Got Burned

Checked the gap.  Tested the wires.
Distributor's good and the plug still fires.

Fuel pump's pumping; got half a tank.
Everything's ready from the key to the crank.

Belts on right, the battery's good.
Ain't a darn thing wrong under the hood.

Filled up a jerry, stuck a match to watch it burn.
Fool thought external combustion makes a motor turn.

The more things change...

I said things just aren't the same
Not like when I did it.
I was late to bed and weary
No complaints, I hid it.

No one wants to take a chance
They're resting on their hand
They're repeating everything
They have no promised land.

When I did it things were better
Everything was different
I colored right between the lines
Except for when I didn't.

Now you, you would understand this
That risks are not for taking
And rules that are made to make things
Stay the same are not for breaking.

You, you sound a lot like them
The others that I fear
But even worse you're one of us
A someone that is near.

Hide it then, do not complain
Be weary and to bed
Just the same, then, do it
Like I did it then, he said.

In between

From hot, sweet breath to stutter'd gasps.  She shifts -

anon, I'll you see when I 'scape the lee -

as one from self-assured contentedness and lifts

the veil. Short shrift and vague indemnities

her indian imitations are. With her
I mourn the last and few; dry and musky
does not a pregnant month foretell, it's true.
This, the offering waved, we gain horizons.

At the scent a horse will wake and mosses
hold the granite fast.  Since the buyers leave
the basest traders flee and hinterlands
once bare are left to breathe.
                  

Fixed intelligence

Never scaled the ivory towers -
decided he couldn't
and drifted for awhile.

Found a place with cerulean collars and rolled-up sleeves
that suits oceanic egos and tidal intellects,
where straight-shooters trump straight-laced in most hands.

Twelve hours is a long time to do anything,
and you tell each other you've earned the chip on your shoulder.
And truly, you have.

Hard time in the Brick:
Trails of paperwork, training that missed the point,
and clean faces with brown noses garnering all the praise.

So maybe you lowered your own expectations and,
with them, your integrity.
Perhaps the third grade spelling bee is not reason enough
to abandon posture, balance, and civility.

Sweat does not interpose between God and man,
Nor does toil replace virtue.
They are the curse, not the salve.

Giving Graciously

One should give gifts, compliments and hospitality generously.  This, I suspect, is the beginning of moving beyond yourself.  One may also receive gifts, compliments and hospitality graciously.  This is an exercise in humility and is one I've had opportunity to practice repeatedly.  This is a less-taught, but widely reinforced social notion.  It's also an act of moving beyond the self, in that your self-sufficiency is sidelined in order to allow another to give of themselves.  I suspect the lesser-known cousin of these interconnected virtues is gracious giving.  

Giving, especially that which is extravagant or cannot be reciprocated, serves not only to humble the receiver, but to highlight social difference.  In itself, this has the potential to form strong bonds between people.  Take the example of child and parent - no child can ever begin to repay their parent for the sacrifice and generosity they have received.  In fact, to suggest they can would be tantamount to a break in relationship. I am indebted to David Graeber for this idea (Debt: The First 5000 Years).  And the examples abound of inequality rightly being a foundational prerequisite to kinship.  However, when the relationships are not akin to standard kinship lines, such as in direct peers, the exchange is different.  

If the unequal, extravagant giving/receiving is not accompanied by an equally deep relationship that is embraced by both parties, the effect is to highlight social or economic difference.  It may even be an insensitive show of power that humiliates the receiver, and may even lead to a break in relations.  

The girl refuses to receive a gift from a suitor, because she believes some strings may be attached.  The friend blanches at the generous offer, but receives it and feels eternally uncomfortable and indebted.  The recipient of charity hangs head, accepts what they know they cannot provide for their family, and tries to look thankful.  Saving face is impossible.

To sum, it is as incumbent on the giver to be gracious (or even restrained) as it is for the recipient to show gratitude.  That this is not discussed may be symptomatic of the fact that those on receiving end cannot allow themselves to even verbalize their reactions, should they be seen as ingrates. That we so strongly expect expressions of gratitude and even an attitude of humility on the part of recipients is telling; we are, to some degree, intentionally making a show of position and expect that others should recognize it.

Truly, the children of God have received the greatest gift, that of adoption into His family.  And for that we are eternally grateful and it draws us to Him.  In 1 John, we are told that the proper response to this great and unrepayable love of God is to love others and obey God's will.  "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are...We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. 17 How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?"  (1 Jn 3)   We are to help those in need, but as one that lays down their lives; this entails a complete surrender of future benefit or gratitude, of social recognition or even the chance to feel good about yourself after.  James also addresses the matter in James 2.  Inasmuch as he exhorts believers not to show partiality to those who are better dressed, the implicit expectation should also be that the believer also dress modestly so as not to encourage others to partiality and to show off to those less suave.  It is not just that we refrain from judgement, but that we do what we can to keep others from judgement as well.  Paul encouraged the Romans to abstain from causing others to stumble by eating meat sacrificed to idols (despite their freedom to do so); however, those he calls 'stronger' are not to respond by drawing away from the 'weaker'.  Rather, they are to build relationships with the 'weaker', all in the name pursuing peace and the ensuing unity of the body it brings: "16 So do not let your good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 The one who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and has human approval. 19 Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding." 

I suspect the only thing preventing this being applied universally is pride on the part of givers.  That we desire to give what we want, when we want, and how we want -- generosity on our terms -- is a consequence of the self-confidence and self-sufficiency we have because of our considerable ability to buy and spend.  If we can be thoughtless and careless consumers of goods, so too can we be thoughtless consumers of the personal benefits of philanthropy and hospitality.  "For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."  (Matt 5) Even those acting in love may be prone to insensitivity.

Let us give generously and graciously.  Let us give in knowledge of the utterly undeserved ability to give we have.  Let us mutually "be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ" (Eph 5:21).  

Slow burn

Ease back in an upturned wheelbarrow,
slump down and tip that cap over your eyes.
Nothing but the beat of the sun and a 2-stroke revving two yards over.
They only call them dog days that don't accept the heat
and shun the gentle sweat that comes when you saw and dig and lift.

Surely a kinship has always been of those familiar with such labours
A deep knowing of earthy things -
of tearing down and putting together;
of planting, pruning, and harvesting;
and none of it metaphorical.

Of eyeballing, jimmy-rigging, and other degrees of precision;
Of old dogs, young muscles, and new tricks.
Yes, ease back and take a load off as only those that bear one can.

The sound of words

Greta Garbo had a doozy.
A beauty by any name is just as sweet.
Alpha, beta, Garbo, delicious,
alliterative, and say-able;
a name that any house may hold.

M. Night Shmayalan is too hard to say
To top it off, it's not articulated as it appears,
like Wednesday, but not nearly so endearing.
Wednesday is a grey sweater, 63,
and not of much consequence.
But we all know Wednesday.

Ben Franklin had the right spell
when he gave hiz reezons for fonetiks
I'm not so easily put off by letters, though.
In fact, the crude pragmatics of z's where s's once were
distracted from the main, which is to say:
The pronouncements of an artful tongue are beauteous
without recourse to their ensymbolment.

Regret(s)

"I would rather feel contrition than know how to define it." - Imitation of Christ

Bent to pick up a nickel, brought to the ground
The forces of the earth, magnetic, pull down
A moment begat another of disappointment
Now I'm soothing my regret with a timeworn ointment

Two strokes on a page, lost will, in the ledger
It's a new page, but you know you're a repeat offender
Left the meek - when you were weak - by the side of the road
Guess that's why they call it abandon; can't say you didn't know

Whatever floats your boat is a ship to scuttle
And unrequited love is an urgent rebuttal
Every stick in the mud is reduced by a sickle
Should've known better than to pick up a nickel

Calling

"It is vanity to wish for long life and to care little about a well-spent life." - Imitation of Christ

Just found my calling, and I've been working here four years
Ever the optimist, the capitalist
The enterprising will,
I almost missed it.

There's no leveraging these skills.
This is it. Today is my big chance, again.
Exert 146 pounds of force, no less,
And be moved by the First Mover.

Well-read

Read wide without guidance
Like a squirrel, bulged cheeks
Devouring and hoarding
And the cache still reeks

Lusting and eager
More terrible than earnest
He's fracking the seams
To stoke up the furnace

Overseeing the pour
Forgetting the forms
The idea is dead
While the body's still warm

Each phrase like a key
On a ring in his head
"Boy's all right, and
He seems well-read."

Yep

Can't really tell if he's a philosophe or uniquely dim.
Pithy ejaculations of candour, insight and confusion.
The kind of guy you'd eat soup with.
He's much more interesting than people usually are,
and not only because he's an enigma or strangely entertaining.
He'd never harm a fly or even give em sass.
Even dogs know he's a good guy.
Word gets around, I guess.

This wooden house

Coldplay said "I wanna live in a wooden house, where makin more friends would easy."
It sounds good and made me feel warm and hopeful.
But I guess it must be a metaphor,
Cuz this house is my only new friend, and a leaky one at that.
Should've bought a hot tub.

The Ocean

I hate the ocean
It's far too wide
That black, salty expanse
of weeds and hidden animals
and endless horizons.
That's not my domain.
A lake is much better
if I see smoke of a distant campfire
then I know I'm not alone
Not like the Pacific.
And don't get me started on heaven.