The Dragon of Tenderness

If she be all tenderness, she will die. If she survive, the tenderness will either be crushed out of her, or—and the outward semblance is the same—crushed so deeply into her heart that it can never show itself more.” ~from The Scarlet Letter

I know what it is like to be able to not cry.  I taught myself not to cry when my ex-husband ranted and raged at me.  He knew the things to say that would cut me deepest.  I thought I was holding the family together.  So foolish.  I would not raise my voice and attempt to state my position in a clear, logical manner.  What a nightmare.

Nathaniel Hawthorne describes my feeling in the latter portion of this excerpt from his book.  I do not know yet if tenderness will truly never show itself more, but I know my heart.  I have too great a propensity for kindness and love.  I know that my deep wounds will heal in time.  My endeavor will be to train myself in self-protection.

to Know & be Known

I just spent the weekend with many of the most precious people on earth to me:  my family.  My parents, brothers, sisters-in-law, and nieces.

I'm grateful for the time we spend together.  I still find myself wishing to know each of them more fully.

"Fix Me, Jesus"

from "Joyful Noise"

"Fix Me", lyrics by Johnny Fields

for Memorial Day: Grass, a poem by Carl Sandburg

Grass

BY CARL SANDBURG

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.

Shovel them under and let me work—

                                          I am the grass; I cover all.

And pile them high at Gettysburg

And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.

Shovel them under and let me work.

Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:

                                          What place is this?

                                          Where are we now?

                                          I am the grass.

                                          Let me work.

shared from:  http://www.poetryfoundation.org

          I can feel all the weight of the concepts he is imparting to the reader here.  Memorial Day has different meanings to each of us, but the older I get, the more firmly I believe in keeping history fresh in our minds & teaching it to our children.  

          Human nature doesn't really evolve over time.  The same twin lusts for power & control that have been the genesis for major events throughout history must be discerned, identified, & rooted out by each successive generation in order for civilization to move forward.  

          Thank you to all who have served and are serving in the armed forces of the greatest country on earth.  Thank you to the families of those servicemen & servicewomen, for the burdens you've carried.

Life Isn't a Highway

It's a treadmill

or maybe a hamster wheel.

Anyway, its cyclical.

Maybe Tom Cochrane's life is a highway,

& he's really goin' somewhere.

Mine's more of the hamster wheel

or maybe a hamster ball,

because if I ever do get somewhere

I probably won't really be there.

I will just be looking through a window.

which Jane Austen heroine are you?

the sincerest form

Imitation is

the sincerest form

of flattery.

--  Charles Caleb Cotton