The Polemic

He fights with his words.

He carefully forms arguments

to outdo those of the opposition.

He questions and challenges and problematizes.

He is cynical and disagreeable.

Sometimes he "wins,"

sometimes he doesn't.

But, at the heart,

does he care more about being the victor

or seeking the truth?

Cracking the Whip

My tongue

and lips and teeth and palates and larynx and trachea

scheme deviously,

working together to form sounds into words and phrases and sentences

that really should not emit from my mouth:

words and phrases and sentences that burn and deceive and destroy.

No matter how much I threaten these articulators

with the ferocious crack of my whip,

they continue to hatch their evil plans.

After becoming exhausted in my attempt to put them in line,

I find that I have been admonishing the wrong culprits;

the real mastermind

lies much deeper than its henchmen,

and cracking the whip

won't make it beat differently.

---

James 3:1-13

cup o'

or "cuppa," if you prefer.

a metaphor for many different things in many different countries,

thanks to the empire on which the sun formerly never set.

which metaphor shall i use?

i don't know.

but tonight, duke of earl the grey

soothes my coughy throat better than coffee

whilst another monarch soothes my soul -

He whose kingdom is infinitely greater than Queen Victoria's ever was.

The Fall.

the season of autumn, not the bite into the fruit.

though it is not scheduled to arrive until later this week,

i can already feel it blustering its way in.

i welcome it at the door.

it bears gifts of cool air, changed leaves, a different sunlight, mood music, and spicy, pumpkin-flavored everything.

i take its coat and hat.

"come in. take a seat. summer was just leaving."

it is not until summer gets up and bids me farewell that i realize how great its visit had been and how significant it was for my life.

i fight back a pang of distress as i watch it depart.

i return my attention to fall, and i see upon its face a fresh, new start.

it is only then that i am able to accept and cherish the summer for what it was,

but also to embrace this new season for what it is

and what it will be.

---

Ecclesiastes 3:11

A Tale of Autocentricity

I return

to the same zip code

changed.

A stranger in a familiar land.

My gray matter, selfish it may be,

secretly hopes that people realize

these changes, these developments, this newfangled maturity

gained during the half-year's absence.

I have lived, I tell you, lived!

My gray matter, selfish once again,

turns a blind eye to the fact

that others have lived

just as much

in the same amount of time.

As a result,

I expect everything else

and everyone else

to be the same

as when I left.

The truth,

as it often does,

recently knocked me over the head

and set that gray matter straight.

...and I'm thankful it did.

---

Philippians 2:4

Be tasty.

"Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice."

-Ephesians 4:31

Be salty salt.

Scratch that.

I am employed.

No, it's not my ideal job.

But, it's a job,

and after two months of searching,

I'm just glad to have one.

And actually, there are lots of great things about it.

When I list them in my mind, I laugh at my initial dismal reaction to the offer.

Above that, even, there's joy.

"The world don't give it and the world can't take it away..."