Finance Committee Meeting

     May I ask you to share with me a few moments of aspiration and reflection:

     *Let us give thanks for the fact that we do not dwell in a fiscal Garden of Eden in which exist all the resources to solve all our concerns.

     *In which we pluck the treasures from the tree -- not as the result of our own efforts in the cultivation of the orchard, but as a result of the adoption of a posture of subservience, of sacrifice of freedom and responsibility.

     *Let us give thanks for the perspective which the need to perform fiscal triage gives us -- for the perspective gained when we are forced to focus on those things which are most important to us, and cast down those which are less so.

     *Let us give thanks for the struggle, for to the extent our accomplishments come easily, they would be worth that much the less to us.

     *Let us give thanks for the struggle for it is in casting out the lesser choices that our mission and our momentum gain focus and coherence.

     *Let us give thanks for the struggle for it is in the struggle that we are bound together in caring and in commitment.