Plex: 05 November 2025
Beliefs (John Warinner); Unfinished (Scott Moehring)
The Biweekly Plex Dispatch is an inter-community newspaper published on the first and third Wednesdays of each month.
In This Issue
- Beliefs (John Warinner)
- Unfinished (Scott Moehring)
WHAT’S GOING ON
Beliefs - stories we carry
by John Warinner
Reality is universal. It is the same for each of us.
Truth is the degree to which our symbols align with Reality.
We each carry our own version(s) of Truth.
The boy walked into the Hall of Knowing... unknowing... full of questions.
His footsteps echoed through the cavernous room, ricocheting off of the muraled walls and shelves of books.
The staccato click of hard leather on stone intertwined with the sound bath of crystal and steel resonating throughout the interior chambers of the building.
A tall, slender woman approached him. When she opened her mouth, as if to speak, the boy heard only a chorus of sound, as if he were sitting by a pond among slow moving water, a breeze through rushes, and a trill of a redwing blackbird.
Somehow he understood her question.
“I have come to consider what is Known,” said the boy.
The woman smiled, kindly, as if with a mixture of patience and humor. She then curtsied into a sitting position on the floor, bowed her head, and dissolved.
The boy mimicked her movement, lowering himself slowly into a similar seated position on the floor. He bowed his head and paused, waiting to dissolve. But he remained.
He closed his eyes and sat still for minutes, noting his breaths... inward... outward... and the soft heaving of his chest. Inward, rising. Outward, falling. Inward, rising. Outward, falling.
He felt the muscles in the back of his neck release and loosen as his head tilted forward until his chin rested on his chest.
Moments passed in stillness, dissolving into the music of the water, the rushes, and the blackbird.
Gradually, a notion arose in the boy’s mind: Perhaps this is all that really is.
His attention returned to the moist air flowing into and out of his nostrils... the soft heaving of his chest. Inward, rising. Outward, falling. Inward, rising. Outward, falling.
He rose to his feet. His torso rising without effort, as though he were being lifted with wires, and his legs unfolding and extending beneath him.
He turned and walked toward the massive door of the hall, the doors parting silently as he approach them, and closing silently behind him as he exited.
As he descended the granite steps of the hall, a flock of starlings rose like a cloud of smoke from the grassy park below, swirling into the air, over a grove of flowering dogwood trees, and disappearing from view.
The boy felt an unusual lightness as he walked lightly across the grass, his feet not quite touching the ground. He was not sure if he was watching birds... or smoke.
No wise man has the power
to reason away
what seems to be.
It’s always better than nothing
than nothing at all.
Doobie Brothers
What A Fool Believes
Unfinished
by Scott Moehring
When your time is done,
What will be left undone?
Things that didn’t matter much,
Or mattered most?
All that was left unsaid,
Was it kinder unspoken,
Or desperately needing to be known
If only by one?
Did the easy reactive crowd out
The courageous proactive
Its considered declarations
Buried under knee-jerk provocations?
The leftovers — were they
From a passing meal
Filling only time and belly
Or a cherished carefully-crafted recipe
Gifting the lingering warmth
Of ongoing gratitude?
Would we change today,
If we knew what would be
Unfinis
Thank you for reading! The next issue will be published on 19 November 2025.
Grateful appreciation and many thanks to John for his kind contribution to this issue.
The Plex Dispatch team welcomes contributions. Email Kevin with suggested submissions.
Kevin Jones works at the intersection of faith and economic justice with people repairing local economies. Email Kevin.
John Warinner helps people design and sustain systems that enable all members to flourish together. Email John.