The age-old question

I would relate to the crowds how I called on a certain rural constituent and was shocked to hear him say he was thinking of voting for my opponent. I reminded him of the many things I had done for him as prosecuting attorney, as county judge, as congressman, and senator. I recalled how I had helped get an access road built to his farm, how I had visited him in a military hospital in France when he was wounded in World War I, how I had assisted him in securing his veteran's benefits, how I had arranged his loan from the Farm Credit Administration, how I had got him a disaster loan when the flood destroyed his home, etc., etc.

"How can you think of voting for my opponent?" I exhorted at the end of this long recital. "Surely you remember all these things I have done for you?"

"Yeah", he said, "I remember. But what in hell have you done for me lately?"

                                             Alben W. Barkley, That Reminds Me 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poem: talisman

it is written
the act of writing is
holy words are
sacred and your breath
brings out the
god in them
i write these words
quickly repeat them
softly to myself
this talisman for you
fold this prayer
around your neck fortify
your back with these
whispers
may you walk ever
loved and in love
know the sun
for warmth the moon
for direction
may these words always
remind you your breath
is sacred words
bring out the god
in you

             Suheir Hammad  

The good fight

The worse the state of the world grows,
the more intensely I try for inner perfection and power,
I fight for a small world of humanity and tenderness.

                Anais Nin, during World War II

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poem: Mother Goose's Garland

Around, around the sun we go:
The moon goes round the earth.
We do not die of death:
We die of vertigo.

            Archibald MacLeish

 

 

 

 

 

Follow your bliss

Bill Moyers: Do you ever have the sense of... being helped by hidden hands?

Joseph Campbell: All the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the time — namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.

Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take care

Love is the capacity to take care, to protect, to nourish.
If you are not capable of generating that kind of energy toward yourself —
if you are not capable of taking care of yourself,
of nourishing yourself, of protecting yourself —
it is very difficult to take care of another person.

                    Thich Nhat Hanh 

 

 

 

 

 

All Saints' Day

In his holy flirtation with the world,
        God occasionally drops a handkerchief.
                These handkerchiefs are called saints.

        Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC