tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77821842199031738462024-03-12T17:27:39.425-07:00Soli Deo Gloriaon a pilgrimage to the unknownKaren DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.comBlogger207125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-71464484131169484972021-02-17T12:31:00.000-08:002021-02-17T12:31:09.328-08:00<p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m9ryxgsQZT4/YC16CKx70mI/AAAAAAAABSM/UJhzLyvGUNM2uqaXvEUMVMnamVBONg48wCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_6770.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="532" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m9ryxgsQZT4/YC16CKx70mI/AAAAAAAABSM/UJhzLyvGUNM2uqaXvEUMVMnamVBONg48wCLcBGAsYHQ/w347-h532/IMG_6770.jpeg" width="347" /></a><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Ash Wednesday</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">a day of anointing reminders</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">mortality in life’s basket</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">baby spit on my shoulder</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">honey on my jeans</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">ashes in the creases</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">on my forehead</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">anoint the day</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">with howls of joy</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">drink the cup to mortality</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">and l’chaim</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">remembering to be</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">the dust we are</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">embracing a birthday</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">a holy day</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">an ordinary common day</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">paint the door</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">chop the onions</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">welcome whoever comes in</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">ashes … ashes …</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">let us return</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">to star dust</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">then will dusky ash-cross</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">anoint mortality and</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">snuggle into eternity</span></p><div><br /></div>Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-47760436810969155562020-11-01T14:24:00.000-08:002020-11-01T14:24:13.900-08:00A Crowd of Saints: All Saints' Day<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IXwa53XE1BU/X580rLU4-XI/AAAAAAAABOo/DyjsDvVmEWUFAaPtt8AjJ7HQpRQwGjwrgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_7266.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1529" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IXwa53XE1BU/X580rLU4-XI/AAAAAAAABOo/DyjsDvVmEWUFAaPtt8AjJ7HQpRQwGjwrgCLcBGAsYHQ/w299-h400/IMG_7266.jpeg" width="299" /></a></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">My solitude of social distance is suddenly congested</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">by reminders today of the great cloud:</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">that crowd of witnesses huddled over there in eternity,</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">peering into time</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">from the vast margins of timelessness and voids of space.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How is it that we eternal beings—</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">now trapped in time,</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">like prehistoric insects in amber—</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How is it we are so obsessed with the amber</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">that we imagine ourselves the focus?</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Can we seriously sing of saints “who from their labours rest”</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">as though eternity is the monotonous, endless task of watching us?</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Such dreary infinitude.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This amber chamber in which we live and move and be</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">confounds and imprisons us</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">defining our vision</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">regulating our expression;</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">so we envision our ancestors of millennia</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">eagerly peering over each other’s shoulders<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">to catch glimpses of us—</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“the living ones”</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The irony catches in my throat,</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">a log hung up on<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the flotsam of a cosmic flood.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That our amber-vision so defines us</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">rather than enabling us</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">to gaze beyond and marvel at the Idea</p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">where amberlessness means movement. </p>Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-33840841195102708752020-10-10T07:34:00.002-07:002020-10-10T07:34:37.023-07:00Lament for Delilah and Bathsheba<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/---TUqwBdaZA/X4HFsrNIlvI/AAAAAAAABNw/mXx2q1Ewq5YN5MOBeoEEUQpkvBZRnvOxACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_7243.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1489" height="444" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/---TUqwBdaZA/X4HFsrNIlvI/AAAAAAAABNw/mXx2q1Ewq5YN5MOBeoEEUQpkvBZRnvOxACLcBGAsYHQ/w347-h444/IMG_7243.jpeg" width="347" /></a></div><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Cohen, in your haunting song</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Of a poet-king and judge gone wrong</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Infiltrating battered hearts of many,</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We hear the grief, remorse, and pain</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">That festers in a heart of shame—</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The music weighed us down; it was uncanny</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">How cleverly you spun the tale:</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The men were victims through the veil</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Of women who despised them and tormented,</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Cruelly planning<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>wicked schemes,</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">To make them break upon their dreams,</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">It feels so web-like, and so perfume-scented.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">How you sang it.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">How we felt it.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">How we listened and believed</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We believed you.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">But wait a moment, you forget</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The women didn’t hold the net:</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The men were writers of their chosen script.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Women softly passing by,</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Too bad for them, they caught the eye</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">And found their lives and destinies now ripped</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Savagely from their clenched fists,</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">They struggle, but now find their wrists</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Are bound by history’s endless “she’s to blame.”</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Their hearts beat on, misunderstood,</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Voices hushed by victimhood</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">As men judge by their rules of their own game.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">How you sang it.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">How we felt it.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">How we listened and believed</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We believed you.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Why this song? This slow lament?</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This dirge to justify the men</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Who could not reach above for hallelujah?</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The means to freedom always there—</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">It was no further than a prayer,</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">But still the victim’s called to bear the shame.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Hallelujah in the shame.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Hallelujah in the pain.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">And listen to the one in pain</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The one who’s forced to bear the shame</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">And pray her story ends in hallelujah.</span></p>Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-86003730436157590852020-09-07T06:26:00.000-07:002020-09-07T06:26:13.302-07:00A Letter to the Electoral College<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WJs92jxDWWg/X1Yy8g-J8rI/AAAAAAAABNM/QFv1Xm8XVgsGgCMSrhYMex1jhK4vj7-4ACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_0532.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1261" height="625" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WJs92jxDWWg/X1Yy8g-J8rI/AAAAAAAABNM/QFv1Xm8XVgsGgCMSrhYMex1jhK4vj7-4ACLcBGAsYHQ/w385-h625/IMG_0532.jpeg" width="385" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Dear Electoral College,</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I never dreamed I’d be writing you, but here I am. I have discovered your dirty little secret. Your designers tried to hide it, but it’s embedded in our system and when we look seriously, it’s there for all to see.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The first time I recall hearing about you was in Miss Louters' history class. The one held in that dungeon basement classroom under the auditorium with the plumbing and venting system hanging from the ceiling. (Little did we suspect we were being treated to the advance chic of 21st century restaurants.) Anyone else would have resented such a room for teaching, but Miss Louters made it cool. Her magic influence made those grey cement walls vibrate with history as she walked and lectured and threw the occasional book or chalk. We all loved her and believed everything she told us.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">So on the fateful day when she told us about the Electoral College, she gave all the important reasons why you were there: to stand up for the minority and the oppressed. To keep the big states from running rampant over the little ones. To make sure that democracy was democratic. Her explanation was overly detailed for our early adolescent minds and it made more or less sense because it was about being fair. And democracy is all about fairness.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">So we all believed. I fell for it, hook, line, and sinker: the Electoral College makes sure the majority does not oppress the minority. It protects the underdog. That was what the Constitution and all those founding fathers of ours were about. After all, they were the underdogs when George III was taxing them without their representation. So the Electoral College was just more of our exercise of the freedom and liberty we fought for in the War of Independence.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Why is it then, that every time I have voted, I have wondered. I have voted quite a few times over the decades: whether in person or absentee, it is my right and responsibility. I vote. But there was always a niggling feeling that my vote didn’t really count. After all, our individual votes don’t elect our president. We have an Electoral College that makes sure things are fair. Sometimes when we all get out and vote, the majority vote for the person who doesn’t win the Electoral College votes.</span> F<span style="font-size: small;">ive times the popular vote and you, Electoral College, have not agreed. And you have determined the winner when most of us cast our votes for the other. If the majority of us don’t choose our president, how does “one person, one vote” actually work?</span></p></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">It would appear that it doesn’t. So why do we still have a college of people voting and in most cases giving all the votes of a state to the person who wins 51% of the popular vote? What part of democracy is that? What is fair about being in a state where I vote with 48% of the people and all our state electoral votes count for the other guy in the overall grand scheme?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">So I did some homework because every time someone dredges up this mystery, people older and wiser and more politically savvy (or just more brain-washed) remind them that the Electoral College is about protecting the few against the many. And it’s about being fair and just. They get long winded and repeat all the arguments I read in the websites about why we have this complicated system—to protect us from ourselves.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Then I found out why we really have you. And the explanations are all pretty much basically true. But all the explainers, including my hero, Miss Louters, failed to explain how you got started. Why <i>were </i>the founding fathers so prescient and worried about protecting the “minority”?</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">It turns out, <i>they were</i> the minority. Yep. Turns out they weren’t all that much excited about pure democracy because that meant that <i>everyone</i> was supposed to be endowed with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We know the drill. But quite a few of our founding fathers were wealthy slave owners and in the minority. Madison, one of the architects of our Constitution, designed it to safe-guard democracy on his terms and those of his fellow rich plantation magnates. Madison and the other slave-owning founders could see that if people started getting the hang of their rights as people and understood that democracy meant they had a voice in the government, the situation might not go well for them. If straight up democracy was the name of the game, they stood to lose quite a bit. So they had to figure out how to protect their own minority rights (the lives and work of their slaves and their plantations) within the context of a democratic government purported to be founded on the sovereignty of the people. Much later Lincoln described it as government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Of course, when Madison and company were hammering out the Constitution, they had to create ways to protect the minority of extremely wealthy people from having to abide by the will of the general populace. They didn’t want to have to pay taxes to provide for the welfare or education or health or anyone else. So they invented you, Electoral College, and the Senate, both designed to protect states (usually slave states) with smaller (white) populations by favouring them. And to insure that minority people like slaves and First Nation people would not be able to access this democracy, they were legally designated as three-fifths of a person.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>As for who could vote, they certainly couldn’t—only white male property owners had that right.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">To protect slavery, non-free persons were less than full humans and had no voting rights. So much for the self-evident truth of all men being created equal. Now the secret is out: the freedom our founders were protecting was their elite status so they could enjoy their own productive property without being accountable to anyone else for it.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">And now, hundreds of years later, we still cling to an archaic pomposity designed to prevent the will of the general populace from overpowering the elite wealthy who use their influence to prevent the government from raising the taxes on their millions and putting it to work for the average people for things like education, health, police, parks, libraries, roads, and transport.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">But slavery is over, as Madison knew it eventually would be. So why do we still have the Electoral College? Because although slavery is over, there is still an elite group of wealthy people who want to keep control of the situation so they are not subject to the “tyranny” of democracy—living by the will of the people. The Electoral College is brilliantly designed to create the illusion of fairness.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">There are several big arguments in favour of keeping you around, Electoral College. One of them is our marvellous two-party system.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Although we have all seen numerous other parties and candidates listed on our ballots, and our democracy allows people to freely run for office, none of them ever has a chance of winning because you, Electoral College assure they never will. You hold a binary system in place that is nearly iron-clad. Getting another party into the game is insanely difficult. Despite the move for progressive parties and green parties as well as all the ones we have all heard of: communists and libertarians—no one stands a chance against the two major players. And the weird thing is these two parties are like siblings who simply cannot get along. As soon as one gets into office, all the bipartisan chitchat goes out the window and the one who loses spends the next four years trying to undermine what the current leadership is attempting to implement. But it is all part of the game because the winners, aside from their own agenda, are trying to undo what the previous party accomplished during their stint.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">And the folks defending you, Electoral College, say that this is a good thing. We wouldn’t want the confusion of more parties, more voices, more opinions. No we are much better off with two parties who (at the time of this election) offer us the vast selection of two white males in their seventies who urge us to vote for them by tearing the other guy apart.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Now, why would it seem so important to keep a two-party system? Because, it is argued, that when you have multiple parties, the only way to get elected is to create coalitions. And we all see how coalitions have failed in Europe. Oh, have we? It seems that in fact, Europe is learning about process as more voices are being heard. People are having to compromise and implement a little give-and-take. Elections are not simply a “winner take all” when parties have to negotiate and listen. Of course, it’s a situation rife for spin-doctors. But let’s not fool ourselves by trying to say we don’t have spin-doctors here. They are part of the political landscape as long as people are trying to hear what affirms what they already believe instead of being open to what is truly happening.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Electoral College, I wish you could quietly take yourself out of the picture. Let us try real elections without you. Back when we were a country of only a million or so and two parties was plenty to represent both points of view, you may have had a vital role. But 320 million is far too many people to be heard by two predominantly white, middle and upper class people who are not completely convinced that the climate is changing on our planet or that we should be doing something about it.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please, go swiftly, go wildly, but go.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></p></div></blockquote><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> </span><p></p>Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-53754995826072427842020-09-04T08:47:00.000-07:002020-09-04T08:47:10.066-07:00A Sonnet to Bathsheba and Delilah<p class="p1" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Reflecting on Leonard Cohen’s song “Hallelujah”</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p class="p1" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1409" data-original-width="2048" height="430" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qfuSTsxXehU/X1GE7hgyLjI/AAAAAAAABM0/mDzhZB4oXl89SYPX125yF9HeFXLKiYjfQCLcBGAsYHQ/w625-h430/IMG_6999.jpeg" width="625" /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p class="p1" style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><br /></p></div><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Oh, Cohen, when you poem-ised your heartache</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">To glorify men handsome, fearless, strong</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Diminishing their own heroic soundtracks,</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Unwilling victims of their chosen wrong:</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The chords that tie the painful words together</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Jog memories of dis-ease long past,</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">And tighten like a noose we cannot sever,</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Indicting women blamed for being fast.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Your plaintive music tears into our heart-song</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">And histories well up with deep regret,</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Now shift to self-defence and blame awrong—</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The victims of the selfish, lustful net.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A broken hallelujah’s cold mistrust:</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The song of those who treat their victims thus.</span></p>Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-32270962473227034472020-09-02T07:27:00.002-07:002020-09-02T07:27:58.611-07:00A Letter to My Mask-Free Friends<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K0U-AAnEcEQ/X0-qTGaWZVI/AAAAAAAABMY/qjXt9G2qJBccrl9Msj24WwcJw61fSiL0gCLcBGAsYHQ/s645/IMG_3187_2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="366" data-original-width="645" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K0U-AAnEcEQ/X0-qTGaWZVI/AAAAAAAABMY/qjXt9G2qJBccrl9Msj24WwcJw61fSiL0gCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_3187_2.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Greetings, fellow sufferers from the indignities inflicted by the pandemic!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;">With great compassion and sympathy I write to bolster your spirits during this oppressive time. When I first thought of writing words of encouragement, I contemplated how to address you. An initial idea, “anti-maskers” I quickly eliminated because of it’s negative and possibly judgemental connotation. After all, you are not against masks as much as you are for free and open faces which smile and laugh and blow kisses and sing.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;">So I begin this letter to assure you of my heart for you. I care deeply about you. I respect your rights: your God-given rights, your constitutional rights, and your rights as human beings on planet earth. What’s more, I sympathise with the discomfort, inconvenience, bother, mess, insanity, and general outrage which masks inflict on our lives and lifestyles. I see your side. I hear your protest.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;">That said, I continue in the spirit of open conversation. Conversation has the potential of being monologue or dialogue. We have all been subjected to the dreaded one-sided conversation. Dialogue has the advantage of being more mutual, more friendly, more inclusive. So I offer you the other side of the conversation hoping that perhaps you may hear it with compassion.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;">There are fearful people out there. People who are afraid of getting covid themselves, yes. But far more are afraid that the people they love—really old and really young ones—will get a disease that kills them or has lasting serious effects. Such people are operating in fear mode. You have been afraid and you are well aware of what fear feels like. You cannot rationalise it; you cannot tell it that it is unfounded. </p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;">You can respect it or scorn it, but you cannot argue with it.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;">There are also people out there who are not afraid but are aware of the impact they have on the society around them. They may not be worried about getting covid—they’re young, healthy, fit, or they eat right and take care of themselves. But they know that if they walk in crowded places without wearing a mask or get too near others wearing masks, they may feel like a threat. Or they may be perceived as being disrespectful or indifferent to the welfare of others. So, despite the inconvenience of “one more thing”, the bother of remembering to bring it, the unwelcome smell, the discomfort of wearing it, the hassle of making sure it doesn’t leak, and for some the damage it causes to the skin on their faces—they wear them. For the others. Not for themselves.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;">Our country makes up of 4% of the world’s population. Even as an affluent country with medical advantages, we could reasonably accept 4% of the deaths from Covid-19. But, perhaps due to our amazing testing (wink, wink), we account for 22% of worldwide Covid deaths. Statistics are just numbers and I agree that you can make them say just about what you like—but that looks plain weird to me. Little countries that don’t have our super-power and advanced technology have limited their death toll by things as low-tech as mask wearing and hand sanitising and social distancing.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;">Seems to me that wearing a mask is a ridiculously small price to pay for a lower death rate. Let me wrap up with a quick observation: there are some folks who think that covid is simply not that big a deal. They point to other worldwide pandemics and marvel that we are making such a fuss about the flu. This might be the case: hindsight will tell us. However, this kind of hand-waving debunking sounds quite similar to the attitudes that claim that the climate is not changing and racism is not a thing in America. Never would I lump you in the same category as folks with those attitudes. But it would be well to acknowledge that dismissing something which does not affect you doesn’t really make it go away. It simply makes you less relevant in the conversation.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;">So please, engage in the conversation. Listen to the other side. And contemplate what it would feel like to be on the life-losing side.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p></div>Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-79763213208882016002020-08-25T13:46:00.000-07:002020-08-25T13:46:43.167-07:00A Letter to Lemon Yellow, Ruby Red, Forest Green, and Cobalt Blue<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TJYCTOpyXAk/X0V282UoF7I/AAAAAAAABL4/gBP2Pl9GM_wCakIPNWKKZApiulix1uLKwCLcBGAsYHQ/s962/PHOTO-2020-08-25-13-37-29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="686" data-original-width="962" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TJYCTOpyXAk/X0V282UoF7I/AAAAAAAABL4/gBP2Pl9GM_wCakIPNWKKZApiulix1uLKwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/PHOTO-2020-08-25-13-37-29.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">My dear friends of the Rainbow,</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I have addressed this letter to you in particular, but my desire is for all your friends and relations in the rainbow to hear me out for a few minutes. I love you dearly, from the first chunky eight of you I held in my chubby hands to the impressive 128 deluxe version with names we mispronounced but delighted in: magenta, puce, turquoise, wisteria, and fuchsia. Oh you are a multitudinous treasure to behold.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Today I would like to say how much I love orange. Plain simple old orange. Please, don’t take offence when I tell you how precious orange is. I love you all. Some of you have been standing out in brilliant ways for millennia and getting quite a lot of attention: Blue, heavens, you have the sky in every hue you choose to wear. Green, my goodness, you’ve got photosynthesis going for you after all. Almost anything with a leaf is going to have a smudge of green somewhere. Let’s face it, some of you have a wide palette and massive family.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Orange has a number of relatives, but today I was thinking about how orange plays her role. Think about construction workers: their orange vests, orange helmets, and orange cones all remind us to take care. Orange is the colour for caution and care. But unless we’re talking about traffic signs or constructions sites, she doesn’t usually get first billing. She frequently ends up as a complement to someone more visible.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But what a complement she can be. Where would autumn be without orange? We need her orange leaves among the browns and reds and golds. We glory in carving orange pumpkins to wear an orange flame and create a weird flickering face. We can’t forget orange chrysanthemums to bring a sparkle into the dying longer and darker days. What would a fireplace be without those streaks of orange in the flame? Or imagine a sunset that had to make do with all the other colours but without orange and her family for contrast.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I think about orange every now and then because I have an original and quirky nephew who is colourblind in an interesting way. He cannot differentiate among most colours, but he can see orange. When he was married, his sweet and thoughtful bride, although definitely a woman on the cooler side of the spectrum: blues and lavenders, remembered orange. And right in amongst the blue and white flowers of her bouquet nestled a bright orange flower so her sweetheart could see it. And he wore an orange tie. It is pretty much his whole rainbow.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So please, dear glamorous, brilliant, and showy friends, when someone says “let’s hear it for orange” or “orange matters”, don’t make the fallacious assumption that suddenly you all don’t matter and no one cares about you. Of course you matter. You always have. Saying that orange has significance today is not to undermine yours. It’s a way to celebrate orange and see what she brings to the world of light.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">After all, every last one of you is really only a reflection. Our human eyes don’t “see” you, we have light receptors in our eyes which communicate with our brains and we then get sensations of colour. In fact, the things we look at are not colours as you think of yourselves. The surface of the things we look at reflect the light of some colours and absorb the other colours. We see an apple as red or green depending on which light is reflected and which is absorbed. In an extremely simplistic sense, you are pretty much just reflected light in our brains.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So let there be no competition among you. You are all part of an amazing spectrum, quite a bit of which we humans cannot even see with our light receptors. When we delight in one colour, it is not at the expense of the others.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Just bask in the light and get on with it.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p></div>Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-7181587418157153692020-08-24T13:24:00.000-07:002020-08-24T13:24:23.630-07:00A Letter to Alexei Navalny<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4rAph4IdruM/X0Qhibs1bvI/AAAAAAAABLg/VoPCDnEVhqUVe5fAA4fwZ0T6ZAyb9FiPQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_7084.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4rAph4IdruM/X0Qhibs1bvI/AAAAAAAABLg/VoPCDnEVhqUVe5fAA4fwZ0T6ZAyb9FiPQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_7084.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Dear Sir:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Until a few days ago, I had not heard of you nor was I aware of the significant role you play in keeping Russia a country where people can hear the other side of the story.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The news of your suspected poisoning in an airport and the emergency landing of the plane to rush you to a hospital in Siberia was graphic enough to penetrate the networks here in America where we tend to be more interested in local news or foreign experiences of our own people.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Your recovery is very important and I sincerely hope and pray that you will be restored to your family and the courageous work you are doing on behalf of your people. It is encouraging to know that you are being well taken care of with the best of doctors; I am grateful that the German government reached out to fly you to their own facilities where your wife will feel more confident of the outcome. May your recovery be swift and there be no long lasting repercussions.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This letter has a two-fold purpose: to salute you and thank you.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Sir, I salute you for the decisions you made in your life which brought you to this dangerous situation, lying in a coma in a foreign land with the cause of your illness suspect. After doing some research on your reputation, I see you are willing to make difficult choices which have serious consequences. You could have left Russia in disillusionment and frustration. Continually waging battles against an overwhelming giant is exhausting. But whether for love of country or compassion for the people, you elected to stay in a dangerous life. You put yourself in harm’s way, but without the uniform and gun of which soldiers have advantage. You chose words as your weapon and transparency as your strategy. It has made you exceedingly unpopular with the leadership of the land.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">You have been attacked before, a green acidic chemical was thrown into your face causing burns and eye damage. You have been arrested and detained multiple times, I guess you were interrogated as well. Threatening letters, legal attacks, having your private emails posted on line, and being in Kremlin cross-hairs pretty much sums up your life now. You knew the hazards and you have a family: two great excuses for you to choose an alternate career. One in which your talent, charisma and thinking skills could have been personally profitable and secure.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Which brings me to my second purpose: Thank You.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">You chose to model risk and self-sacrifice to benefit the people of your country. It obviously hasn’t been convenient or lucrative for you. Nevertheless, you persist in calling out corruption and oppression. I am from a country founded by people who understood self sacrifice. Our patriotic forefathers paid a high price for American freedom. But we have come a long way since then. We have a saying: <i>Freedom isn’t free.</i> But the average American doesn’t have to look at the price tag anymore. We expect our military to pay the bill and we pay them to put their lives on the line.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Meanwhile, we wallow in our freedom. We insist on it, even at others’ expense. We resent or moan or complain about wearing uncomfortable masks during a pandemic spread by air transmission. Some of us even claim wearing a mask violates our Constitutional rights, which would mean that in our hierarchy of values, the Constitution rates somewhat higher than “love your neighbour”. We have been known to resist social distancing, claiming it conspires to undermine our freedoms: to worship, to drink together, and even to attend massive motorcycle rallies without worrying about the next guy.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Sir, you are the kind of person I would want for a friend. You are the kind of person I would want for a countryman. Your willingness to stand in the gap for your people, to help them know what they need to know, to hold your leaders to account—these are valuable gifts to your country. We need your kind of people here in America. As the world holds its collective breath, hoping and praying that you make it out of this crisis, know that you have made a difference. You are a model for all of us.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Thank you and blessings on you.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p></div>Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-2229712193104042622019-10-20T09:37:00.000-07:002019-10-20T09:37:13.703-07:00Tradition and ReflectionTaking Portugal at a walking pace is comfortable and enlightening. This is a land to be ambled or strolled--and always savoured. Business and progress do not seem as urgent as greetings and cafe conversations. Or the past.<br />
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A pilgrim en route to Santiago de Compostela</div>
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Our path is enriched by reminders from the histories and legends swirling around St James' remains and the courageous, curious holy people who hoped to understand some of the impossibilities of life. It's sobering to think that at moments we are in their physical footprints. Steps they took without paths, roads, cafes, credit cards, and albergues. Surely other moments we muse through their metaphysical steps--the journey is ongoing and unpredictable. The journey is being human. </div>
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An immigrant memorialised at Castelo de Neiva</div>
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Reflecting on the very long ago and far away saints has a mystic quality. They seemed as much part of the next world then as they are now: living at the liminal edge of this material world and the needs of flesh and bones. Looking at the granite immigrant who represents the thousands fleeing war and oppression, a pattern of desperation-driven sacrifice emerges. No matter that those people fled a mere century ago: their stories parallel ours when we step out the door and have no clue where the day and path will take us; even as they parallel the cloak and staff pilgrims of the Middle Ages. </div>
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We seek. We get distracted. Sometimes we push through. But for me, not often enough. I long for my seeking to be soul-sustaining. For my will to prove true and the way to prevail over distractions or whatever would prevent me from finally finding my way home. </div>
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Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-30843005943320223032019-10-16T09:14:00.001-07:002019-10-16T09:14:16.464-07:00On Camino <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-29s9-R7BU7E/Xac7chWGWSI/AAAAAAAABDc/7Vo_mo9vg-IyVYHcfN0Hm55gnrONdg-mgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/image.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-29s9-R7BU7E/Xac7chWGWSI/AAAAAAAABDc/7Vo_mo9vg-IyVYHcfN0Hm55gnrONdg-mgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/image.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div>
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We have been walking for a week now. We arrived in Lisboa and took the train up to Porto. It was a flash from our past. Twenty nine years and a couple months ago we arrived in Portgual to learn a most complex and gratifying language. One our teachers claimed was "dead" because it did not change. </div>
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After nine months we continued on to Moçambique where we integrated our language skills into those of a colonised and presumably liberated people. We missed quite a lot on our first time here: dedicated to conquering a language to engage a people. In the shuffle, we somewhat missed the Portuguese themselves. </div>
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This journey has been delightfully different. Now we speak their language, albeit with an African accent. We are practically welcomed back to family and encouraged and blessed now by the very colonisers we overlooked before. Our distant goals blinded us to closer treasure. </div>
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This trip I am seeing this amazing people with new eyes. Before I saw their backward focus: everything pointed to their former glory days, the explorers. Now I grasp how important their heritage is. But I run ahead. That will come. </div>
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Today I celebrate their appreciation of cats. Every city has a feline community, Portuguese have a special relationship with them which the cats understand. These cats are friendly. The shortest street in Porto has the largest cat mural I have ever seen. Painted by Liqen, a Galician artist, this Blue Cat is inscrutable and enchanting. He has a frayed computer cord in his mouth and a bemused smile. Butterflies flit around him. He sits on a discarded motherboard and is either carrying a medieval city on his back or it nestles in the backdrop. His titanic paws are solid, yet the foreground is strewn with debris--a skull, even. And a random gondolier poles his barge of--is it pottery--across the cat's chest. </div>
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I expect the cat to mysteriously wink at any moment. He's Portuguese, after all, and knows he is important in the grand scheme. Whimsy brings ordinary things to new light. A truly Portuguese trait. </div>
Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-441721129891387162019-02-08T21:20:00.000-08:002019-02-08T21:20:13.631-08:00Sunset at 7:58<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I sift the sand for poems</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and scan the waves for dreams--</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">as the sun with salmon tresses</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">sinks blind between the seams</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">of day and night and dusk descends</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and mountains at my back ring round</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the pinkish purple skylight blends</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and augurs coming dawn</span></div>
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Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-22180923142255667702019-02-04T06:32:00.000-08:002019-02-04T06:34:38.523-08:00Wave Walking in three parts<style type="text/css">
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<div class="p1">
i.</div>
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<span class="s1">Tightly together two stand as</span></div>
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<span class="s1">one against the surf,</span></div>
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<span class="s1">a surf too mild<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">for such unity:</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">his arm circles her shoulder,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">clasps his hand on the other—</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">she leans into him, a hand</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">in his back pocket.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">Sidelong close</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">her right, his left legs blend</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">thighs knit, knees lock.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">Looking out where sea meets sky,</span></div>
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<span class="s1">muted couple—not young or old</span></div>
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<span class="s1">in middle years, why</span></div>
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<span class="s1">do they feel taut,</span></div>
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<span class="s1">straining to breathe?</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">what have they lost or won:</span></div>
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<span class="s1">a child—a cancer—a curse?</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Behind I softly circum-</span></div>
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<span class="s1">navigate them in their</span></div>
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<span class="s1">“only two”ness,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">their unknown tomorrow</span></div>
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<span class="s1">they walk into together.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">ii</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">Further on a smaller couple,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">look-alikes, but she’s taller,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">hands interlocked and raised for</span></div>
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<span class="s1">gentle waves greeting.</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">Laughing, crouching, jumping<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">almost</span></div>
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<span class="s1">together to defeat</span></div>
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<span class="s1">the bright benign surf.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Together, you two,</span></div>
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<span class="s1">keep holding those hands:</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">create a habit to save his life or<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">hers or yours—</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Laugh, jump, celebrate</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">the tide of life</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">it’s ebb and flow.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1">iii</span></div>
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<span class="s1">And now in the rocky shallows</span></div>
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<span class="s1">strewn with grittier sand and</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">kelp artistically splayed</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">she poses poised in</span></div>
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<span class="s1">a white nothingness to enhance</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">bronze bareness.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">She flings blonde tresses with artless grace</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">face upturned</span></div>
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<span class="s1">to sun, then the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">downward sultry pout</span></div>
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<span class="s1">and turn again, hand on hip,</span></div>
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<span class="s1">knee raised, back bent,</span></div>
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<span class="s1">hand to lip, to back of head—</span></div>
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<span class="s1">All the while the ragged-haired men</span></div>
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<span class="s1">with camera and lights</span></div>
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<span class="s1">plod in the murky water</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">clicking, turning, focusing, almost kneeling;</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">who’s directing this<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">liturgy of worship,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">praise to human sexuality?</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">Is she priestess—</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">acolytes follow with</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">candles and incense<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">or goddess—<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">she moves languidly,</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">provocatively<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">for adoration,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">or offering—</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">evocation, supplication.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">out of the shallows into shadows,</span></div>
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<span class="s1">on the grainy beach,</span></div>
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<span class="s1">she changes vestments and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">continues familiar ritual dances</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">for a faceless congregation<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">in cyber-space</span></div>
<br />Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-27560773144076841502019-01-24T02:57:00.002-08:002019-01-24T02:57:32.327-08:00Wings<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If I had wings I soon would be</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">soaring swiftly out to sea--</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">scanning horizons for a whale</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">upon whose back I'd gladly sail.</span></div>
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Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-307149541376227552018-12-31T23:27:00.000-08:002018-12-31T23:27:32.637-08:001-1-XIX<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1-1-XIX</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Greetings, long-waited XIX.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Been looking forward to you for</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">some time--now you've</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">arrived. </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">here. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">how are you</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">different?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">than yesterday, yesteryear.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I would ask a boon of you</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a letter from me</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">dated 31 Dec XIX.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not a cheat sheet</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">not instructions or predictions;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but some steelstrong advice--</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">mistakes to avoid</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">blindsides to sidestep</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">trust not to make</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">which battles to battle</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">entanglements to untie</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">knowing what those things</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">that I cannot change</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">are . . .</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">yes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">all this I'd dearly love to know.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">then perhaps</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">arriving at the end</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">with smiling eyes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'd feel a "not bad"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in my gut</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">--</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">would it make a difference?</span></div>
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Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-91059784066592784632018-01-06T05:19:00.001-08:002018-01-06T05:22:12.843-08:00Christmas, day 12 and Epiphany<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Our final in this series of meditations on Elijah. This is Elijah's only appearance in the New Testament. We are never told the subject matter of the conversation--it clearly was not for our information or the disciples. It was Jesus' appointment. But the transfiguration was for the disciples. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">It brings me to think: why were these two specific people chosen, of all the saints in the Old Testament? What set them apart? It was not the miraculous. It seems to be their thirst for the Presence and revelation of God. Lord, increase my thirst.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Christmas, day 12 and Epiphany.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Moses and Elijah</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Mark 9: And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">dusty people</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cCGi_dXDGTo/WlDLpkumUMI/AAAAAAAAA-Q/ovjubJNu2r8jjuts7Ca3p7TgkFpdoIc9gCLcBGAs/s1600/transfiguration.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="485" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cCGi_dXDGTo/WlDLpkumUMI/AAAAAAAAA-Q/ovjubJNu2r8jjuts7Ca3p7TgkFpdoIc9gCLcBGAs/s400/transfiguration.jpg" width="322" /></span></a><span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">are we all</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">intricate formation</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">complex organisation</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">beyond imagination</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">chemicals and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">minerals, we</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">four bucks fifty:</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">for value thrifty</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">that’s pretty nifty</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">fragile earth</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">is not prepared</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">to fathom the gory,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">truth-laden story</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">of the brunt of glory</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">to speak Life</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">into death:</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">who would God choose</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">to bring heaven’s news</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">to the One He would bruise?</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Not the one called to leave it all</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">and sacrifice his son—</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">or that promise-out-of-time born son—</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">or the one who saved from famine—</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">or the one who defeated the giant—</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">or the one who lived in a fish—</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">or the one who slept with lions—</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">or the ones who walked in fire—</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">only two would God choose:</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">the one who saw the back of God</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">and the one who heard Him whisper</span></span></div>
Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-78484389429514972332018-01-04T05:51:00.003-08:002018-01-04T05:51:55.706-08:00Christmas, day 11. Elijah and John<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Just before the final day of Christmas, we are reminded of the type of people God uses to get the attention of wanderers: They are not highly polished motivational speakers. Not charismatic and smooth-talking. Every publicists nightmare. God uses solitary nomad-types without a shred of personal ambition so when they speak, they are not dazzled or distracted by the messengers. No need for John and Elijah to preface their message with "fear not." They don't inspire fear.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">But when we look at them, truly seeing the men they choose to be, the path they choose to walk, we can only follow the Light in their lives right back up to the Father of Lights. Then we listen to unpolished, simple, servant men. And know that God is God.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Christmas, day 11. Elijah and John</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Is 40: 3 A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.”</span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1">desert wind howling through vowels</span></div>
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<span class="s1">of two sand-encrusted voices</span></div>
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<span class="s1">desiccated by the sun</span></div>
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<span class="s1">frosted by the moon</span></div>
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<span class="s1">in a light-shattered dusk</span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1">two dusty voices</span></div>
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<span class="s1">rasped hoarse</span></div>
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<span class="s1">by months without speech</span></div>
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<span class="s1">on a riverback</span></div>
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<span class="s1">where multitudes strain to hear:</span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1">“are you Elijah?”</span></div>
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<span class="s1">“Of course not. I’m John.”</span></div>
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<span class="s1">“but Malachi said—“</span></div>
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<span class="s1">“Isaiah promised—“</span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1">a voice, wild and lone</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>two voices, centuries apart</span></div>
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<span class="s1">mingled as one</span></div>
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<span class="s1">in the barren wilds</span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
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<span class="s1">turn back</span></div>
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<span class="s1">make straight:</span></div>
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<span class="s1">the hearts of stone must break</span></div>
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<span class="s1">to feed on broken bread</span></div>
Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-10731528693705086312018-01-03T01:07:00.001-08:002018-01-03T01:07:23.638-08:00Christmas, day 10. The Holy Tension<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Christmas, day 10. The Holy Tension</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QzeVEDeZU_c/Wkyc4E_ioRI/AAAAAAAAA9g/wuyxp93Gox09dzzsp5LeGOJH2BKk4XC3wCLcBGAs/s1600/5bf94e89ba2da7fb55eacbdbd60e9e52--saint-jean-baptiste-john-the-baptist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></a><span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Luke 1:17 And he will go on before the Lord in the Spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QzeVEDeZU_c/Wkyc4E_ioRI/AAAAAAAAA9g/wuyxp93Gox09dzzsp5LeGOJH2BKk4XC3wCLcBGAs/s1600/5bf94e89ba2da7fb55eacbdbd60e9e52--saint-jean-baptiste-john-the-baptist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="986" data-original-width="549" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QzeVEDeZU_c/Wkyc4E_ioRI/AAAAAAAAA9g/wuyxp93Gox09dzzsp5LeGOJH2BKk4XC3wCLcBGAs/s400/5bf94e89ba2da7fb55eacbdbd60e9e52--saint-jean-baptiste-john-the-baptist.jpg" width="222" /></a><span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Again a ragged desert sentry</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">appears on the horizon</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">after the last word in the last book:</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">curse</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">“or else I will come and strike the land</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">with a curse”</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">thank you, Malachi,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">for that benediction.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">a curse or what?</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">another Elijah</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">who lives in holy tension</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">between silence and the Word</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">between rock and crumbling sand</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">between drought and pastures green</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">between brook and desert strand</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">we, too, live in the tension</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">unaware</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">far as the curse is found</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">and the promised voice</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">in the desert</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">in the wild places</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">calls: prepare</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">shouts: get ready</span></span></div>
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<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">urges: He’s on the Move!</span></span></div>
Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-24861310347276989462018-01-02T05:21:00.001-08:002018-01-02T05:21:23.664-08:00Christmas, day 9. The Day of the Lord (part 2)<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Christmas, day 9. The Day of the Lord (part 2, meditations on Malachi)</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Malachi 4:5-6 See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">where no Light is</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">hearts cannot see—</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">we hurt ourselves</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">stumbling blindly to assuage pain—</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-E9yaMKivw6w/WkuHO-G_MkI/AAAAAAAAA9I/B_c5TJp5KDYyngCFOy8McgpVmZGQeBRDgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_4035.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-E9yaMKivw6w/WkuHO-G_MkI/AAAAAAAAA9I/B_c5TJp5KDYyngCFOy8McgpVmZGQeBRDgCLcBGAs/s400/IMG_4035.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">crashing oblivion to forget loss—</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">climbing without oxygen to gain advantage—</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">burrowing to escape abuse—</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">not made to navigate:</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">no steering wheels,</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">no rudders,</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">no bits and reins,</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">no yokes—</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">but are too easily turned:</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">manipulation, deception,</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">oppression, shame,</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">guilt, threat,</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">fear, pain</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">turning hearts aright—</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">a Titanic task,</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">a job for an Elijah:</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">like fire from heaven</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">like rain in a drought</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">like raising the dead:</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">to turn hearts</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">to The true longing</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">for which they were made:</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">fathers to children</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">children to fathers</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">the prophet will come</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">with Light</span></span></div>
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<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">and hearts may see</span></span></div>
Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-66895827340901608372017-12-31T22:16:00.004-08:002017-12-31T22:17:43.515-08:00Christmas, day 8. The Day of the Lord, part i.<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Malachi is the final prophet in the Old Testament and his final verses promise that Elijah will return before the day of the Lord. The book as a whole is a whirlwind of accusations and indictments against a people who think they are religious but who have lost their spiritual integrity. It is a relevant read for today and I highly recommend reading it in one sitting. It won't take long. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FOGJqMfjksg/WknSGBJnv1I/AAAAAAAAA8w/DdPqibgKvvIFBjZ8wNIuHW-j3gtUFp71wCLcBGAs/s1600/250px-John_Martin_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="163" data-original-width="249" height="260" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FOGJqMfjksg/WknSGBJnv1I/AAAAAAAAA8w/DdPqibgKvvIFBjZ8wNIuHW-j3gtUFp71wCLcBGAs/s400/250px-John_Martin_001.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span class="s1">Then reflect on how 2600 years hasn't made much of a difference in our indifference to a Holy and Mighty God.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Christmas, day 8.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The Day of the Lord (part 1, meditations on Malachi)</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Malachi 2:16b Guard yourself in your spirit and do not break faith.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">For calling the arrogant blessed,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>we lost our blessing.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">For calling the evil good,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>we lost our discernment.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">For offering blind and crippled sacrifices,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>we lost our generosity.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">For showing partiality in the law,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>we lost our justice.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">For breaking faith with our marriage partners,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>we lost trust.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">For not defending the orphans, widows, and aliens in our land,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>we lost righteousness.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">For using violence to protect ourselves,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>we lost our security.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">For marrying sons and daughters of other gods,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>we lost our God.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Malachi’s litany of charges, LORD, so heavy</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>—My yoke is easy</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">besides, it’s all that Old Testament stuff</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>—My burden is light</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">You’re much more compassionate</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>—take My yoke upon you</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">in Your human-saviour role</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>—and learn of Me</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">those Mosaic covenant laws!</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>—my covenant was with him of Life and Peace</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">of course we’re better off now under grace</span></div>
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<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>—guard yourself in your spirit</span></div>
Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-81782201773988346742017-12-30T04:21:00.004-08:002017-12-30T04:21:53.750-08:00Christmas, day 6. The Double Portion--Otherwise Not<div class="p1">
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">This idea of Elisha receiving his request dependent on his own ability to keep the connection with Elijah is complex. A deep reflection of spiritual truth: another "to him who has, more shall be given; and to him who has not, even what he has will be taken away."</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">We are not pre-determined beings, not without potential. Our will, a gift--like our faith, is still ours. And God allows us the mercy to approach Him and the grace to receive Him.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Christmas, day 6. The Double Portion—Otherwise Not</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">2 Ki 2: 9-10 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied. “You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said,”yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise not.”</span><br />
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WvurCPBTNVM/WkeEWBQRdVI/AAAAAAAAA8Y/a0BuMP2gocI4PmZjCM03YrWGW3QHcmYlACLcBGAs/s1600/whirlwind.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="625" height="356" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WvurCPBTNVM/WkeEWBQRdVI/AAAAAAAAA8Y/a0BuMP2gocI4PmZjCM03YrWGW3QHcmYlACLcBGAs/s640/whirlwind.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Otherwise not—the thing you ask</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>slips from your grasp.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The boon you strive and yearn to keep</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>lost if you sleep.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The treasure that his spirit bore</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>will be no more.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">To gain the goal requires reach</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>to heaven breach.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Consumed by love, avoid the rot—</span></div>
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<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>otherwise, not.</span></div>
Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-62596564589501248352017-12-28T22:56:00.002-08:002017-12-28T22:56:53.304-08:00Christmas, day 5. The Mantle and the Jordan<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">As Elisha now turns to his life without his master, he realises the burden that has been passed to him. And he now has no buffer between himself and God. This is a pivotal moment: when Elisha leans into the pain and loss and pushed through to meet God.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Christmas day 5. The Mantle and the Jordan</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">2 Ki 2:13-14 He picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. “Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NJF0I-rcW2Q/WkXnBIII2gI/AAAAAAAAA8A/uNhkKJMQANYAzKWiVSm0F5mCzTogf3qFACLcBGAs/s1600/elisha.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="640" height="250" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NJF0I-rcW2Q/WkXnBIII2gI/AAAAAAAAA8A/uNhkKJMQANYAzKWiVSm0F5mCzTogf3qFACLcBGAs/s400/elisha.jpg" width="400" /></a><span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">My fingers sense its weave is rough and coarse</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">And more abrasive than a cloak should feel</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">whose years of wear, now gentled by the sun</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Should comfort and protect the one it shields.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">And heavy, O Father, it is not</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">The faded, time-worn thing it would appear:</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Its weight is like the one which burns within,</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Deep this loss of father-friend does sear.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Now grasp this cloak and claim it for my own,</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">But is the Spirit with it as I pled?</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">My shoulder feels the weight and years of wait</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Within and desert scents the sandy threads.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Just hours ago he parted Jordan’s flow,</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">We crossed a riverbed of smooth dry stone:</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Will I my father’s double spirit know?</span></span></div>
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<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">I lift the mantle high and bring it down—</span></span></div>
Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-34161007391825344852017-12-28T05:17:00.002-08:002017-12-28T05:17:17.903-08:00Christmas, day 4. The Chariots and the Horsemen.<div class="p1">
<span style="font-size: small;">Elisha's somewhat obscure exclamation about chariots and horsemen when Elijah is taken up to heaven in the whirlwind has produced much scholarship and speculation. Especially since this is the exact greeting that the king Jehoash cried when he visited at Elisha's deathbed. Is it a prophetic title? A reference to trusting God rather than chariots and horses? I love the mystery of it.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-size: small;">Elisha had a unique and deeply personaly connection with one of the mightiest prophets, and truly his grief was heartfelt when the time came for them to part. Sometimes we must grieve the good things, a wise friend recently reminded me. Because in this life, all things are for a time. So Elisha braces himself for life after Elijah and becomes a prophet deeply immersed in politics and calling people back to God. </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Christmas day 4. The Chariots and the Horsemen</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">2 Ki 2:12 Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Walking with a giant made me see things skew:</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OruNLTHBcds/WkTuRKaWSbI/AAAAAAAAA7o/p21Dc3mBnmgR0tXN8iEzr-xsk5z5x8aEACLcBGAs/s1600/angeli.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></a><span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Dangers were diminished wherever God’s breath blew.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">His strides were long and hurried; I trotted to keep pace—</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">He walked this world so lightly, his footprints seemed erased.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OruNLTHBcds/WkTuRKaWSbI/AAAAAAAAA7o/p21Dc3mBnmgR0tXN8iEzr-xsk5z5x8aEACLcBGAs/s1600/angeli.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="596" height="416" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OruNLTHBcds/WkTuRKaWSbI/AAAAAAAAA7o/p21Dc3mBnmgR0tXN8iEzr-xsk5z5x8aEACLcBGAs/s640/angeli.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">A father he became to me—</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">And through his eyes I learned to see</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">That things which I thought most profound</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Were not as crucial as they sound,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">And smallest details might inspire</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Deep reflection on heaven higher</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Than temporal thoughts are trained to go.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Then Israel’s horsemen took him, so.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">The chariot drew him from my sight:</span></span></div>
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<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">My robe I tore; took his by right.</span></span></div>
Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-77957441889584252892017-12-26T21:39:00.000-08:002017-12-26T21:39:03.634-08:00Christmas, day 3. The Prophets and the Leave-taking. part iii Elijah.<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Today we reflect on Elijah's thoughts as he turns his head to the home he has longed for but where he has never been.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Christmas day 3. The Prophets and the Leave-taking.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">part iii. Elijah</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">1 Ki 2:11 As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6F7xJr02x_I/WkMxwUVsrBI/AAAAAAAAA7Q/_okFMBZLxycn2yWS-7YY1feBY4tyuogXwCLcBGAs/s1600/chariot-of-fire-Schnorr_von_Carolsfeld_Bibel_in_Bildern_1860_119.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="743" data-original-width="897" height="265" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6F7xJr02x_I/WkMxwUVsrBI/AAAAAAAAA7Q/_okFMBZLxycn2yWS-7YY1feBY4tyuogXwCLcBGAs/s320/chariot-of-fire-Schnorr_von_Carolsfeld_Bibel_in_Bildern_1860_119.jpg" width="320" /></a><span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">after years and decades</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">finally, this day</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>through drought and floods</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>hunger and raven food</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>alone and in a mob</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">at last, the wandering is nearly done</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">the homeless heads home.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">No more starlight sleeping</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">looking in at bright fires and warm lamps—</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">No more pulling that cloak tighter</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">against the wind—</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">No more races with chariots</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">or fire bolts from heaven—</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">No more tantrums from queens</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">or “my enemy” from kings—</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">I’ve searched every scene<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">for glimpses of redemption,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">sure my God of Hope</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">would leave some signs:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">few they were</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">shafts obscure</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">of grace eclipsed</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">by mist and shadow</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">now my soul rises</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">to the One I have awaited—</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">an ordinary afternoon</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">an unremarkable path</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">in mid-conversation</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">the gentle chariot pauses for me</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">he saw fire—I see Light</span></span></div>
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<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">that lightens hearts of men</span></span></div>
Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-77472253767514408932017-12-26T03:27:00.000-08:002017-12-26T03:30:45.329-08:00Christmas, day 2. The Prophets and the Leave-taking, ii Elisha<style type="text/css">
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<div class="p1">
Today's poem is from Elisha's perspective: he has been prepared, but it's still a bit intimidating to take on the mantle of Elijah. Even the Elijah of Israel who hadn't grown into the mythical proportions described in Malachi. But despite knowing that he was facing much more than he could take on on his own, Elisha determined to ask the outrageous, the un-grantable: a double portion of Elijah's spirit. It is nothing short of asking for the status of firstborn son. But his audacity is encouraged and Elijah says that it is up to Elisha what he will get, how much he will benefit.</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">And we, too, if we come prepared to receive and ask for the blessing of the spirit, will receive it as much as we are able to take it in. This is a gift that depends upon the ability of the recipient to receive, not the giver to give.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Christmas day 2. The Prophets and the Leave-taking.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">part ii. Elisha</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">2 Ki 2: 5 The company of prophets at Jericho went up to Elisha and asked him, “Do you know that the LORD is going to take your master from you today?” “Yes, I know,” he replied, “but do not speak of it.”</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Today he leaves this wanderer’s life</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">for places of his dreams—</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pu9oUB4_iuI/WkIxzXpJjsI/AAAAAAAAA60/KQWaS9UGj-o037edwt21ByK1gPM2RuR7ACLcBGAs/s1600/elijah31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="404" data-original-width="412" height="391" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pu9oUB4_iuI/WkIxzXpJjsI/AAAAAAAAA60/KQWaS9UGj-o037edwt21ByK1gPM2RuR7ACLcBGAs/s400/elijah31.jpg" width="400" /></a><span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">I don’t feel ready to say farewell,</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Still much to learn; yet it seems</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">That now is the time to take up the task</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">he laid upon me with his robe.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Facing the struggles and hardships together,</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">our hearts are weighed down by the load</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Of speaking God’s heart to people intent</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">on breaking it by their defiance.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">This half-way existence of living on earth</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">while each step and breath is reliance</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">On Yahweh on high—sometimes it’s more</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">than I’m able to grasp in my heart.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">To continue alone is daunting, it’s true—</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">but I’ve been prepared for this part.</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Closely I follow to Bethel and Jericho,</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">though he tells me I should stay behind.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">“As the Lord lives, I’ll never leave you”, (for</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">there’s something I’m hoping to find.)</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">When he asks, then I tell him my deep heart’s desire:</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">his spirit times two, my request.</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">He says he can’t give it, but that I may have it</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">if I see him transported to rest—</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Birthright<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of firstborn is mine to hold dear,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">the reward when I follow and persevere.</span></span></div>
Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7782184219903173846.post-88329479965565842102017-12-25T05:57:00.000-08:002017-12-26T03:31:50.349-08:00Christmas, day 1. The Prophets and the Leave-taking. i. Sons of the propets.<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Christmas, day 1. The Prophets and the Leave-taking</span></span><br />
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
Today is the start of a three part poem about Elijah being taken up into the whirl wind. We hear from the perspective of the prophets's sons who knew that Elijah would be "translated" and were curious about Elisha's reaction. It is fascinating that they are more absorbed in the apprentice's response than Elijah's departure or what they might have learned of him. How often do I find myself sidetracked by a logical or worthy aspect and miss the main event?<br />
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part i. Sons of the prophets of Gilgal and Jericho<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">2 Ki 2:1 When the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CTdoaBRlv-A/WkEDegFYafI/AAAAAAAAA6c/BlgNeNqNzwQQgqco5hUr1k93B2kr-5VwgCLcBGAs/s1600/unnamed.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="512" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CTdoaBRlv-A/WkEDegFYafI/AAAAAAAAA6c/BlgNeNqNzwQQgqco5hUr1k93B2kr-5VwgCLcBGAs/s1600/unnamed.png" /></a></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">those two in desert sandals and ragged robes</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">a familiar sight hereabouts:</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">not your run-of-the-mill prophets,</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">but that’s the point, isn’t it?</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">unattached</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">displaced</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">marginalised—</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">in a good sense of the word</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">living in the margins</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">while we live in the middle of the scroll</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">—the message comes to them</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">they carry it from the edge</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">to where we can hear it</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">we halt over words,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">stumble over letters,</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">living troubles us</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">they wander deserts,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">commune with mountains,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">connect to wild things,</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">making us uncomfortable—unsure</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">that ease on the borders—</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">on the edge</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">like the blade of a knife:</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">cutting, sharp</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">they balance as if by nature</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">they, at peace—poised;</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">today the old one goes</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">we got the message</span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">this is a day to watch and</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">one day tell our grandchildren:</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">we knew,</span></span><br />
we saw him go.</div>
Karen DuBerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07487463657879668362noreply@blogger.com0