One of the benefits of including a little poetry in these posts is the poems attract interesting, talented writers. One brief connection I have benefited from comes from a response to the previous posting about bad news exhaustion. I will share a quote from this poet’s website because the precise writing sets the questions of character in squarely in our minds. What follows is an excerpt:

Think about it. A thief knows he’s a thief. A liar, deep down, knows the truth he is hiding. But the man who donates to charity and then reminds the world of it every chance he gets .. . I mean!! Who’s more dangerous? Isn’t it ironic that we spend our lives being judged and judging others, like sinners holding trials for sinners, all because our sins just look different?

Yashasvi Khushu Saint or Sinner! Be a Paradox. (beaparadox.wordpress.com)

Contemporary poets tend to hop back and forth across the subtle line that separates poetry and parable. Poets are the front line of evolving language in sussing out new forms of expression when the vernacular has gone toxic. Great segments of our daily language have gone toxic due to misuse and abuse; particularly public political discourse. Yashasvi Khushu does a beautiful job of diagnosing a major part of this world’s woes in about three lines. How can one avoid the conclusion that sanctimonious people unaware of their own failings are the more dangerous.

A Modest Proposal for Good

Ban the words “great” and “perfect from the political discourse. This nation has never been perfect in all of its history and yet it has carried “great” aspirations. To aspire to ‘equality and justice for all‘ is, in fact, a great aspiration that we not only haven’t fully realized, but seem now to be dismissing as tedious and unnecessary. As individuals we carry aspirations of goodness that we can expect never to perfectly realize. So yes, ban those to words is they apply to our live’s and nation’s activities. We must aspire for certain, but do not erase the evidence of failures along the path of incremental success. Long live the true history of the United States. We can be proud so long as we avoid the poisonous sanctimony of perfection. Humility would be good.