YEAR OF ZEN: WINTER: DAY 48

The Orion Bar region (Hubble image)

Q: What spiritual figure in history would you like to have a chance to talk with in depth?

A: I recently came across the observation that questions like this are fraught simply because the cloud of time and human myth-making obscures those that we are far removed from. This is to say that if many of the significant religious figures upon which religions are founded actually existed they would likely be revealed as the same type of flawed human beings that have always existed on this planet. So, I would want to speak to someone closer in time who we have real evidence of. Someone who we can see actively working to bring their high-minded values and ideals into reality. And someone who is currently undergoing the process of mythologizing (for better or for worse) that other similar historical figures have undergone: Martin Luther King Jr.