Brief Moment in Time
Page 12
So know it’s true, and you’ll believe.
A gift to you, my lonely friend.
From a writer
A FLOWER BLOOMED
Rains came, a flower bloomed, and it was beautiful.
A bee collected the nectar, and that was good.
A bird caught the bee, and that was bad.
The bird fed the bee to its baby, and that was good.
The wind blew the baby bird to the ground, and that was bad.
The baby’s body turned to dust and enriched the ground, and that was good.
Rains came, a flower bloomed, and it was beautiful.
A HALLOWEEN POEM
The long narrow alley was littered, messy, and dark.
Boreas winds had left the trees lonely, silent, and stark.
Hungry scavenging things had left their mark,
From somewhere in the night, she heard a dog bark.
Between the dark buildings the cold wind howled,
Among the debris a beggar hid with his head toweled.
An old woman bent and wrinkled looked and scowled;
Creeping things scratched as they prowled.
The distance was long to the end of the alley,
But get there she must to help her friend Sally.
Trash, left too long in the crannies, was smelly,
Revulsion filled her heart and fear filled her belly.
Halfway now, and the end was in sight,
Past that eerie shadow was a shimmering light.
She stumbled on something that worsened her plight,
But two hands lifted her and relieved her fright.
MEMORIES OF A SUMMER NIGHT
Memories of a summer night,
Memories of the dwindling light.
Memories to me once so dear,
Memories of sounds I long to hear.
The nightingale’s muted call,
A sound so pleasant to us all.
The distant song of a whippoorwill,
Its music echoes from the hill.
The roaring “Harrumph” of a great bullfrog
As it calls from the pond on a floating log.
The chirping of a katydid—,
With his mating call he makes his bid.
The fragrance of night-blooming flowers
Sway in the breeze from nature’s bowers.
A breeze so gentle that it kisses your cheek
As it rustles the leaves along the creek.
A time that lingers in my mind,
Is a time of beauty, a time so kind.
Memories of a summer night,
As I watch the dwindling light.
MY GOD CAN WHIP YOUR GOD
I offered to kill my son to prove my love for my God.“Abraham”
My God allowed his son to be killed, to prove his love for me.“A Christian”
I allowed my son to kill himself to prove my love for my God. “A Muslim”
My God can whip your God.“All”
REMINISCE
Palm trees silhouetted
like shadows
against the evening sky,
Their movements giving shape
to the warm tropical breeze.
Fronds sway in a rhythmical dance,
like the limbs of a beautiful woman
making provocative movements
to tempt a lover.
Lovers stroll arm in arm
through the growing darkness.
Music, muted by distance,
adds romance to the night.
A full tropical moon is cresting.
I, a silent spectator,
mourn my long lost youth.
LOVERS STROLL
The sun sat in a radiant glow,
A gentle breeze moved in silently.
A crescent moon hung low,
Twilight gave way reluctantly.
Lovers strolled in the diminishing light,
And stand embracing in the shadows.
Muted music filled the night,
While children played in the meadows.
GO QUIETLY AMID THE FRAY
When turmoil surrounds you and
life’s problems overwhelm you,
When you wonder if it’s all worthwhile;
When you’ve done all you can and
It’s still not enough,
Go quietly amid the fray,
sit alone for a time, and listen:
The sound of peace also abounds,
so be at peace with yourself.
DESPAIR
In hope, I say, “Maybe.”
In recognition, I say, “Probably not.”
In apathy, I say, “There’s nothing I can do.”
Thinking, I say, “But I must try.”
In anger, I say, “Damn it, No!”
In reality, I say, “The price is too high.”
In despair, I say, “All is lost.”
Reasoning, I say, “But why?”
THE BATTLE
The question is not where or when?
Did we lose or did we win?
The question is how and why
Did we send young people to die?
THE FACE OF GOD I SEE
I see him in the stars so bright,
I see him in the darkest night.
I see him in the morning sky,
I see him in a butterfly.
I see him in the birds that sing,
I see him in everything.
I see him in a mother’s love,
I see him in the gentle dove.
I see him in the distant land,
I see him in a grain of sand.
I see him in the face of hope
Of a starving child or even
In the terminally ill.
To worship God we build a tower,
I see him more in a simple flower.
We build a temple for all to see,
But I see God in a stately tree.
And when our work on earth is done,
Our life is like the setting sun.
We know that we have done our best,
Now we lie down, a time to rest.
In the glory of the coming day,
We know that we are here to stay.
That is the way it was meant to be.
In all of this—the face of God I see.
THE LOST DREAM
I keep going back to a place I remember so fair
To find a dream I think I left there
I’ve traveled many times by plane, train, and car.
I know not exactly what I’m looking for.
I know it’s there—I feel it so near.
I call out from memory, year after year.
Was it just an imagining, maybe a dream?
A long remembered fantasy, lost in the stream?
I’ve got to quit looking, the journey grows long.
But it lingers in my heart like a lovely old song.
If I keep looking and maybe I’ll find
It was just an illusion, a dream of some kind.
THE ETERNAL SCENE
In the distance, haze shrouded mountains,
Crowned with white and gray.
Trees in the meadow,
standing bold,
A cottage in the scene
A trail wanders through.
Parents watch their children
Laughing, frolicking on the green.
MUSINGS
THE AUTHOR’S CREED
Life had no beginning; therefore, it can have no ending.
The purpose of life is to live, and life is worth living only for those with the courage to live it.
There are no problems that cannot be solved. The word problem presupposes a solution.
Adversities are opportunities to learn. By facing adversities, we learn courage.
By overcoming adversities, we learn confidence. With courage, and confidence, we can find solutions to problems.
Right or wrong, true or false—are absolutes and comp
aratives. Other than as they relate to specific things, places and situations, they have no meaning.
TIME, SPACE, AND ENERGY
I've searched all my life for an anchor, something that is always so under all conditions—and I haven’t found it.
To illustrate this, imagine that you are out in space. Which way is up or down, north or south? Those things have no relevance space other that how they relate to the person. The only things that exist in the universe are time, space, and energy. There has to be a place and a time for something to exist. All forms of matter are just different forms of energy.
The basic law of science is that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Energy can be changed from one form to another, but it is still energy, and it cannot be destroyed.
I work with a finite mind trying to understand the infinite. I cannot conceive a time in which there was no time, and I cannot conceive a place in which there was no place, nor can I conceive a beginning of time. I am unable to deal with the idea that there is a limit to space.
If an end exists, what is it? Is it a wall? If it’s a wall, how thick is the wall? What’s on the other side of the wall? I think it is provable that everything we see, hear, smell, feel, or taste is comprised of energy. Many things that we cannot see, hear, feel, smell, or taste, exists. Electricity, magnetism, gravity are just a few.
I believe the purest form of energy is light. We cannot see light; we can only see reflected light. This can be illustrated in a completely dark room, by enclosing a light in a material that light cannot penetrate, then make a tiny hole in the material. If there are no dust particles in the air to reflect the light, the only place the light can be seen is on a wall that reflects the light. Many forms of energy exists that, without sophisticated equipment, we would not be aware of—X-rays, gamma rays, radio waves, the negative and positive charges, which comprise the atoms of the elements, and gravity.
If time, space, and energy have always existed, and we are energy (and for sure we are), then the energy that is us always was and always will be. If God is everything there is, and everything there ever will be, and all there is, is time, space and energy, and God is time, space, and energy, then time, space, and energy is God. Therefore, the essence of whom we are, always were, and always will be. Consequently, we are immortal.
I realize that this line of reasoning is highly argumentative, and it could be extended to encompass volumes, but that is not my purpose here. I am merely making a personal observation. My reader can either accept or reject the proposition, but hopefully his or her curiosity will be aroused.
The energy that is us has existed since infinity and will exist always. Our bodies are just energy. When we die, our bodies decay and change to another form of energy. The energy is still there and always will be.
To illustrate the change in energy forms, light a candle. As the candle burns, it changes into heat, light, and ash. When the candle is all burned, the energy that was the candle has changed to other forms of energy, but the energy still exists, and will always exist.
I think that there is more to us than just our bodies—many things indicate that is so. This last thought is also a personal observation, that I invite my reader to either accept or reject.
I don’t remember anything before I was born, and I can obtain no information that would indicate that I will have awareness after I die. I wasn’t afraid to be born, and I can think of no reason that I should be afraid to die.
I think that mankind’s religions, as they exist today, leave a lot to be desired. There is a great deal of information that we need to enable us to come to grips with the mystery of who are we, where we came from, why are we here, and where are we going, but I think that someday all information will be available.
REFLECTIONS
What history taught in schools, and what really happened, is all too often two very different stories.
History is told from a point of view that is influenced by the writers’ social, political, economic, and most important of all, religious persuasions.
Good historical writing is an accurate, unbiased recording of historical events. But all too often, history is written to persuade or convince the reader to see an event as the writer sees it. The writer usually tells the why and how of the events. The right or wrong of what happened is told in a way that is meant to influence the reader. This is especially true when the reader is young.
The student is graded on how well he or she memorized what was written.
Teachers don’t always question the right or wrong of what they are teaching. Usually, they are told what to teach, so they comply.
Right or wrong, good or bad—are comparatives, and without the advantage of hindsight, who can make the determination?
For example, I was taught that Columbus discovered America. Then in another class, I was taught that the first European to set foot on the North American continent was an Italian explorer named Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512). In 1501, a German cartographer named Martin Waldseemuller translated Vespucci’s narrative and suggested the name America for the new continent.
Then when I was older, I wondered—how did the Indians get here? They didn’t call themselves Indians. Columbus called them Indians because he was searching for a shortcut to India and thought he had landed in India. But he didn’t bother to change what he called the people.
If Columbus found people already living on the new continent, they, or their ancestors, must have discovered the place, which was not America to them. No doubt they called it by some other name, but so far as I know, no one ever bothered to ask them what they called the land that had been their home for generations.
Anthropologists who make a study of these things tell us that the natives of this new land had been here for at least ten thousand years and possibly as long as thirty-five thousand years. That is a mighty big variation in numbers—could it have been still longer?
Stories told by the Vikings and the pre-modern Irish tell us that they had been fishing the waters off the northeastern coast of America for thousands of years before Amerigo Vespucci said he landed in the New World. So it would seem that Columbus did not discover America, and Amerigo Vespucci was not the first European to set foot on the New World. In fact, the whole thing is an out-and-out fabrication, which has little to do with what really happened.
Then, I was told of settlers landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620, as though that was the beginning of the settling of the New World by Europeans, when in fact, Europeans had been making forays into the forests of eastern Appalachia for nearly a generation before that. A city in Florida named Saint Augustine was already flourishing when the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.
Spaniards had been in the southwestern parts of what is now America for almost a hundred years when the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.
I also was told that some Europeans came to America to establish religious freedom. If that is so, they failed miserably. There were few places on earth where religious worship was more controlled than it was in the new colonies of America. Thousands of people will take issue with that last comment but that doesn’t negate the statement. Theists are still quarreling about who is doing it right.
Thousands of different religions exist, and each tells us that its way is the only way. I would think that alone would be enough to make someone say, “I wonder;” but so far, with few exceptions, it hasn’t. And those who have had the courage to say “I wonder” have been put down severely. That doesn’t sound like religious freedom to me. What the ones arguing for their religion are truly saying is: you are free to practice your religion if your religion agrees with mine.
Some of those who say they want religious freedom insist on praying to God in our public schools. When you ask them to whose God we should pray, they say, we must pray to the only God. To that I say, Okay; let’s pray to God of Mohammed on Monday, Jehovah on Tuesday, Buddha on Wednesday, Moses on Thursday, and to Jesus on Friday (but not necessarily in that order), and quickly
discover that’s not what they meant at all. The truth is, they don’t want to just pray to God, they want to teach their religion in our public schools. And they’ll say, well, what’s wrong with that? And we all should say, "Nothing, if you’re of their faith, but everything if you’re not."
COME WITH ME ON A JOURNEY
An old man said, “I feel my life force slipping away like a piece of driftwood floating out with the tide. My body is failing, and I’m not sure if it’s a blessing or a curse, but my mind is still clear. I remember the exuberance of youth when I was so filled with life that it threatened to overflow my ability to contain it. Do I long for those magical times? Of course I do. I view the vastness of the universe and yearn for the adventure of exploring.”