Poem of the Day XI

Minnesota Thanksgiving
by John Berryman from Collected Poems: 1937 to 1971

For that free Grace bringing us past great risks
& thro' great griefs surviving to this feast
sober & still, with the children unborn and born,
among brave friends, Lord, we stand again in debt
and find ourselves in the glad position: Gratitude.

We praise our ancestors who delivered us here
within warm walls all safe, aware of music,
likely toward ample & attractive meat
with whatever accompaniment
Kate in her kind ingenuity has seen fit to devise,

and we hope--across the most strange year to come--
continually to do them and You not sufficient honour
but such as we become able to devise
out of decent or joyful conscience & thanksgiving.
Yippee!
Bless then, as Thou wilt, this wilderness board.

© 1989 Kate Donahue Berryman

Anne Frank's Tree

The chestnut tree that stands outside what was the only non-covered window in the attic where Anne Frank was in hiding for 25 months, is scheduled to be cut down. The tree has stood for 150 years, but has become the victim of a tree fungus, which has overtaken it.

As this article mentions, the tree made several appearances in the diary and served as a source of inspiration and beauty in what was a very limited existence. On February 23, 1944 she wrote:

"Nearly every morning I go to the attic to blow the stuffy air out of my lungs. From my favorite spot on the floor I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, and at the seagulls and other birds as they glide on the wind...."

And on May 13, 1944 she wrote:

“Our chestnut tree is in full blossom. It is covered with leaves and is even more beautiful than last year...”

While it is sad the tree must be taken down, it will live on in memory and on the net. There is a memorial to the tree here and until it is removed you can catch one last glimpse at the live webcam they have focused on the tree here.

It’s amazing that this tree has become such a source of inspiration to others. I had my own “man on the train” kind of moment while reading about it. We can never understand truly what it meant to Anne, but I think we all can identify with the idea of having something that would appear ordinary and meaningless to someone else, but with which we associate so much. There’s an old saying about the little things making life worth living, and there is a lot of truth to that. Anne found solace in the peace and majesty of the tree outside her window. It served a great purpose there for her and I’m happy that it existed.

Paradise Now

Last night I attended a viewing of the movie Paradise Now at Georgia Tech, which is the story of two suicide bombers in Palestine. The movie was followed by a brief lecture and discussion. As you may recall, this movie was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards this past year. The movie was very well made. The acting was excellent, as was the writing, which is amazing considering the danger the crew faced while making the movie: the location manager was kidnapped during filming and six members of the crew quit after a missile destroyed a car yards away from where they were working. These real life difficulties give extra impact to what is happening on screen. You realize that this is not just another movie.

The director insisted that, "the film is simply meant to open a discussion. It does not condone the taking of lives." This hardly kept the controversy away, as you can imagine. However, I do feel that it is an important movie to be shown and a discussion worth having. The movie does humanize the suicide bombers, but the thing we forget is that they are human. The interesting story here, and the almost unbearable sadness, is what leads a man to this. Having an understanding doesn't make the action right, these bombings are still horrible atrocities almost beyond words, but it does lead insight into the problem, and perhaps allows for a path to a solution.

The main point of the discussion that followed the movie was that the narrative of the Palestinian is one that is absent from most American news and discussions, which is true. The entire region is labeled "terrorist" and cast aside. While there are many people and organizations in the region that are terrorists, that do take innocent life, there are many that just want a peaceful solution. The best way to reach this is for both sides to understand the story of the other. The speaker after the movie claimed that no resolution will be made until an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian Arab can reach out to each other in mutual understanding and good will. This sounds nice of course, but the reality is much more difficult. Most of the time it seems that all we can do is hope and pray for peace and stability in the region, for all people, but it should also be our responsibility to learn both sides and educate ourselves on an extremely complex situation.

Poem of the Day X

Dawn Revisted
by Rita Dove from On the Bus with Rosa Parks

Imagine you wake up
with a second chance: The blue jay
hawks his pretty wares
and the oak still stands, spreading
glorious shade. If you don't look back,

the future never happens.
How good to rise in sunlight,
in the prodigal smell of biscuits--
eggs and sausage on the grill.
The whole sky is yours

to write on, blown open
to a blank page. Come on,
shake a leg! You'll never know
who's down there, frying those eggs,
if you don't get up and see.

© 1999 by Rita Dove

Christianity and Politics

I just read an interesting article by former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson from this week’s Newsweek called “A New Social Gospel”. In it, he describes not a new type of Evangelical, but simply one that is often ignored by the mainstream media. The crux of the article can be summarized in this paragraph:

Often the media miss or ignore this kind of new evangelical leader. There is a tendency to elevate the most irresponsible and strident religious figures, mostly because it makes for better cable TV. This practice reflects a stereotype held by many media decision makers, who view every orthodox Christian as a fundamentalist, and every fundamentalist as a theocrat. The stereotype is unfair and uninteresting. Evangelicalism is both more diverse and more idealistic than its critics understand. And that should be welcome news for Americans, religious and secular alike.

One of many aspects in our current political climate that is negative is the tendency to lump all Evangelicals, really all Christians, into the Republican camp. This isn’t just making the assumption that Christians hold conservative values, this is saying that Christians have taken the Republican Party as their own. In many instances, this is true, but it is a fallacy, and a disservice to Christians, to assume this is natural. The Republican Party has formed its message to fit the conservative beliefs of many Americans and now it seems many Christians are forming their beliefs to fit the Republican message. As with any tide, it’s bound to recede. As Gerson points out, perhaps it is starting to happen (perhaps the “new Evangelical” he speaks of is not “new” in the sense of “never seen before”, but “new” in the sense that “it is a fresh perspective in the current political climate”). The issues that are important to Christians should go beyond Party lines and should be about individual platforms. There will probably never be the perfect candidate for Christians, and many of the candidates that are chosen by Christians may be Republican, but there should be a willingness to not be closed in. If the Democratic Party is smart, they will stop marginalizing this group. Gerson words it this way:

These changes in evangelicalism should be an opportunity for Democrats. But seizing it would require a philosophic shift. Modern liberalism has defined the belief in truth as the enemy of tolerance because absolute claims of right and wrong lead to coercion. And religious claims, in this view, are the most intolerant of all, and should be radically privatized so no one's morality gets "imposed" on another. It is difficult for liberals and Democrats to appeal to religious people while declaring their deepest motivations a threat to the republic. And it is difficult to imagine the history of the republic if this narrow view had prevailed. How does moral skepticism and privatized religion motivate decades of struggle against slavery, or lead men and women, step by step, toward the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma? If there is really no truth, why believe in, or sacrifice for, the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence?

There have been many progressive changes in this country because of the Christian influence. Gerson mentions several including Women’s Suffrage and Civil Rights. By toeing the Party line, Christians are playing into the segregating nature of politics today. Reasoned discourse has been sacrificed on the alter of ratings on cable news and in the editorial pages of most major newspapers. The nature of Christ was that of a revolutionary, and not in the sense we think of. Christianity cannot fit into a mould or an ideology and certainly not within the planks of a particular political party’s platform. By pursuing the Truth offered in the Gospels the outcome will be more progressive and at the same time conservative than either Party’s ideology could conjure up. Christians are limiting themselves by playing party politics. Be involved, engage in honest conversation and debate, research and read, but don’t play the game. Perhaps that’s the best advice for all of us.

News in Review I

Great News for Gourmands

Obese mice on a high-fat diet got the benefits of being thin — living healthier, longer lives — without the pain of dieting when they consumed huge doses of red wine extract, according to a landmark new study. -from 11/02/06 AP story

Great! So, now, as long as what works for mice will work for humans, we can gorge ourselves on fatty foods and cancel it out by washing it all down with some red wine! Don't worry about diet or excercise; revel in your Epicurean lifestyle! Man, if this is true, I'm eating Big Mac's with a bottle of Merlot every night.

Surprise!

Amanda Brisendine attributed the 30 pounds she gained in the past year to an abandoned smoking habit and rich food. So when she went to the hospital with sharp stomach pain, she wasn't expecting to leave with a newborn son. -from 11/01/06 AP story

Now, granted, I know very little about pregnancy, and I don't want to be one of those men that puts his foot in his mouth about something he will never truly understand, but, what!? How do you go 9 months and not know you're pregnant?

Woman: "Honey, good news! I found a great weight loss solution!"
Man:"Oh yea, what's that?"
Woman: "C-section! Meet your new son!"

Um...Why is this News?

Barb Dougherty, a 30-year Postal Service employee, said she was attacked and bitten Monday by a squirrel while delivering mail in Oil City, about 75 miles north of Pittsburgh. -from 11/02/06 AP story

I mean, sure, it's a bit odd, but c'mon. War, faminine, disease, and squirrel bites... At any rate, at least the mail was delivered...come rain, snow, or small furry animals!