Thin Places

Description: When he was asked to summarize his philosophy Plato reportedly said: Practice dying which seems a rather strange even morbid comment until one realizes that every life consists of passages some smooth and some not. Within these passages are what John Morgan calls thin places. On a trip to Wales Morgan discovered that the term thin places is part of Celtic culture. Thin places are those places where the eternal and the temporal touch if only for a brief glimpse; where you know that life is more than just the obvious. Thin places can be of great beauty where lifes meaning breaks through by the ocean or in the mountains; but thin places can also arise in the life of every person whether with the birth of a child or the death of a family member. John Morgan believes that being fully awake to such times and places holds a clue to living more deeply and with greater wisdom about whats really important. His poems express this understanding. About the Contributor(s): John C. Morgan is an adjunct professor of humanities at Reading Area Community College a diverse inner-city college in Reading Pennsylvania where he teaches courses in ethics and philosophy. He is a regular columnist for two Pennsylvania newspapers and the author of many books the most recent of which is In the Shadow of Grace (2007).