Diatribe: We Wade in Soup

IMG_3657 If you read this you will learn I disagree with you profoundly

Not only in word but in deed

You will discover that I have been listening and rather than

Blindly taking you in I have been taking notes

You have created an armor of self-righteousness about you

But you haven’t been righteous

You trampled past the least of these

Wearing the mantle of Samaritan – good and bedecked in glory

While the wounded lay bleeding smack dab in the middle of the road

You didn’t even notice

You were on a mission

And that gave you permission to disregard

The bodies you left in your wake

To leave people crying

Scarred, scared and confused

You trampled past the earth’s pains

Scoffed at the neediness around you

Calling it want

Finding it weak

You wrapped yourself in superiority and called it authenticity

Donned a suit of narcissism and heralded it mindfulness

You spoke of love

But knew no intimacy

You talked of God

And anointed yourself one

 

Do I sound angry, defensive even?

You bet I am

There is nothing so self-serving

As a doctrine that shuts out discourse

A Paradise without freewill

God knew this

 

He created Paradox

Reveled in it even

Cried tears of blood

At the sacrifice he made

For messy creatures

Even came to wade in their soup

And when Lazarus died he was sorry for the loss

Though he knew a better day was coming

He never once turned from his pain

 

He embraced all that it meant to be human

In a garden, in a stable

In an earth that’s being eaten alive

He never turned his face from it

And, the animals and the dust that you deem less

He knew would cry out his name

 

Demons aren’t around every corner

They’re in you

And, they disguise themselves as love

Metered out and measured

Given out to some and not to others

On a whim

 

You are not a person

But a spirit, an idea

That has taken over an age

Of what it means to be good

And right and

Justified

 

Let me tell you…

 

It’s not good enough