3 John:2
There's nothing wrong with being stuck
In mud up to your knees,
So long as you don't think that's home
Or getting out's a breeze.Ask any class of pre-school kids,
“Who here can paint a pix?”
And thirty hands shoot in the air,
All keen, no fear admixed.Asked those same kids in senior year
Same question – they hear, “well”–
So hands stay down, all look around,
Out from each psychic hell.What's happened in those years between –
From keen to awkward space?
Do humans lose capacity?
Must all now win some race?The lives of all shift up and down;
In teen-years life's a swirl;
We have our feelings and our thoughts –
Thoughts win out in the whirl.“To ‘edit’, ‘judge’, ‘sense quality’
That's what is taught in school
Their mandate, ‘make them fit for work
With focus’ – ‘be no fool’.So art and music fall away;
‘Read poets – not your verse’;
Sometimes a choir or play's allowed,
If after hours rehearsed.One time I met this guy who learned
Nine years of twelve at home;
Made out just fine when he joined in,
Less wrecked, because alone.He felt uneasy, “I don't fit –
They say that up is down;
Inside is out; they feel they can't;
That's silly – look around –“How is it I make out just fine
With school's demanding ways?
I figured out their game quite fast –
‘Say what the teacher says’.“But that's not learning, that's not life –
They've paralyzed your minds
But life is real, outside this cave,
Turn ’round and look behind –“Those shadows on the wall you see
Are made by sun outside;
Cast off your bonds, be free again,
No need your selves to hide.”But they don't budge, put pressure on
‘Be like us all’, ‘think thus’ –
‘Shut up’, ‘sit down’, ‘go do your math’,
‘Life sucks’, ‘don't make a fuss’.“But that would kill me, stultify
My mind, how could I cope?”
“Take this”, they say, “numb out your mind –
We've learned there is no hope.”A while he walked that road with them,
But three years came too late –
He'd been outside the system, lived;
With this, could not relate.He tried – his truck became bogged down,
Mind numbed to kill the pain;
They shipped him home – “go fix your head
Then come on back again.”What luck! Some folks who also had
Some hope, enlightened view
Affirmed his life, said, “It's quite nice –
Go over, chat with Stu”.(Stu didn't fit, a Creenglishman
Tossed out upon his ear)
He laughed, said, “Welcome home, my friend,
Speak from the truth, be clear.“Of course you won't get rich, fit in,
(Though maybe that will be)
But other way is upside down,
They're stuck but think they're free.“Thank God they didn't wreck your mind
From K-to-9 in school;
So glad you got to look around
Saw life, have not been fooled.“Your teacher was the best for you –
Your eyes, perceptive mind;
You're way ahead, no tail-lights seen,
They seek head-lights behind.“For ‘stuck’ (to those who went to school,
Lost spontaneity)
Is really ‘freed up in one's mind
To laugh, and paint, run free’.“You think they wait with open arms
For you to set them free;
Read Plato's story of the cave,
Then take a look at me.“There's lots to do in life, my friend,
Don't push the river's flow;
When folks are ready to move on,
Blow dams and let them go.“In meantime walk out peace and truth,
Accept what can't be changed;
Change what you can; do life with zest –
The world is quite deranged.“Some day as you do life round here
Among your friends and kin,
Someone will sense your freedom’s walk
Ask how to freedom win.“Say ‘tow-truck’; point to source of bread;
Your story share with hope;
The sheep have heard your shepherd's voice
Somewhere in words you spoke.“Once people taste the real thing
All ersatz life is bland;
Let them encounter life in you
And thus hit bottom-land.“For life with zest and freedom’s view
Drive stuck-once nuts, you see;
That's why God loves to pour through us
Health and prosperity.“So look a little deeper, friend,
Inside those tools and toys –
Are they diversions from the truth
Or freed-up girls and boys?’“Are they just greedy? selfish? rich?
Can't you go through needle's eye?
Or are they freed with zest to paint
Their world with Son-lit sky?”navigation