Too Soon
The February 23, 2017 On Being conversation features Krsita Tippett talking with the poet Marilyn Nelson. The show is entitled, “Communal Pondering in a Noisy World.” I am painfully grateful that at 76 I did not miss, even this level of introduction, to Ms. Nelson. Once again, I am reminded that there is no time to waste listening to my own internal and external chatter - too often complaints or dire predictions. Yet, all the while there are teachers waiting to teach; the internal god waiting to connect in communion. As Ms. Nelson reminds us: “There is no limit to our capacity for evil. And I wanted to look at a saint’s life to ask whether there is any limit to our human capacity for good.” Ms. Nelson is not talking about herself as a saint, but her life and her poetry clearly demonstrates that, indeed, there is no limit to our capacity for good. And what is good, one might ask. Good is another of those all-purpose word tools we keep close by to describe the behavior of a child, the taste or quality of food, the usefulness of a implement to repair or create, the weather or even the overall grade we assign to a particular day. Yet, Ms. Nelson uses the word good to describe the courage to birth the god within us which is to say the courage to love. We all have this ability, even if it seems that there are those brothers and sisters who are hidden behind the diagnosis of psychopath or sociopath. We also, as she reminds us, have the capacity for evil. I never speak of evil as the embodiment of a person as it is so often used. One might say: “He or she is evil.” No. I stubbornly resist agreeing that evil ever exists as this independent entity although, of course, we are certainly capable of hiding behind fear and destroying that which threatens to break that shield. Often it seems, rather than facing the lie that we are unlovable or worthless, our fear destroys.
Too soon another decade will pass and, if not careful, I will have missed the teachers who will challenge me to be my very best – to birth that God within me – to cause goodness to gather the dust sized parts of me which can take the risk of loving instead of destroying – to join those other bits of the good – the gods. Too soon the time will pass or too soon I will have given time to the noise which covers the silence which holds the goodness – which holds the particles of god.
Written February 24, 2017
The February 23, 2017 On Being conversation features Krsita Tippett talking with the poet Marilyn Nelson. The show is entitled, “Communal Pondering in a Noisy World.” I am painfully grateful that at 76 I did not miss, even this level of introduction, to Ms. Nelson. Once again, I am reminded that there is no time to waste listening to my own internal and external chatter - too often complaints or dire predictions. Yet, all the while there are teachers waiting to teach; the internal god waiting to connect in communion. As Ms. Nelson reminds us: “There is no limit to our capacity for evil. And I wanted to look at a saint’s life to ask whether there is any limit to our human capacity for good.” Ms. Nelson is not talking about herself as a saint, but her life and her poetry clearly demonstrates that, indeed, there is no limit to our capacity for good. And what is good, one might ask. Good is another of those all-purpose word tools we keep close by to describe the behavior of a child, the taste or quality of food, the usefulness of a implement to repair or create, the weather or even the overall grade we assign to a particular day. Yet, Ms. Nelson uses the word good to describe the courage to birth the god within us which is to say the courage to love. We all have this ability, even if it seems that there are those brothers and sisters who are hidden behind the diagnosis of psychopath or sociopath. We also, as she reminds us, have the capacity for evil. I never speak of evil as the embodiment of a person as it is so often used. One might say: “He or she is evil.” No. I stubbornly resist agreeing that evil ever exists as this independent entity although, of course, we are certainly capable of hiding behind fear and destroying that which threatens to break that shield. Often it seems, rather than facing the lie that we are unlovable or worthless, our fear destroys.
Too soon another decade will pass and, if not careful, I will have missed the teachers who will challenge me to be my very best – to birth that God within me – to cause goodness to gather the dust sized parts of me which can take the risk of loving instead of destroying – to join those other bits of the good – the gods. Too soon the time will pass or too soon I will have given time to the noise which covers the silence which holds the goodness – which holds the particles of god.
Written February 24, 2017
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