Easily Spoken But Hard to Live By

None of my tears were shed

at the news that a strident voice

was forever silenced. 

Last time I heard it 

I was buying parts to repair a sink drain.

The store echoed with venom 

spewed from radio speakers 

spreading spurious lies 

in the fertile soil of ears of damaged hearts 

tuned with reverence to that frequency. 

Though they should not have been

my eyes were soon surprised 

at what quickly appeared 

on screens large and small. 

Words dripping with scorn 

gleefully piled up like rotting flowers

on a grave yet to be dug 

following the example set

by the one their words 

were meant to vilify. 

Tears of sadness welled up

as my heart was brought down

in recognition of what we’ve really lost.

Mountaintop words to live and love by 

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you”* 

ignored or worse, subverted: 

In everything do to others as they have done to you. 

Never get mad, just get even! 

The downward spiral imperils us 

and challenges us to embrace the upward way. 

To go low or go high 

that is the question. 

To live what we too easily proclaim 

that is the challenge. 

To rise above our childish inclinations 

that is the way Jesus trains us to go. 

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil, 

but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 

If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, 

live peaceably with all.”** 

  *Matthew 7. 12, NRSV                                                                       **Romans 12. 17-18, NRSV