The ExitusPhoto by: Joe Finlinson – www.codefin.net
Nukes are under development in Tehran.
Iraq’s an undeclared civil war.
Poverty and disease ravage the African continent.
Heads buried in the sand; all attempting to ignore.
Polar icecaps melt at world record pace.
Bode Miller’s Olympics was a disgrace.
Muslims take revenge upon the world over a caricature.
Everyone’s attempting to save face.
The Enron trial has started.
GM and Ford restructure and rearrange.
China and India loom as the next superpowers.
Man! How quickly things do change.
To realize there was a time,
Upon this Earth His seed was sown.
I wonder what He thinks about all this right now?
About us, His seeds, who have grown.
As infants we were dependent,
Suckling on mother’s breast.
Mom wished we would hurry up,
Become self-sufficient, like the rest.
Then there came that moment,
When we could reach that stuff up on her shelf.
The beginnings of reaching into parental pockets,
The formation of me and mine: The prerequisites of self.
Schools, career, friends, patriotism and family
Socialized us into ‘we.’
Tastes, beliefs, attitudes and politics
Accelerate the definition of our affinity.
Yet, as ‘we‘ becomes formed for each of us,
Social distance from others arises along the way.
The ugly face of separateness
Fills the void with those now known as ‘they.’
‘They‘ has a sibling,
‘Them‘ is her first name.
The only thing these two care about
Is to create distance, misunderstanding, blame and shame.
One author has written about wisdom as
“not a shift from me to you, but a shift from me to us.”
I think he may have overlooked they and them.
The one’s who are an integral part of all this fuss.
Birthed as seed from The One,
Father, son, mother, daughter, sister and brothers.
We defile the sanctity of our heritage in accepting the notion
“We are all others.”
How do we move beyond all this?
Is His intention for His seed superfluous?
To tear down that which separates,
Perhaps this is our Exitus.
Notes:
1. Erwin Raphael McManus UPRISING, © 2003 by Erwin Raphael McManus, Nelson Books, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. Nashville, TN p. 240
2. From the television series “LOST” – NBC