HAUNTED BY THE HOLY GHOST

Distance

WHITE MORNING, originally uploaded by nikaa.

At a certain distance I followed behind you,
ashamed to come closer.
Though you have chosen me as a worker in your vineyard
and I pressed the grapes of your wrath.
To every one according to his nature:
what is crippled should not always be healed.

I do not even know whether one can be free,
for I have toiled against my will.
Taken by the neck like a boy who kicks and bites
Till they sit him at the desk and order him to make letters,
I wanted to be like others but was given the bitterness of separation,
Believed I would be an equal among equals but woke up a stranger.

Looking at manners as if I arrived from a different time.
Guilty of apostasy from the communal rite.
There are so many who are good and just, those were rightly chosen
And wherever you walk the earth, they accompany you.
Perhaps it is true that I loved you secretly
But without strong hope to be close to you as they are.

Czeslaw Milosz

Sabbaths 1998, VI/ Thanksgiving 2007

Sabbaths 1998, VI

By expenditure of hope,
Intelligence, and work,
You think you have it fixed.
It is unfixed by rule.
Within the darkness, all
Is being changed, and you
Also will be changed.

Now I recall to mind
A costly year: Jane Kenyon,
Bill Lippert, Philip Sherrard,
All in the same spring dead,
So much companionship
Gone as the river goes.
And my good workhorse Nick
Dead, who called out to me
In his conclusive pain
To ask my help. I had
No help to give. And flood
Covered the cropland twice.

By summer's end there are
No more perfect leaves.
But won't you be ashamed
To count the passing year
At its mere cost, your debt
Inevitably paid?

For every year is costly,
As you know well. Nothing
Is given that is not
Taken, and nothing taken
That was not first a gift.
The gift is balanced by
Its total loss, and yet,
And yet the light breaks in,
Heaven seizing its moments
That are at once its own
And yours. The day ends
And is unending where
The summer tanager,
Warbler, and vireo
Sing as they move among
Illuminated leaves.

from Given: Poems, by Wendell Berry

PHOTOGRAPH: DECRESCENDO nikaa

SYMPATHY

SYMPATHY, originally uploaded by nikaa.

She won't eat em, but she'll kill em

Since my brain can barely put 2 sentences together lately, I thought I would steal something from someone else, and when I read this on Bea's boyfriend's journal, I couldn't resist.

And I better steal something now since  he may be squirrel chow by spring if he thinks he can win this stupid bet with Bea.

So excuse me while I have a word with the boy...

Dear  (BTW, you have got a pick out an new Shakespeare pseudonym.  I thought it was funny when Bea and Hero gave the unsuspecting  Bard-neophyte the name of a cross dresser (the did tell you, didn't they?), but enough is enough Google Shakespeare  characters and pick out a guy's name...your safer with the tragedies, not too many cross-dressers.)

I know the squirrels in Wooster, can be really wicked, and are probably the only source of entertainment in the middle of (what state are you in?) I mean geographical, not existential.  Bea told me I was not allowed to discuss religion with you),

Anyway,I think the lack of protein is beginning to affect your thinking, after reading your last few posts. Same thing sets in every August at camp with the friends she has rooked into trying a vegan diet...I always know they have hit the wall when she tells me they are playing that stupid game called "MOO, COW!"

I think the your post (below) resembles that same "wall".

And take my word, NEVER make a bet with Bea.  What were you thinking?!?
She always wins....even when she loses....it's this Svengali thing she's got going on... and has been perfecting since she was 2 days old.

The "Me in the quote below is Bea's boyfriend. The Red is my editorial comments.

If you haven't read anything before, skip this.
Unless you have been reading this blog for awhile this will make no sense to you, so just let it pass and rest assured no animals were harmed in the construction of this post.

Nathan: Man... I wish my girlfriend would kill things for me.
Me: You know, my girlfriend can kill things. People at camp talk all the time about how she can kill a squirrel from fifteen feet away using a stick or something. Her mom too, actually- it kind of makes me want to see this in action. (She offered to teach me, I have never done it.  Do NOT report me to PETA.)
Sarah V: You should just bring her down here so she can kill our squirrels. We have so many of them anyway.
Me: Yay for survival tactics! We can kill them and eat them!
Nathan: So how many do you think she'd have to kill to feed the entire Circle?
Thomas: Probably about four or so.
Me: Are you kidding me? There are so many people in The Circle! And squirrels are itty bitty..
Thomas: Yeah, but not all of them would eat an entire squirrel. Some of them would just want to try one.
Me: Yeah, I suppose that's true.
Thomas: Plus, some people would not try one at all- have you forgotten about your vegan girlfriend?
Me: Huh. Yeah, that must have escaped my mind [goes back to eating his vegan chicken].

Don't toss the tofu and fire up the BBQ yet.
I think she may have been practicing when she was last home, and may even have  had some success; however, I think the squirrels are not going to be such as easy mark next time.
I have seen some strange sights since she went back to school....I think they furry rodents are going to be ready for her this summer...she better have some pretty big sticks.

Better yet, go to to Burger KIng, and stop the carnage before it starts.

and then there are always a few who give up before the fight starts...