Sabbath Messages > Sabbath Message: October 29, 2005
Good Sabbath
October 29, 2005
"The Lord bless thee and keep thee; May you find grace and loving-kindness in the eyes of God and man."
As my country reached a milestone in its current war, there were some who wrote that 2000 dead are little compared with the losses in other wars. However when I looked into the photos of the dead, in the Oct 26 issue of the N Y Times, I saw individuals who could have made a difference in our lives, who were lost to the families that mourn them, who died prematurely as in all wars--whether worthy or incompetent. I saw every kind of face and lost dream. I read about a 25-year old who was sent to Iraq three times and who left a message for his wife after sharing a bad feeling about this trip: "Grieve little and move on. I shall be looking over you and you will hear me, from time to time, on the gentle breeze that sounds at night, and the rustle of leaves."
Poetry is in the service of the romantic and the fatalistic who know their eventual mortality but can express loss, even before there is one. Love can be so deep that loss is felt before it occurs. It doesn't take a war to realize the preciousness of the presence of someone with whom you've shared a portion of mortality, accompanied by its brevity. Life is opened at birth and closes in Madam Fate's theatre--without any preview or tryouts.
Mortality is too brief to be further shortened by incompetence or politics. That becomes more important than any other factor. The corruption of values is the biggest casualty.
One writer wrote:"Our technology is supposed to conquer time and space and make the nearly impossible seem boringly routine. With such expectations of perfection, any death becomes a near national catastrophe", and 2000 deaths, along with smashed bodies of thousands of our young wounded, become increasingly painful when we sit down to think of what false patriotism and incompetence has caused to happen.
Narcissism is a lovely sounding word that has caused leaders to ignore human compassion--except for words spun by ghostwriter--substituted for feelings and tears. But even good people remain too silent as each milestone is passed, 2000, 3000 and on and on. They are boys and girls, used as fodder by the hypocrites who punish protestors with insults and insulting indictments as to their "patriotism".
I try not to be bitter when I write, but good people must not be silent or evil wins all wars. Bob Herbert wrote: "Thousands are dying and suffering, while incompetence continues its macabre marathon dance with incoherence."
We must not just grieve and move on. We must also think and evolve a pattern of solution so that the truly wicked--not just the political hacks--do not steal away our liberties along with our young.
"There are times in life, when dissatisfaction with ourselves, with our ideals, our pursuits, our leaders, are our dominant feelings. We measure ourselves against the standard of goodness laid down by conscience, and are appalled to find how miserably short we fall of it." (Morris Joseph)
I leave you with another Sabbath, when we take time to commune with nature,
God, love and conscience. Do this with those you love while you try to resolve what is good and what is not good, and what you must substitute for silence.
sandy
