STORY OF ISAAC

Faith and hope and love.

Abraham and Isaac.

Sacrifice and redemption.

Lambs and children.

Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, "Father!" "Here I am my son." "The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Abraham said, "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.

War is where a nation sacrifices its youth upon the altar of its values. "To have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom." Abraham Lincoln

Leonard Cohen published Song of Isaac in Songs from a Room,1969. It is powerfully anti-war.

Story Of Isaac from Songs From A Room

The door it opened slowly, my father he came in,

I was nine years old.

And he stood so tall above me, his blue eyes they were shining

and his voice was very cold.

He said, "I've had a vision and you know I'm strong and holy,

I must do what I've been told."

So he started up the mountain,

I was running, he was walking,

and his axe was made of gold.

Well, the trees they got much smaller, the lake a lady's mirror,

we stopped to drink some wine.

Then he threw the bottle over.Broke a minute later

and he put his hand on mine.

Thought I saw an eagle but it might have been a vulture,

I never could decide.

Then my father built an altar,

he looked once behind his shoulder,

he knew I would not hide.

You who build these altars now to sacrifice these children,

you must not do it anymore.

A scheme is not a vision and you never have been tempted

by a demon or a god.

You who stand above them now, your hatchets blunt and bloody,

you were not there before,

when I lay upon a mountain and my father's hand was trembling

with the beauty of the word.

And if you call me brother now, forgive me if I inquire,

"Just according to whose plan?"

When it all comes down to dust

I will kill you if I must,

I will help you if I can.

When it all comes down to dust

I will help you if I must,

I will kill you if I can.

And mercy on our uniform,

man of peace or man of war,

the peacock spreads his fan.

FINALLY SPRING

Water in the canal and ducks for the first time since fall and it's sixty degrees. Finally its spring.
But my thoughts have gone to other times and other climes.
A girl I knew a long time ago. There is still poetry in my soul.

WHO,WHAT,WHEN,WHERE,WHY?

Many a Sunday morning I find myself asking myself those very same questions.

The first four are fairly easy, the last one can be tough.

Freshman journalism class.

In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God

Kennedy-King Memorial, Kennedy-King Park, 17th & Broadway.This was the site Bobby Kennedy was to give a campaign speech April 4, 1968 which became a eulogy for Martin Luther King, Jr. and a plea for peace."I have bad news for you, for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and killed tonight.Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice for his fellow human beings, and he died because of that effort.In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black--considering the evidence there evidently is that there were white people who were responsible--you can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization--black people amongst black, white people amongst white, filled with hatred toward one another.Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man. But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to go beyond these rather difficult times.My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: "In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.So I shall ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, that's true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love--a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times; we've had difficult times in the past; we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder.But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land.Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people."

Just words.