In Shakespeare's "Hamlet" Polonius says, "Though this be madness, yet there
is method in it." "Madness" is a word that was first used not to denote anger but
what might seem at first strange or even meaningless behavior. Yet, on closer
inspection, what at first might seem this way is in fact the result of a carefully
reasoned plan. So from Shakespeare came this idiom into our language: "Give
me a moment to explain; there is a method to my madness."

There has been a method, a plan behind the talks I have given in here over the
past five years. At the very first of this class we talked about what I called the
principles of "ordinary life." One of the lines I used during that time was that I
wanted my teaching to leave you with honey in one hand and feathers in the
other. That is to say, I wanted my talks to make you think soup for yourself with a philosophy of life that worked for you.

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Occasionally I ask you to think about what had to happen for you to be here
today. When I ask that I'm not thinking about the fact that you had to set the clock
at a particular time, bathe and get dressed, have some breakfast and make your
way here. What I'm thinking about is the complex set of stepping stones or
events or decisions that had to take place for you to be sitting where you are with
the degree of involvement or lack thereof you have in this gathering or in St.
Paul's as your community of faith.

As I look back over my own life I can see what Robert Johnson calls slender
threads running from the day of my birth right to this moment. Some of the events
have been highly-charged and exciting moments and some of them have been
among the most painful things I have endured. For example, if I had not been
fired from what I thought at the time I wanted to be my life-long career, I would
not be standing here. Nor, I doubt, would I be here if over thirty years ago I hadn't
been blind-sided by a divorce. All of these things - both the things I mistakenly
labeled as "good" and those I equally mistakenly labeled as "bad" have been
woven together to make the fabric that has become the tapestry of my life.

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