AM with MERTON

"What a great joy it was to receive your two letters. It has given me much food for thought, this bare fact of the communication between us: at a time when our two countries are unable to communicate with one another seriously and sincerely, but spend millions communicating with the moon...No, the great business of our time is this: for one man to find himself in another one who is on the other side of the world. Only by such contacts can there be peace, can the sacredness of life be preserved and developed and the image of God manifest itself in the world."

THOMAS MERTON THE COURAGE FOR TRUTH Letters to Writers, page 89. Merton wrote this to Boris Pasternak on October 23, 1958.

What is the great business of our day in communications?

Via Wayne Burns