Category: Death in the Family

December 12 – plan, plan, plan, plan, plan

plan, plan, plan, plan, plan
plan, plan, plan, plan, plan, plan, then
hide in Samarra

The Appointment in Samarra

There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me.

She looked at me and made a threatening gesture, now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate.

I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me.

The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went.

Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threating getsture to my servant when you saw him this morning?

That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise.

I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight … in Samarra.

( The speaker is Death – as retold by W. Somerset Maugham – 1933)

November 22 – troubles we suffer

troubles we suffer
memory of pain drips in hearts
so we gain wisdom

Wisdom comes through suffering.
Trouble, with its memories of pain,
Drips in our hearts as we try to sleep,
So men against their will
Learn to practice moderation.
Favours come to us from gods.

― Aeschylus, Agamemnon

Aeschylus (c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian. He is often described as the father of tragedy. Academics’ knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in the theater and allowed conflict among them; characters previously had interacted only with the chorus. (Wikipedia)

Agamemnon

Aeschylus begins in Greece describing the return of King Agamemnon from his victory in the Trojan War, from the perspective of the towns people (the Chorus) and his wife, Clytemnestra. However, dark foreshadowings build to the death of the king at the hands of his wife, who was angry at his sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia, who was killed so that the gods would restore the winds and allow the Greek fleet to sail to Troy. She was also unhappy at his keeping of the Trojan prophetess Cassandra as a concubine. Cassandra foretells of the murder of Agamemnon, and of herself, to the assembled townsfolk, who are horrified. She then enters the palace knowing that she cannot avoid her fate. The ending of the play includes a prediction of the return of Orestes, son of Agamemnon, who will seek to avenge his father. (Wikipedia)

November 18 – Couldn’t keep it in

Couldn’t keep it in
Let it go, so, let it go
Turn away, slam the door

Disney song on a Monday morning?

When I was a kid, Disney songs were all pretty light hearted and happy tunes.

Whistle While You Work, Zip a Dee Doo Dah and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Light hearted, saccharine and fairly meaningless.

Got me thinking of music class Crestview Elementary School.

We had a weekly visit from a music teacher and we learned songs for the school wide spring concert.

One year, sometime in the late 19060’s, when the music teacher must have been right out of college when learned tunes from Simon and Garfunkel (59th street Bridge Song), Peter, Paul and Mary (Leaving on Jet Plane) and Bob Dylan (Blowing in the wind).

I guess it was a bit much for the school board and the next spring we sang Lets Go Fly a Kite and Chim Chim Cher-ee from Mary Poppins.

But I digress.

I have heard this song for years.

I never seen the movie, but my a lot of my grand children’s toys play it over and over again.

While there is much discussion to the meaning of this song and the role its plays in the movie and what is portrayed as an allegory, it is the phrase, let it go, that sticks in my mind.

Recent news from family up north has put choices of life and death into focus.

So many things, issues, hurts and concerns lose their importance when the either – or of life and death are truly in mind.

Let it go.

Slam that door.

But that leaves the question, what does matter here on earth?

Assuring yourself of a salvation throughout eternity stands out.

But what about the here and now.

What matters?

I was stuck by a passage this passage of prose.

“… there does come a point in life where a great deal that used to worrisome simply becomes easier.
It is surprising how easy life can get.
A man and a woman look at each other across the breakfast table and realize it’s been a long time since they’ve had bad feelings about each other, these two who’ve gone through rough patches when big arguments could come up suddenly out of nowhere that left them emotionally drained and sorrowful for days, and now it feels as if they’ve turned a corner found something easy, a simple pleasure in each other, in their domestic arrangements, in their mutual life …”

Garrison Keilor, Life Among the Lutherans, Augsburg Books, 2009 (Church Organist, Page 77)

September 1 – prismatic sunlight

prismatic sunlight
private rainbows on the wall
God’s promise and me

Using the phrase, reflections on a sunny more, treads too close to a pun so I won’t say it.

Sitting this morning with coffee.

Seeing the morning sunlight hit the window glass at the right angle to create a prismatic effect and display a rainbow on the wall.

On one of those mornings when you decide to take a pad and draw a line down the middle and list all today’s pluses on the left and minuses on the right.

The left is side is lean.

The right side needs a second page.

Then, there is rainbow on the wall.

And its just for me.

Just the message I needed to start today.

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

Genesis 6:12-17 (NIV)