Inspiring look back at the future
Dear Readers:
I've been having a difficult time finding inspiration for the New Year, so I looked back at my 2002 message which still applies. Two poems give it heart.
What can we each do in our daily lives to support real peace and safety in the world? We can pull back in fear and isolate ourselves from the many problems around us, focusing on doing OK individually. Or, we can turn around this time of confusion and hopelessness by reaching out and doing more for our family, our friends, our communities, and those less fortunate.
It's tempting to play it safe, cling to simple answers, and to stop questioning and struggling with complex issues. Instead, let's listen and learn more, speak out, and connect with others to make our world a healthy and beautiful place for everyone, now and in the future. We are all needed to work for a peaceful and loving New Year.
To be of use
The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallow
sand swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.
I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who stand in the line and haul in their places,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carryand a person for work that is real.
Marge Piercy
From ''Circles on the Water" by Marge Piercy
Copyright 1982, Marge Piercy Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
#919
If I can stop one Heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one Life the Aching
Or cool one Pain
Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again
I shall not live in Vain.
Emily Dickinson
Beth can be reached at askbeth@globe.com.
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