A few months ago, an old friend, a college friend, of mine posted a clip of Joni Mitchell singing her anthem "Woodstock."  In posting it, my friend stated that, in this dark age (politically, culturally, and otherwise) listening to this song gave her hope.
     Maybe not all of us believe we are living in dark times.  But all of us can connect to the thrust of Mitchell's song, that we are "stardust and golden," and that we've got to "get back to the garden."
     Quite.  Are we golden?  Absolutely.  We shine with wonder and marvel.  Are we stardust?  A literal six day creation account notwithstanding, yes, we are stardust, our origins buried deeply in the primordial plasma out of which the cosmos came.  Although we are made in the image of a creator, we are, as countless religious traditions attest, ultimately dust, be it from the earth, the stars, or both.

     Why do we long for the garden?  Amidst the technology and globalization and cultural and social isolation of our age, we long for a larger experience, an experience of something pristine, something untouched, something beyond the machinations of our day.  We long for restoration, we long for greater meaning.  And somehow, for many of us, we sense that this is to be found in a garden, a paradise (the Persian word from which the English word comes) of floral verdancy, of equanimity and abundance, of harmony, and rest.
     We long to be united with that out of which we have come.  And why not?  Though we always look for the next and greater things, we cannot really understand them without grasping why we can.