I mark my change of address with these words, they are mine, some of them anyway. I gave Joel 5 randomly chosen words/phrases, chosen because I was preoccupied with my parent's 4oth anniversary, while some of the words were chosen for no apparent reason other than I liked them.

And so, in 30 minutes, from these few random words--Old testament, forty years, reluctance, tango and death-- he came up with...

GRACE

I am reluctant to tell you this, but
there is death in the Old Testament,
numerous and final, bodies drowned
and unredeemed, forty days, forty nights
of rain, somebody struck by wrathful
lightning, Philistines in a city destined
to fire and ruin. There is even a chapter
that forbids dancing and merriment,
and there is a law permitting crucifixion.

But it is also written that we should be
happy, full of praise and ready for music,
a prophecy that would allow for water
to mean wine, that the once-blind would
witness this miracle. The way we may still
sway to the Tango, as we did not too long ago,
forty years now, and how we are again
falling in love with grace. And life.

by Joel Toledo, one January evening, over cold beer