Diversity Inspires Hope for the Future

I appreciate your Life & Style section of Dec. 26. I was inspired reading about the interracial marriage of Defense Secretary Bill Cohen and Janet Langhart (“Hand in Hand”). Their love and devotion transcends societal whisperings.

One column over, I read about the melding of the Zen and Jewish traditions (“Two Faiths Nourish the ‘Wisdom of the Heart’ ”) and how acceptance and forgiveness triumphed when Rabbi Don Singer and others prayed at Auschwitz.

There is hope. The human spirit soars.

YVONNE SCHLOSSBERG

Agoura

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It was heartening to read Kevin Merida’s story of the continuing love between Bill Cohen and Janet Langhart. They are both beautiful people who exemplify what love and civilization should all be about.

The Louise Steinman story “Two Faiths Nourish the ‘Wisdom of the Heart’ ” was also striking.

People of all faiths are hungry for spiritual embrace, where the unknowns are searched to find peace of mind and peace. The only enemies we have are ignorance and hatred. Both can be temporary in a freedom-loving land that will prize education and ethics.

SANFORD R. GOODKIN

Del Mar

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Louise Steinman writes eloquently about how members of the Jewish and Zen traditions unite to discover how much they have in common. In celebration of this important and enlightening Jewish-Buddhist dialogue, I suggest a new interfaith is emerging in the form of Zen Judaism--the exchange of Zen paradoxes known as koans for Bible study and the cryptic tales of Jewish Hasidic masters.

RUSS TRAVIS

Bakersfield