True Love

Tonight Vicki and I watched my favorite movie of all time, The Princess Bride. 

It has everything—fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, miracles, humor, grandfather and grandson, uncountable treasured phrases and…most of all, true love. 

After the movie ended, I went to the study and opened the book (that may be better than the movie) to this passage:

If your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches…. I have stayed these years in my hovel because of you. I have taught myself languages because of you. I have made my body strong because I thought you might be pleased by a strong body. I have lived my life with only the prayer that some sudden dawn you might glance in my direction. I have not known a moment in years when the sight of you did not send my heart careening against my rib cage. I have not known a night when your visage did not accompany me to sleep. There has not been a morning when you did not flutter behind my waking eyelids.

That's the way I have felt about my true love who sleeps softly by my side and fills my dreams with loveliness.

Tyrants All Our Politicians Be

Tyrants all our politicians be

They care no whit for me and thee

Re-election remains their lone concern

They try all tricks our vote to earn

With fingers up they test the wind

To find the way their vote to send

They fund and follow a focus group

To seek new means to lie and dupe

Special interest votes they fear to loose

Careful calculation tells whom they choose

They have no care for wrong or right

Their self-serving serves our nation’s blight

Lobbyists' gifts provide peevish politiced blood 

For from their vote does prohibited money flood

Terms with no limits spawn disaffected harlotry

So from our system springs reelected larceny 

Coda:

When with misfortune and disgrace our nation dies

When her lofty honor rudely fades forsaken

In Christ alone our victory lies

For faith fulfills his fully firm foundation

Sonnet One

I was in a tender mood to write a word of encouragement so I decided to write a sonnet. 

Bad mistake.  

Sonnet writing poses great difficulties. If the "poet" is a little off the poem is corny, banal, cloying, mawkish, schmaltzy, soppy. You get the point. If you don't just read Sonnet I and you will understand what I mean.

Attempting to get the rhyme scheme--ABAB CDCD EFEF GG--stretched my mind so severely that a headache appeared unannounced and unexpected. (I hardly ever have a headache.) 

Rhyming ruined my quest for iambic pentameter. 

I, who knows nothing about poetry, believe iambic pentameter is much more important than rhyming. 

My opinion: a poem without a beat is written by an amateur. Or if there is a beat that goes on and on and then the beat is missed for a verse or two--ugg. 

Another opinion: Free verse is like playing tennis without a net. Now this statement will have John Chiardi rise up from the grave and Michael Myers me. 

I certainly have a lot of opinions for someone who knows nothing about poetry. (And for someone who can't write a sonnet.) 

Although my sonnet makes Dick and Jane a Pulitzer Prize contender, I spent so much time on it (about three hours) that I entered it here. 

As Hemingway said--and I paraphrase:"never throw away anything you write and use it as many times as you can." 

Sonnet I

Tragic time has taught me thus to ruminate

That ruin will come and take our peace away.

Hungry ocean, raging river dost life eliminate.  

No one can stop wreckful winds that storm the day.

Lofty towers lie twisted on swampy ground.

The unfled, those poor and ag'ed, endure despair

As polluted waters their homes doth surround

Knees bow, tongues confess in humble prayer.

With each breath breathed fortitude inspires

Courageous confidence in our God omnipotent.

For faith, hope and love with us he shares

Fortifying assurance in his kingdom infinite.

His sweet grace remember’d such faith brings 
That we seek permanence in him, the eternal King.

      

Tomorrow the Sun Will Rise

The tragedy wrought by Hurricane Florence reminded me of the hit movie Cast Away. May the Cast Away message bring encouragement to those who have suffered a series of unfortunate events. 

In an early scene Tom Hanks’ character, Chuck, delivers a lecture on the intrinsic value of our response when chance events enter our lives. 

Chuck declares that our response to events determines the difference between gain and loss, success and failure, life and death. 

A few scenes later, a horrific plane crash isolates Chuck on a remote island in the Pacific with nothing but a pocket watch, a pager, and several FedEx packages that washed ashore with him. 

Memories of loved ones spur Chuck to survive on whatever he can claim from the land and sea. Ingenuity and a gift brought by the tide eventually get him off the island. 

Later, at home, in Memphis, trying to reacquaint himself with those things that make life worth living, he reviews his experience with his best friend. 

Mid-way through the scene, Chuck talks about his previous fiancée, Kelly, who has since married another man: 

A few days after the crash I realized I had lost Kelly because I was never going to get off that island. 

I was going to die there; totally alone. I had power over nothing! 

That’s when this feeling came over me like a warm blanket. I knew, somehow, that I had to stay alive. 

Somehow I had to keep breathing even though there was no reason to hope. So that’s what I did. I stayed alive. I kept breathing. 

Then one day the tide came in gave me a sail! And now here I am. I’m back in Memphis talking to you and I’ve lost her all over again. 

I’m so sad that Kelly married another man when everyone thought I had died in the crash. And now after the struggle to survive I don’t have Kelly. 

But I’m so grateful her memory was with me on that island. 

And I know what I have to do now. Got to keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise! 

Today's courageous hope brings tomorrow's sunshine.

Ten Steps to a Simplified Life

With Hurricane Florence bearing down on Wilmington, NC, home to our son and his family, they fled to our home in Blacksburg, VA. 

Safe and dry, we discussed the goods they brought with them—nothing. Well…they did bring a few clothes and toiletries but that was it. 

Most of our luxuries are dispensable. 

And many of the so-called comforts of life prevent us from cultivating those things that are good for the soul—love of God and family, friendship, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, self-control, wisdom and service. 

Here are some ideas for simplifying our lives. 

1. Buy things because they are needed, not for status
2. Reject any possession that leads to addiction
3. De-accumulate 
4. Refuse manipulation by advertisements
5. Enjoy giving things away
6. Develop a deep appreciation for nature and the natural
7. Restrict credit card buying
8. Refuse any possession that causes repression in others
9. Buy nothing on credit
10. Serve others