About fifty years ago, Thomas Merton wrote:If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for, in detail, and ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully the thing I want to live for. Between these two answers you can determine the identity of any person. The better answer he has, the more of a person he is.
M Basil Pennington, Thomas Merton: Brother Monk (Harper & Row, 1987).
Further
Glen Hinson on His Life-Changing Encounter with Thomas Merton, SFS, 23 August 2009.
Thomas Merton’s Laughable Idea on the Streets of Louisville, SFS, 23 November 2008.
Thomas Merton on the Real Journey in Life, SFS, 5 October 2008.
Thomas Merton Identified, SFS, 30 September 2008.
Thomas Merton on What We Seek, SFS, 27 September 2008.
Becoming More Ourselves, SFS, 16 January 2007.
How I Got to be a Success, SFS, 6 September 2006.
Holy Earthiness, SFS, 1 September 2006.
Who Am I? SFE, 5 March 2006.
Geoff Pound
Image: Thomas Merton: "ask me not ...how I comb my hair..."
