Jack Pelham

If you want to keep the Big Tent filled,
You’ll have to sacrifice a thousand details
At the altar of Mindlessness
In order to get the sort of
Unquestioning loyalty you’ll need
To keep things running smoothly.

Did anything ever happen in the sky
That is not happening now?

And is what we see now
All there ever was?

There are two kinds of kindness in this world—
The commoner kind having in mind
Only the earthly sensibilities,
And the other taking the broader view
Under the influence of Heaven.

It’s amazing what marvelous and life-altering ideas
Can pass unnoticed under the radar
Of someone who’s not looking for new ideas.

I coined the term “Interpretation Neglect” a fear years back so I could talk about how people tend to gloss over the possibility that they could be wrong in the way they’re understanding things. You can see how I define it in the meme below.

OK, please be honest.

What kind of person—
Knowing nothing of it in advance,
And sitting down to read the Bible
For the first time—
Would decide at the conclusion
That the proper response to the story
Is to get up and build a holy building?

I have long thought that
What we most want to know
About the people we meet
Is whether they will hurt us.

A man can be wise about this world—
Yet not about the next—
And those who are like him
Will think him wise enough.

You’d not believe that there could be
A church upon a fence.
But that’s indeed what I saw once,
And ain’t forgot it since!

A fella had to climb the fence
To get up to the door.
And once inside, choose left or right
So’s neither had the more.

And I confess, I climbed inside
To visit for a while—
To spy on how the church could be
So balanced ‘crost its aisle.

And they would talk of Heaven there
And also talk of Hell,
But if they much preferred the one,
I’m not sure I could tell.

I mean, they talk talked of Heaven like
It’s sure the place to be,
But harbored many evils like
They loved Hell equally.

And though the most were smiling and
Seemed glad enough at first,
I sensed at length they were on edge—
And some about to burst!

But most had learned to manage and
To keep themselves in check,
Not asking many questions lest
They cause an utter wreck.

For they had learned the balance of
Not caring very much,
And questions had a way of shifting
Hearts and minds and such.

So any strong conviction such
As love and hatred are—
Or right and wrong—or good and bad—
Could coax them out too far.

And so they hated any change,
For such might rock their boat.
And all they really wanted was
To rest a while and float.

For God had set their souls onto
This embattled Earth,
Yet they would rather skip the fight
And spend their days in mirth.

But as for me, I’ve figured out that
I must give my all—
My heart and mind and soul and strength—
For this I heard him call.

So I could not stay with them in
That church atop a fence,
But they’re still going at it,
Staying balanced ever since.

And I do sometimes wonder what
They’ll think as each moves on
To meet the Lord in person at
His righteous, heav’nly home—

For he will tell them bluntly that
He has no balanced bride,
And there’s no church atop a fence
Where they can run and hide.

A man walks the road of life,
Caring as he cares along the way
And doing as he does—
And enjoying the routine
As he may.

And if he walks long enough, he will
Surely come to a dilemma of the sort
Where the road will not go where he wants,
And stubbornly presents two undesirable options—

The one being that some certain problem
In this world cannot be solved without
The inspiring and organizing of many people
To pull together in the same direction—

And the other being that he has
Chanced upon a problem that
Simply cannot be solved at all,
And must rather be endured.

And this is the fork at which
It’s sometimes hard to tell
Which of these two distasteful ideas
A person will have a harder
Time accepting.

And being like so many others,
Our man falters at the fork,
Not liking either option of the two,
And choosing instead the surprising third—

Which is to march in place,
Still caring as he cares
And doing as he does—
As if expecting that some better option
Should soon present itself—
And until then,
Counting his caring
And his doing
As his proper duty—
And his marching in place
As progress.