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Sunday, July
22, 2007
The lesson for the day:
Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain
village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And
she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at
Jesus' feet, and heard his word.
But Martha was cumbered about with much serving, and came to him,
and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve
alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art
careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful; and Mary
hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Luke 10:38-42
The Sons of Martha
Rudyard Kipling
The Sons of Mary seldom bother,
for they have inherited that good part;
But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother
of the careful soul and the troubled heart.
And because she lost her temper once,
and because she was rude to the Lord her Guest,
Her Sons must wait upon Mary's Sons,
world without end, reprieve, or rest.
It is their care in all the ages
to take the buffet and cushion the shock.
It is their care that the gear engages;
it is their care that the switches lock.
It is their care that the wheels run truly;
it is their care to embark and entrain,
Tally, transport, and deliver duly
the Sons of Mary by land and main.
They say to mountains ``Be ye removèd.''
They say to the lesser floods ``Be dry.''
Under their rods are the rocks reprovèd---
they are not afraid of that which is high.
Then do the hill-tops shake to the summit---
then is the bed of the deep laid bare,
That the Sons of Mary may overcome it,
pleasantly sleeping and unaware.
They finger Death at their gloves' end
where they piece and repiece the living wires.
He rears against the gates they tend:
they feed him hungry behind their fires.
Early at dawn, ere men see clear,
they stumble into his terrible stall,
And hale him forth like a haltered steer,
and goad and turn him till evenfall.
To these from birth is Belief forbidden;
from these till death is Relief afar.
They are concerned with matters hidden---
under the earthline their altars are---
The secret fountains to follow up,
waters withdrawn to restore to the mouth,
And gather the floods as in a cup,
and pour them again at a city's drouth.
They do not preach that their God will rouse them
a little before the nuts work loose.
They do not preach that His Pity allows them
to drop their job when they damn-well choose.
As in the thronged and the lighted ways,
so in the dark and the desert they stand,
Wary and watchful all their days
that their brethren's ways may be long in the land.
Raise ye the stone or cleave the wood
to make a path more fair or flat;
Lo, it is black already with the blood
some Son of Martha spilled for that!
Not as a ladder from earth to Heaven,
not as a witness to any creed,
But simple service simply given
to his own kind in their common need.
And the Sons of Mary smile and are blessèd---
they know the Angels are on their side.
They know in them is the Grace confessèd,
and for them are the Mercies multiplied.
They sit at the feet---they hear the Word---
they see how truly the Promise runs.
They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and---
the Lord He lays it on Martha's Sons!
===========================
I have done the letter column, and I am doing next week's column, having
skipped a week. Then I get to work on Inferno. And then I get to read Harry
Potter. I've read the first few chapters, including where Ginny decides to
give Harry a very memorable birthday present.
==========
I hate to say I told you so, but I have no choice. It was stupid to
invade Iraq. National Review and the egregious Frum to the contrary, this
took no brains to understand. It only took some analysis of upsides and
downsides, and questioning the "intelligence" provided by Chalabi the Thief
and the Iraqi Exile community.
I'll be working on an essay on the disastrous consequences of the Iraq
invasion, and the dreary alternatives we now face as a result of the neocon
Jacobinism that sent us in there. Note that the difference between
Republicans and Democrats was that while both professed to believe in
Jacobinism -- Clinton sent us in to bomb Serbs in order to force them to
make territorial concessions to Albania -- the neocons got control of the
government and acted as if they really believed their Jacobin slogans. Iraq
would fall, and the people would rise up and welcome us as liberators.
Within every heart burns this desire for freedom. We would bring them
freedom. They would not use the freedom to count coup on their enemies and
settle old scores. Instead they would submit to the rule of law, vote for
social progress, and all would be well, and all would be well. We would have
an ally in the Middle East, a place to build watch towers and station the
fleet East of Suez, and all would be well, and all would be well.
Instead we have boosted the fortunes of al Qaeda; formerly merely a
detested surreptitious ally of Saddam who saw them only as a means of
striking back at his enemies, al Qaeda has become something else, and the
resources we might have used in Afghanistan to end al Qaeda forever when we
had them on the run were squandered in Mesopotamia, so that we did not
complete the Afghan recovery.
It is still the case that the best place to fight your enemies is on
someone else's territory. When you upset a wasp nest you must kill the
wasps, or they will sting you. See
mail.
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