tears

I've always been troubled by the interpretation of the story of doubting Thomas that says that Thomas didn't need to touch Jesus's wounds (the text doesn't say one way or another). I feel so strong that Jesus would have wanted his wounds to be touched, would have wanted that human caring. Only on a few special occasions can we literally touch each other's wounds. I was once blessed to literally touch a friend's scars as she struggled with shame about selfinjury. Yesterday C. said he wouldn't touch my tear. We actually found a good alternative, but it still feels like such a strong turning away from the deep, wet, dark world where the pain grows.

I want to tell the story of the Frog Prince as I heard Robert Bly tell it almost 25 years ago. For some sense of that, see Anne Sexton's telling.