"As a young man, Lincoln was barely a Christian in the conventional sense. He was skeptical of the Bible’s miracles, read freethinkers like Thomas Paine and may even have been the author of a tract attacking religion. (We don’t exactly know, because if it did exist, a friend burned it.) Had it surfaced in 1860, when Lincoln was first running for president, we might be living in two nations. As it was, he lost the vote of one constituency — only three of Springfield’s 23 ministers voted for him." From a review of Lincoln's God by Joshua Zeitz in New York Times by Ted Widmer. I think they just wrote a counterfactual historical novel for me. I can't wait till we have an atheist president, or a Buddhist president. We have a Buddhist second husband. Other power is a projection onto an imaginary object, that comes back to you in psychologically fruitful ways. Yesterday I chanted the 21 verses of praise to Tara to Willow Lake . Tara is about removing obstructions. Avalokit...