Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Words for Such a Time as This

                                                                      photo by Roudoudou Hirous / flikr

                                                                           

I remember the great preacher, Fred Craddock asked a question: "Have you ever lost a word?" We have all lost words--many that mean little or nothing. But sometimes we lose a word that we should have kept. And in this strange time we seem to have lost or at least forgot about them. 

Words like: love or peace or joy or forgiveness or faith or maybe or laughter.  Make your own list of words that you have replaced or scrapped or lost. You might be surprised at your list.

Carl Sandburg was a great poet. He wrote out of his head and heart in a stormy time in our history.  (1878-1967). He lived through the First World War...the pandemic of 1918...the terrible Depression in our country...Second World War...the rise and fall of Hitler...the racial crises and many other things. And out of his heart he wrote these words...I think they are worth cherishing and passing on.


"And the king wanted an inscription

good for a thousand years and after

that to the end of the world?

"Yes, precisely so."

"Something so true and awful that no

 matter what happened it would stand?"

"Yes, exactly that."

"Something no matter who spit on it or

laughed at it there it would stand

and nothing would change it?"

"Yes, that was what the king ordered

his wise men to write."

"And what did they write?"

"Five words: THIS TOO SHALL PASS AWAY."

                         --The People, Yes


                                               --Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com















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