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It is both fitting and important It is both fitting and important that we remember Tom O'Rourke: fitting because of our loss and what his friendship meant to us personally, important because of his place in the larger scheme of things. The causes Tom worked and fought for through all his adult life were not randomly selected. His innate sense of right and wrong and his understanding of how the world works were enriched by a constant search for truth. The clarity and power of Tom's writings about economic justice, racism, militarism, the nuclear threat, the death penalty and, finally, cosmology came from the depths of his hard-earned understanding of the details of these issues. His activism grew naturally out of his convictions. His quiet courage and constancy in speaking truth to power moved many of us to act when we might have preferred not acting. Tom's study of Teilhard de Chardin led him to the works of Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme, which confirmed and clarified his own intuitions about the grandeur of the universe and of our place in it. As always, Tom then sought to share these insights and perspectives with the rest of us, so that we could participate more fully in "the story." Tom did all this with grace, good humor, and an amazing generosity of spirit. There was no pretense in him. His life and the lessons he taught us cannot be forgotten. He is part of us. Jack and Marge Hohenstein |