Doing Good Deeds

Cryptograms fascinate. While I am told that poets make very good writers of prose, I am no good at poetry. But I find that cryptograms help me visualize words.

You know what cryptograms are, a statement by someone in which the letters of the words are all substituted by other letters. I began decoding one recently that went this way:

DY DH BLY IBLVXF. . .

I saw right away that DY DH is probably IT IS, and the BLY could be NOT. I went on in this vein and decoded the statement this way:

IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO DO A GOOD DEED. ONE MUST BE INVOLVED IN IT WHOLE-HEARTEDLY. EACH ACTION SHOULD BE PERFORMED WITH LIFE AND SOUL, WITH EVERY LIMB, WITH ALL ONE’S VITALITY. (ABRAHAM HESCHEL)

I found that Rabbi Heschel was considered a very profound thinker of the twentieth century, but I am thinking he must have been difficult to live with.

“What is wrong,” I thought to my self, “With just quietly slipping a hungry man five bucks for a burger?”

Truly, different strokes for different folks. Maybe I should do more crossword puzzles.

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