OPEN GATE

 O Christ, who holds the open gate

O Christ, who holds the open gate,
O Christ who drives the furrow straight,
O Christ, the plow, O Christ, the laughter
of holy white birds flying after.

Lo, all my heart's field red and torn,
and thou wilt bring the young green corn,
the young green corn divinely springing,
the young green corn for ever singing.

And when the field is fresh and fair
thy blessèd feet shall glitter there,
and we will walk the weeded field,
and tell the golden harvest's yield.

The corn that makes the holy bread
by which the soul of man is fed,
the holy bread, the food unpriced,
thy everlasting mercy, O Christ. 

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https://artandtheology.org/2016/02/01/excerpts-from-the-everlasting-mercy-by-john-masefield/

In 1911 he wrote “The Everlasting Mercy,” a long poem that tells the tale of a man’s conversion from a life of sin to life in Christ. Masefield takes us down into the darkness felt by the poem’s antihero and speaker, Saul Kane—a belligerent drunk and a womanizer—and then up into the light he experiences when, in his own words, “the Lord took pity on me” and “brought me into grace.” The bulk of the poem takes place during one of Saul’s drinking binges:

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https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2009/4-december/faith/christ-holds-the-open-gate

JOHN MASEFIELD’s narrative poem The Everlasting Mercy (1911) is the searing tale of Saul Kane, a young reprobate who ultimately finds re­demption through Christ. His life is a playing out of the four great Advent themes of hell, death, judge­ment, and heaven. Lord Alfred Douglas called it “nine-tenths sheer filth”. It was denounced from pulpits, avidly recited in pubs, and hailed by J. M. Barrie as “incom­parably the finest literature”.

 

THE VOID

Jerusalem, Plate 1 (E 144)
[Frontispiece]  

[Above the archway:]

"There is a Void, outside of Existence, which if enterd into
Englobes itself & becomes a Womb, such was Albions Couch
A pleasant Shadow of Repose calld Albions lovely Land

His Sublime & Pathos become Two Rocks fixd in the Earth
His Reason his Spectrous Power, covers them above                
Jerusalem his Emanation is a Stone laying beneath
O [Albion behold Pitying] behold the Vision of Albion

[On right side of archway:]

Half Friendship is the bitterest Enmity said Los
As he enterd the Door of Death for Albions sake Inspired
The long sufferings of God are not for ever there is a Judgment 

[On left side, in reversed writing:]

Every Thing has its Vermin O Spectre of the Sleeping Dead!"

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Ian Marshall and Danah Zohar wrote a book, Who's Afraid of Schrodinger's Cat

"In Quantum Field Theory, things existing in the universe are conceived of as patterns of dynamic energy. The ground state of energy in the universe, the lowest possible state, is known as the quantum vacuum. It is called a vacuum because it cannot be measured directly; it is empty of "things." When we try to perceive the vacuum directly we are confronted with a "void", a background without features that therefore seems to be empty. In fact the vacuum is filled with every potentiality of everything in the universe.

"...Unseen and not directly measurable, the vacuum exerts a subtle push on the surface of existence, like water pushing on things immersed in it . ... It is as though all surface things are in constant interaction with a tenuous background of evanescent reality. ...The universe is not "filled" with the vacuum. Rather it is "written on" it or emerges out of it."

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Northrop Frye, The Double Vision;
Page 84
"If the spirit of man and the spirit of God inhabit the same world, that fact is more important than the theological relation between them."
 
Page 85
"There is nothing unique about death itself...
In the double vision of a spiritual and a physical world simultaneously present, every moment we have lived through we have also died out of into another order. Our life in the resurrection, then, is already here, and waiting to be recognized."  

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LISTEN

The Sound of Silence

Simon & Garfunkel

Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence

"Fools" said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence

Within the sound of silence

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Paul Simon

The Sound of Silence lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

CONNECTIONS

In our weekly family zoom call we touched on the unexpected connections in unpredictable ways which we come across a we travel through time and space. Rob mentioned seeing and meeting people in Thailand who went to the schools he attended. I though of the woman who sat next to me in Gainesville Meeting who had grown up in Algiers the same neighborhood as I did, although at a later date. Her father worked around the corner from my home. Mark was reminded of the close friend in San Luis Obispo who knew my father through another friend. I remarked that these surprising connections never really come directly but come through second or third parties. Often we have to probe below surface acquaintance to find the threads which tie us together.

I knew Sally had a sister who lives in New Orleans and who has one of the amazing stories to tell about surviving Hurricane Katrina, but I had never met her. A while back I learned that Sally's sister has a blog titled angels and people, life in New Orleans. It takes very little time to follow this blog because several times a week she will post a photograph which she has recently taken, along with a title which may suggest what she sees in it. I am grateful for the connection I discovered with Suzanna through Sally.

This I found particularly moving: Figure By Mount Olivet Cemetery fence

 

I try to hold this picture in my consciousness as reminder that we have built a wall between our comfortable, middle class existence and the lives of those whom we have excluded and denied opportunities because of race, class or traditional barriers. The walls will not fall of their own accord nor can they be removed by those who are imprisoned by them. We who built them, benefit by them, and who keep them in repair to protect ourselves, must be the ones who remove them.      

FAMILY

My thoughts have turned from my nuclear family to a wider, longer view of relatives and generations.

My parents provided my sister, brother and me with a secure comfortable childhood, in which there was no food insecurity, fear of abandonment or threat of physical violence. We grew up in the house we were born in, we lived in a established neighborhood where all necessary services were provided. Our parents worked together to maintain a unit which could endure the stresses of changing circumstances. We were blessed with good health, a variety of neighbors, caring teachers and adequate finances. 

We three children each met expectations: we made friends, studied for school, graduated from college, married and produced another generation to follow. If we were a disappointment to our parents, they never let us know it.

Looking from this perspective, everything was simple, straightforward and predictable. But there is another way of looking at family history. Both Mother and Daddy were from broken homes: Mother lost her Papa when she was 10 and moved from the country to the city. Daddy's father was an alcoholic whose wife and four children had to live in an orphanage.

My sister and her husband adopted a son before two more sons were born.
My father's sister and her husband (an alcoholic) adopted a daughter.
My oldest son, who did not marry, looked after an underprivileged child in his neighborhood.

Among my sister, brother and I, we have 7 natural children and 7 grandchildren. However through the adopted son and the informally adopted daughter there are three more grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

The point I am trying to make is that family is more than direct descends or blood relatives. Family is the unit of people who claim one another. We are fortunate if our family extends beyond the nuclear family because each member who enters has unique contributions to make to the others.

In this family picture are:
The woman who lost her father at 10,
The woman who grew up in an orphanage and adopted a daughter, 
A child who was a friend of the family.

The building is known as the camp, our version of a vacation home. It is about 15 feet from the bayou which floods in hurricanes. In fact it is now on stilts because of the extreme flooding during recent hurricanes required that it be raised.

I think that the total message of this post is that there are no pretensions in our family. We accept what comes to us, we apply ourselves to finding solutions. The important thing is not to think of yourself as a victim; depend upon your personal assets and upon the strength of the family to pitch in when needed.

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Joel & Austin