Today is an MSIA first: Communion and baptisms in the Jordan River on the same day. That means that I\u2019ll have less to say because the higher we go the more the words become superfluous, even defiling. The photos will say it better anyway. Our white-robed, beaming group look like little babies, fresh from God, in the sun-flecked water.<\/p>\n
On the way to the baptisms we stop at the tomb of Maimonides. (There are clear plastic covers over the tomb\u2019s embroidered cloth cover, just like the sofas at my Brooklyn Jewish grandparents\u2019 home.) John gives a short talk outside the tomb.<\/p>\n
Luckily most of the next day is the bus ride to Jerusalem so I can finish going through my 1500 photos of the baptisms. I\u2019ve gotten a lot better at doing things the easy way, but I don\u2019t think you can totally let go of perfectionism and still do art. The motivation is at its root Promethean (if your view of life is tragic), or Narcissistic (if your view of life is comic), and the solution, the baptismal cleansing of all that screwy karmic motivation, is Spiritual, or what I call \u201cintelligence in the service of laziness\u201d: closing the distance between self and God, and letting the highest force do the heavy lifting.<\/p>\n