Inspired by artist Jane Baker, I learned about a group of women who sing at the bedside of people who are dying, the Threshold Choir. What I heard was mesmerizing. Jane, it turned out, is a member of that group and urged me to talk with Kate Munger, its founder. We're delighted to offer readers the conversation that came of Baker's suggestion. I think it will touch you. Since Kate founded the first Threshold Choir, over a hundred others have sprung up all over the world. As Kate says about singing at bedside at the end of a life, "What the songs do is they give the person who is dying a transition touchstone. A song is a bridge between what we know, what we can feel, and the big mystery."
 
Have we forgotten the big mystery? Frederick Sontag observed, "Whether people study philosophy or not, I think it's a very philosophical time. It's going to be a time of searching." His words are perhaps even truer today than when we talked in 2002. Dr. Sontag taught philosophy at Pomona College for over fifty years and was a much beloved figure there. As we talked in his office, the transcript for his book The Mysterious Presence sat on his desk, a collection of his writings over the years organized around different ways of thinking about God. Lately that question has been rekindled, generally in the form of a polarized debate between evolutionary biologists and religious fundamentalists. It's refreshing to find the question treated in a more thoughtful way than what we usually encounter in the media. The story of Verna is a great example of how that question can be transformed from a closed door to one that opens into a new way of thinking about it. The story of Verna is taken from Jacob Needleman's recent book What Is God? After reading it, you might want to visit our interview with Dr. Needleman which he describes the genesis of not only his deeply personal meditation on the question of God, but one unlike any other you'll find.
 
So far, it would seem that we have something of a theme developing. If it's not about God exactly, then at least it's about ultimate matters. But Susan Schaller's piece on the famous deaf artist James Castle, who has gotten so much attention of late, takes us in another direction. Her reflections on Castle's art open territory that has been missed by art historians and curators, the current gatekeepers for the presentation of Castle's drawings. Art experts are not so well informed about the world of the deaf and, more importantly, the deaf who also lack language. Schaller is especially qualified in this rarefied area, and brings both empathy and insights gained from years of intimate work with the deaf. It would be helpful if her reflections were to come to the attention of curators presenting Castle's wonderful drawings. Perhaps its appearance here will make that possible. 
 
A while back, I became aware of Michael Lerner’s audio interviews done for the New School at Commonweal. Every one of them is a treasure and we plan to feature more of them in upcoming issues of our newsletter. In this issue, we bring you Lerner’s interview with Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, co-directors of the Forum on Religion and Ecology.

Tucker and Grim take us back to the kinds of questions we began with. They both speak from a  theological view of the cosmos and find, in Thomas Berry, an elegant and persuasive voice. Teilhard de Chardin, scientist and Jesuit, is also cited frequently for his unique vision of the cosmos as a sacred unfolding. As Mary Evelyn Tucker says of Berry's essay The New Story. "It ends with this sense of an inspiring and guiding force of the universe. If the universe evolved and brought forth the galaxies and stars and planets and the emergence of life itself, then we can rely on these vast cosmological forces for guidance into the future. And that's one of his great gifts to the present moment, that the human does have a special role."
 
As usual in our newsletters, there's a lot here. Here's wishing you a good appetite.