A review by nicarhm
Stories of God by Thomas Cleary, Michael H. Kohn, Rainer Maria Rilke, Christian Kolbe
3.5
A collection of pleasant little stories—some much better than others—toying imaginatively with ideas of God and other things, like children do. Some excerpts I particularly enjoyed:
"'Where did you get the story you told me last time?' he begged me then. 'Out of a book?' 'Yes,' I answered sadly, 'the historians have kept it buried there, since it died; that is not so very long ago. Only a hundred years since, it lived—quite carelessly, for sure—on many lips.'" (How Old Timofei Died Singing)
"'I imagine one can never tell whether God is in a story before one has finished it completely. For if only two words of the telling are still missing—indeed, if nothing but the pause after the last word is still outstanding, he may yet come.'" (The Song of Justice)
"'What we feel as spring, God feels as a fleeting little smile passing over the earth. Earth seems to be remembering something; in summer she tells every one about it, until she grows wiser in the great autumnal silence, through which she confides in those who are lonely. All the springs you and I have lived through, put together, still do not suffice to fill a single one of God's seconds. A spring, for God to notice it, may not remain in trees and on the meadows; it must somehow manifest its strength in man, for then it will proceed, as it were, not within time, but rather in eternity and in God's presence.'" (Of One Who Listened to the Stones)
"'The things we experience often cannot be expressed, and any one who insists on telling them nevertheless, is bound to make mistakes.'" (A Story Told to the Dark)
"'Where did you get the story you told me last time?' he begged me then. 'Out of a book?' 'Yes,' I answered sadly, 'the historians have kept it buried there, since it died; that is not so very long ago. Only a hundred years since, it lived—quite carelessly, for sure—on many lips.'" (How Old Timofei Died Singing)
"'I imagine one can never tell whether God is in a story before one has finished it completely. For if only two words of the telling are still missing—indeed, if nothing but the pause after the last word is still outstanding, he may yet come.'" (The Song of Justice)
"'What we feel as spring, God feels as a fleeting little smile passing over the earth. Earth seems to be remembering something; in summer she tells every one about it, until she grows wiser in the great autumnal silence, through which she confides in those who are lonely. All the springs you and I have lived through, put together, still do not suffice to fill a single one of God's seconds. A spring, for God to notice it, may not remain in trees and on the meadows; it must somehow manifest its strength in man, for then it will proceed, as it were, not within time, but rather in eternity and in God's presence.'" (Of One Who Listened to the Stones)
"'The things we experience often cannot be expressed, and any one who insists on telling them nevertheless, is bound to make mistakes.'" (A Story Told to the Dark)