Bravery

The past instructs.
The future entices.
The present bewilders.

What have I learned?
That history can go bad.
Really, seriously, bad.

What have I learned?
That history can move to the light.
That people wake up and make the better choice.

What have I learned?
That the moment can be horrible.
That people can shout Heil Hitler and never bat an eye.

What have I learned?
To be brave.
As brave as I can be.

What have I learned?
Some are a whole lot braver than I am.
Thanks be to God.

What have I learned?
That such bravery is never lost.
Never wasted.

What have I learned?
Keep on learning.
Keep on trying to be brave.

No One's Gonna Hush Us Up

As you may know, I'm reading a new bio on Martin Luther, the birther (hee hee) of the Reformation, 500 years ago.

Folks were always telling him to hush up and work it out.
Glad he didn't.

Was he perfect?
Heaven's no. Or maybe
Hell no.

But who is?
Yet, in our imperfections, can we not hope that
Some will show up who can beat the odds?

Luther did, for good and for ill.
And more for good than not.
And the ill remains anyway.

We fight the ill.
We faith the good.
And no one's gonna hush us up.

And we'll not work it out.
Because in such out-working.
The good is lost.

We will work, nonetheless.
But not for a sham piece of the pie.
But for the peace that surpasses all.

Thank you Martin Luther.
Thank you Martin Luther King, Jr.
Thank you John Lewis.

Life Without Limits???

Saw a book yesterday, "Life Without Limits" - only gullible Americans, who lust for life, rather than love it, would buy such a book.

This kind of thinking allows comfortable Americans to "own" their success as if it were their own creation, rather than a simple gift of chance and circumstance, not to mention God, and then, when looking at folks in hard times, blame them for their troubles, attributing the hardship of others to moral failure or sloth, or any number of sins the successful love to blabber about on talkshows and in their self-congratulating books.

Anyway, life is full of limits. And we all know that, and it pisses us off, for sure. But what can we do about it, except tell the truth, and discover the power and the glory of life lived within limits, life that sees and embraces its own reality, rather than living in some bizarre dream-world than can only end with nightmares and tears?

And we all die, sooner or later. And that's a mighty big limit. Not even The Trump can work his way around that one. Money can buy time - watch the wealthy and their hyper-expensive health-care programs and plastic surgery and organ-transplants prove that one every day, while the poor languish and die too soon. But money cannot buy more than the limit - dust to dust, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, is still the truth about life. And when we live beyond the limit, when we buy more time than we deserve, by robbing it from others (that's always the trade-off), then we end up looking like hell and sounding like it, too.

We all die, and that ain't so bad!

After all, we have to make room for one another, especially the young, who may make better choices than we have.

I'm glad when someone can face hardship and disadvantage and prove the victor; it happens all the time. Of course. It's a good thing to push hard and sieze the day, and all of that. We can all do more than we imagine.

But I'm sorry for the mind-tricks we play on our cultural heros, and the mind-tricks we play on ourselves, pretending that we can get to the top of the hill all by ourselves - as if no one ever helped us, even as we ignore the humbling truth that just plain luck, or chance, or fate, or God, or what have you, played a decisive role in all of it.

Will someone write a book entitled, "I Was Just Plain Lucky"?

Or, "I Don't Deserve Any of These Good Times"?

Or, "I'm Sorry I Think I'm Better than You Are"?

Or, better yet, "Life Is Beautiful Within the Limits"?