Rumi says don’t do what I did in my conference post. That is, begin with “some urgency about ‘what’s needed’” (a conference) and end “with fear” (of a pandemic). Sometimes blogging is a way we teach ourselves.

“Don’t think all ecstasies are the same!” is followed by the example of Jesus and the donkey. Jesus is intoxicated by God, the donkey by barley, but those are different states and therefore not the same — and not one better than the other, as you pointed out, because there is no way to know what Jesus feels and compare it to what a donkey feels.

Rumi seems to be promoting peak experience in this poem. Look at the main word in each couplet — wine, hashish, sleep, love, minds, ecstasies, God, saints, jars, connoisseur, king, fear, camel. Such “high” words! I think I love life most when it brings me little ecstasies. There are so many of them, so “many wines.” I like reading and writing about them too.

On another note, you have been prolific while I have been gone! I will try and come back another time to comment on your ‘conference’ post. And don’t fear H1N1, we just went through it, as have most people in our area. For most people it is not any different than normal flu, especially adults. In fact, for most adults it is less virulent. It is only more virulent in some young kids and pregnant women. Emphasis on ’some’. The media likes to play up those cases. My 2 cents!