held him tight.

But instead of saying thank you, that snake gave her a vicious bite!

"Take me in, oh tender woman,

Take me in, for heaven’s sake,

Take me in oh tender woman," sighed the vicious snake.

"I saved you," cried that woman,

"And you bit me heavens why?

You know your bite is poisonous and now I’m going to die!"

"Oh shut up, silly woman," said the reptile with a grin.

"You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in."

--Al Wilson, The Snake

Southern trees bear strange fruit

Blood on the leaves and blood at the root

Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze

Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees

Pastoral scene of the gallant south

The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth

Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh

Then the sudden smell of burning flesh

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck

For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck

For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop

Here is a strange and bitter crop

--Billie Holliday, Strange Fruit

Be calm; for only by calmly considering our lives can we achieve our purpose to live together — be calm — love me — Today — yesterday — what tearful longing for you — for you — you — my life — my all — all good wishes to you — Oh, do continue to love me — never misjudge your lover’s most faithful heart.

every yours

every mine

ever ours

--Beethoven to his Immortal Beloved