[Sunset Cliffs Park, San Diego,CA]
There’s a story going around; maybe you’ve heard it? Here it is:
ONE EVENING, AN ELDERLY
CHEROKEE BRAVE TOLD HIS
GRANDSON ABOUT A BATTLE THAT
GOES ON INSIDE PEOPLE.
HE SAID “MY SON, THE BATTLE IS
BETWEEN TWO ‘WOLVES’ INSIDE US ALL.
ONE IS EVIL. IT IS ANGER,
ENVY, JEALOUSY, SORROW,
REGRET, GREED, ARROGANCE,
SELF-PITY, GUILT, RESENTMENT,
INFERIORITY, LIES, FALSE PRIDE,
SUPERIORITY, AND EGO.
THE OTHER IS GOOD.
IT IS JOY, PEACE LOVE, HOPE SERENITY,
HUMILITY, KINDNESS, BENEVOLENCE,
EMPATHY, GENEROSITY,
TRUTH, COMPASSION AND FAITH.”
THE GRANDSON THOUGH ABOUT
IT FOR A MINUTE AND THEN ASKED
HIS GRANDFATHER:
“WHICH WOLF WINS?…”
THE OLD CHEROKEE SIMPLY REPLIED,
“THE ONE THAT YOU FEED” *
I’ve been thinking a lot about that story. And which wolf I’m feeding. Which means, for me, answering a very simple, basic question: How do I spend my time? Guess what? I spend a lot of time purposely putting myself in situations where I can feel outraged! (They don’t call it “righteous indignation for nuthin,’ you know.) Apparently I like being upset. I am feeding that arrogant, angry, superior and, I might add, prurient wolf! (Yes. There’s something lascivious about reading Donald Trump’s latest spewings, I think. Like all those other situations where you know you should turn away, close the curtains—but you just can’t.)
So this lenten season—and I hope for the rest of my life—I’ve given up reading about, talking about, and most beneficially, becoming outraged about Donald Trump and all the other hate-mongers both foreign and domestic. Which means—again quite basically— some time has been freed up! So, yesterday, when a dear friend sent me an email chain letter involving sending a favorite poem to someone (and, unfortunately, asking 20 of your super-busy friends to do the same), I signed up.
And this morning I received three glorious poems!
Here’s the poem I sent off; it’s an excerpt from “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour, July 13,1798” by William Wordsorth:
For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue.—And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:
William Wordsworth
*Copied from the Nanticoke Indian Tribe website
Dear Patricia,
Hi, there, Patricia, my so, so very dearly special and dearly precious sister and friend who you are For Always so, so very much!!!!!!!! Sister, wow, wow, wow and wow and wow and a zillion wows here! I just so love this absolutely amazing and so, so very beautiful blog post article of yours which is just the greatest, and I love the poem you have featured here and that you sent in your absolutely fantastic email. I hope that you received my email. I am just so, so very honored and blessed, and I so appreciate you asking me to participate in the fabulous Poem Project but I am so incredibly sorry I couldn’t get it completed within five days as I so sadly said in my email to you. I’m still struggling with being sick again by getting sick again and a very bad flu and bug in me, and I had some lack of knowledge not being very tech savvy and I couldn’t get somebody to come over within five days to help me figure out how to copy the email and then to add and switch the names around, and some of the other things, sister! I’m so sorry, Patricia! Finally, I’m able to so, so very joyfully respond to your absolutely brilliant and powerful blog post article here, sisterfriend!!!!!!! I’m still struggling with my health and not feeling so well-UGH!!!!!!!!! Today is my 54th birthday, and on my birthday I have so, so very many, many bountiful blessings with YOU, Patricia, being my very, very joy and blessing, my so, so very dearest and darling friend and sister who you are For Always so, so very much!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!! Yay for our sisterhood and friendship, Patricia!!!!!!! Yay for YOU, Patricia!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!
I need to give up Donald Trump for Lent also, sister, and also to do so permanently(SMILE!!!!!!!) He is the reason why I have been so sick(SMILE!!!!!!!!). He is a very disgusting, scary, and dangerous man, and I’m very alarmed that he is doing so well-he just cannot be our next President, and I hope, wish, and pray that our Hillary is our next President!!!!!!!! It’s difficult for me to stop watching the news so much-I’m afraid that I’ll miss something. This story you have very graciously and generously featured in this superbly super blog post article is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful here, Patricia! I so, so very much love and like this, sisterfriend! I’d not read this before, sister! Thank-you so, so much for including this with your astounding article, Patricia!!!!!!!! This sagacious tale speaks to our very human nature and human dilemma in how we all as human persons have our very inward battle in choosing and enacting either wrongdoing or for the better good, Patricia. I can sure relate to what you so honestly shared about righteous indignation, sisterfriend!!!!!!!! It can be such a delicious feeling to indulge in, Patricia, and very tempting to do so in trying to resist the urge towards righteous outrage!!!!!!!! I so, so very much understand, Patricia!!!!!!! My very dear friend, what a greatly immense joy and blessing you are to me, Patricia, and your magnificently sagacious so full of inspiration and insight blog post articles which all of us as your very grateful and appreciative readers so appreciate you for, sister, and so enjoy all of your very enlightening writings!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!! I have such joyous enjoyment and pleasure responding with my very heartfelt, thorough, and detailed comments, Patricia!!!!!!!!! Yay my sister yay my sisterfriend yay my friend Patricia yay!!!!!!!!
Sister, please have a Marvelous and a Mighty Fine Monday, a wondrously wonderful rest of your week and weekend, and may all of your days be so, so very especially blessed!!!!!! I love you so, so much, Patricia, and you are my very, very joy and blessing, my so very dearest friend!!!!!!!
Very Warmly and Sincerely For Always, my so very precious white sister, Patricia, with such Peace and Love To You For Always, my so very special sisterfriend, with such Blessings and Even More Blessings To You For Always, my friend,
Your Christian lesbian black sisterfriend For Always in the very spirit and solidarity, Sherry Gordon
Happy Birthday, Sherry.
May you feel healthy enough to enjoy it!
This could be very useful: “Sorry, I can’t talk to you today. I’m feeding my better wolf.”