Jack Pelham

He could love others, perhaps,
If he thought it would fill him up
Any better than being loved by others—
And by himself, of course.

He desperately needs my help
With errands from time to time,
As he’s sick, can’t hold a job,
And has neither car nor phone.

If you’re going to have faith, then get on with it!

If you’re going to have faith, you don’t need to have some sort of affirming interaction from God every five minutes. That’s not faith; that’s either worry, or it’s severe immaturity—and neither is good.

He was a genuinely kind man,
Which, at the time, struck me
As simply normal—
Life having not yet taught me
How rare a thing it actually is.

It would make sense to me
If in heaven it takes some time
For the newcomers to decompress
From the pressures of this weary world.

I have seen it so many times, this corporate love-bombing, by which a corporation starts out offering what is best for the customer, so as to lure them into doing business, and then compromises the goods or services to make the deal sweeter for the corporation—hoping either that the customer won’t notice, or won’t care enough to leave the relationship.

I suppose it’s at that very bottom-most level of self
Where the most important things go wrong—
Below the levels where the more-tangible things happen,
Like language and plans and emotions and analysis—
At our very core, where the human will lives,
Often in the shadows, and hiding from the view
Of own awareness in those upper levels.

The one who loves the truth
Will learn how to get at it.

The others, not so much.

When you defend the bad deeds of

• your government
• your country
• your party
• your church
• your leaders
• your school
• your team
• your company
• your boss
• your mentor
• your friends
• your parents
• your siblings
• your spouse
• your kids
• your extended family
• your captors
• your enemies, or
• yourself

Perhaps you are an exceptional individual, having trained your own mind much more than your neighbors train theirs. And perhaps it’s quite obvious that your own priorities have been chosen with more diligence and care than they choose their priorities. Perhaps the things you think about and study and promote are considerably more advanced than your neighbors are willing to invest themselves in. And perhaps, if they would listen to you and invest in some of these things, it would make the world around you a considerably better place.