It is July 4th, and if my arithmetic is correct, the Founding Fathers signed off on the Republic some 234 years ago.
As he left the signing, Benjamin Franklin was asked by a curious woman,”Sir, what have you given us?”
Franklin’s reply,”A Republic, Ma’am, if you can keep it.”
If you can keep it.
A friend sent me the following poem by Rumi…
Mowlana Jalaluddin Rumi, 1207-1273, a Persian mystic, poet, and philosopher, was cited by Life magazine back at the turn of the new millennium as one of the 100 most important individuals of the millennium. I still have that magazine copy. He came in ranked above Helen Keller.
This Rumi poem has a meaningful series of messages:
A Necesssary Autumn Inside Each
“You and I have spoken all these words, but as for the way we have to go, words
are no preparation. There is no getting ready, other than Grace. My faults
have stayed hidden. One might call that a preparation.
I have one small drop
Of knowing in my Soul. Let it dissolve in your ocean.
There are so many threats to it.
Inside each of us, there’s a continual autumn. Our leaves
fall and are blown out
over the water. A crow sits in the blackened limbs and talks about what’s gone. Then
your generosity returns: spring, moisture, intelligence, the scent of hyacinth and rose
and cypress. Joseph is back! And if you don’t feel in
yourself the freshness of
Joseph, be Jacob! Weep and then smile. Don’t pretend
to know something you haven’t experienced.
There’s a necessary dying, and then Jesus is
breathing again.
Very little grows on jagged
rock. Be ground. Be crumbled, so wildflowers will
come up where you are. You’ve been stony for too many years. Try something different.
Surrender.”
No Nonsense has put down her knitting, is eating her pancakes, and is reading James Howard Kunstler’s latest book, World Made by Hand. She says its good.
He also wrote The Long Emergency.
It’s time to go to the annual July 4th festivities downtown. The whole town turns out for the parade and celebrations.
Signing off from Crestone and Beyond.