Jack Pelham

If children should be trained,
Then let them be trained
Not only to shut a door
That ought to be shut,
But to do so without slamming it—
For both are delights in a weary world.

Dear Reader,
Let us have some fun while discussing important things.
Jack

I can tell you from experience—

And I’ll just pause right here to let you know in advance (for those who’d rather have a heads-up about this sort of thing) that I’m pausing right here to launch into a little demonstration that I hope will set the stage for the point I’ll make eventually in this ever-lengthening short article—which I hope you will opine at length to be brilliant—the point, that is, and not the article itself—although writing a brilliant article is always a nice accomplishment if you can manage it, I believe—

I just did a search, and was amused with the results.

Dear Preacher,
Would you please show your math?
Sincerely,
Jack

So many spend their lives
Avoiding the questions—
Swatting as if at gadflies
That could have
No conceivable purpose
In a proper world.

They prefer the peace
Of incuriosity
To the rigors of learning
As some prefer the chair
To the path.

It is easier to assume—
When one finds it beneficial—
That what we see now is all there ever was.

And thus, by that simple trick in the mind,
Are destroyed in one’s imagination
The possibility of any of a number of
Things previously reported—
To wit, God and Jesus and the angels,
(Holy and otherwise)
And heaven and the underworld
And the giants and the spirits
And the flood and the other miracles.

At the end of the day,
They do not think it
Their responsibility
To understand,
But only to nod along.

And this explains
A great deal.

In popular Christianity, many have been taught that
To say they are all in is to be all in.

It is for them a religion of mere declaration,
Beyond which God does most all the work
And they themselves are mostly unaccountable.

You can call me crazy, but I submit
That a person who would think
Such a religion as that to be right
Has got himself seriously twisted.

And such a person would agree with me
If we were discussing the same principles
As they relate to a different subject,
For who in this world thinks that a spouse
Or an athlete or an employee is all in
Just for having said so?

He is frustrated that they will not heed
His corrections on how they have
Misinterpreted the Bible—
As if it were a serious
Cognitive error—
When really
It is much
Worse.
It does not
Occur to him
That the reason
They are in error is
That they have ignored
Also the counsel of the rest
Of the scriptures of God himself.
And so fails the will beyond the mind.

Listen closely to me and I will tell you
The terrible difference between two men
That sets them apart as Light and Darkness.

The one sees self-correction as a life-giving duty
By which he blesses himself and those around him.

The other counts it useless and a betrayal of his own soul.