Tomorrow Begins a Series of Guest Blogs: A Dedication

Tomorrow, August 8th, we begin a series of Guest Blogs on Religious and Spiritual Traditions from around the world, with an emphasis on Unity and Friendship amongst different peoples and different faiths. The first post discusses the mystical Sufi poet Rumi. Subsequent posts cover such topics as Buddhism, Islam, the Kabbalah, Jung, Sri Aurobindo, Esoteric Christianity, Science-v-Religion, Intelligent Design, Gurdjieff, Paganism, Shamanism, Tantra, Alchemy, Martin Luther King, New Thought, Forrest Church, and much more.

I'd like to dedicate this series to an old friend of mine, Richard W. Trapnell, who, I recently found out, died several weeks ago after a battle with cancer. Back in 1969 Rich was Head of Class at my school and was getting ready to deliver an address during Graduation. He asked me to help him write it and, it being the 60's and all, we worked on a talk entitled 'Tolerance and Understanding'. I've seen very little of Richard over the years since then (he spent them in Australia!), and I don't know that comparative religion or spirituality were particularly important or interesting to him the way they are to me. But here I am, forty-two years later, still talking about the need for Tolerance and Understanding in the world. So Richard, this is for you. God bless you, and endless blessings on the next stage of your journey.