Details from a large painting.
A group of people at a party,
sitting on chairs, standing, sitting on the grass
in a backyard with a mowed lawn and flower beds.
And an old snapshot
that looked like an actual photograph of the same scene.
I had initially felt distant from Odelie,
I guess because she taught Comparative Religion
in a German University;
it is so different from my own experience.
But I was beginning to value her way of looking at things.
And in a harrowing quest
to discover ancient systems of inquisition and control,
the spiritual centering of her life
was an important reminder of respect for the faiths
of our friends and our fathers.