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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Bleak & Bitter Cold
Six humans trapped by happenstance
In bleak and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood
Or so the storys told.
Their dying fire in need of logs
The first man held his back
For of the faces round the fire
He noticed one was black.
The next man looking cross the way
Saw one not of his church
And couldnt bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.
The third one sat in tattered clothes.
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?
The rich man just sat back and thought
Of the wealth he had in store
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy shiftless poor.
The black mans face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight.
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.
The last man of this forlorn group
Did nought except for gain.
Giving only to those who gave
Was how he played the game.
Their logs held tight in deaths still hands
Was proof of human sin.
They didnt die from the cold without
They died from the cold within.
-- James Kinney; The Cold Within.
This was my late friend Rubin's favorite poem. I watched him recite it twice, at Colgate and Binghamton Universities. After he introduced my daughters & I to the audience in Binghamton, a professor there asked me if I could get Rubin to donate a chapter to her book. His contribution was on the Power of Forgiveness. A person asked me about Rubin today, and got me thinking about old times.
cachukis
(2,277 posts)H2O Man
(73,630 posts)That is amazing. Thank you.
I am thinking about sharing some of Rubin's thoughts with me in long letters during what his defense team called his "Buddha phase" that might fit this country today.
H2O Man
(73,630 posts)DemocraticPatriot
(4,431 posts)It's hard to argue with that sentiment---
but why is entirely up to us 'godless liberals' now ??
WhiteTara
(29,728 posts)to have that message spread across the world.
What the heck does any of it mean?
PatrickforB
(14,593 posts)To love God and love your neighbor as yourself.
The fact millions have died in the name of Christ is not Christ's fault. It is squarely on us for ruling our lives by greed, envy, pride, gluttony, lust, wrath and escapist addictions like gaming, drink, drugs, gambling and so on.
Truth is, we are born naked and squalling.
If we are lucky we are raised by a loving family.
If we are even more lucky we get a decent education.
Then we work for fifty years, and struggle to make ends meet when we have to stop working.
Finally, our bodies come down with the final illness which saps our strength and drains life until the clay vessels our spirits inhabit become mere shells of what they once were.
Then we die. And we take NOTHING with us - no money, no possessions, no wealth, no power.
The only thing we take into the beyond is the love we have shared and the spiritual lessons we have learned.
Funny how here in 'Murika we so fervently worship that bronze Wall Street bull and all it stands for - poverty, starvation, war, oppression. Certainly not God.
H2O Man
(73,630 posts)I'd say that at this point in time, those who actually follow the teachings of the prophet Jesus are a tiny minority. There is fear and hatred saturating so much of the world.
I like Matthew's gospel the best. Scholars have pointed out the numerous teachings that are much the same as Buddha's. For example, not to be afraid or hateful.
Of course, it was written by a Jewish scholar about 75 years after Jesus's death, and intended for a Jewish audience. It relies upon Mark to an extent, but also seems -- at least to me, a non-scholar -- as being influenced by the pre-Mark document of Jesus's sayings, known as X.
COL Mustard
(5,933 posts)Cooperate and graduate is an appropriate term!
littlemissmartypants
(22,839 posts)It's a perfect message for today and one that will never expire. ❤️
H2O Man
(73,630 posts)That was so good of your Mom!
Rubin loved reciting it!
littlemissmartypants
(22,839 posts)She not only loved reading it but she also wrote many poems. I'm so blessed to have those special bits of her now that she's gone. I still haven't read all of the notebooks she left me.
Of course it's hard to lose someone that we love but what a comfort it is to have their words to guide our grief. ❤️
H2O Man
(73,630 posts)co-workers came to each of those presentations. I remember one, a psychologist, saying she thought that Rubin sounded like a Southern Baptist minister.
It was 13 years and three days ago that Rubin invited me to accompany him on tour for his new book. He had me write the book review the publisher sent out. We had some interesting times in the 40+ years I knew him.
littlemissmartypants
(22,839 posts)scipan
(2,361 posts)I have nothing more to add to this succinct parable.
Thanks.
tiredtoo
(2,949 posts)Again!
H2O Man
(73,630 posts)fantase56
(444 posts)Just wow
H2O Man
(73,630 posts)hay rick
(7,648 posts)Last edited Fri Nov 10, 2023, 02:04 AM - Edit history (1)
Rubin was a famous boxer who was wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for 20 years for a murder he did not commit. Biographical information is available on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubin_Carter) and other sources.
H2O Man
(73,630 posts)It's kind of funny ....... the only people that I respond harshly to on the internet are on boxing forums, where a few bitter idiots refer to Muhammad Ali as "Clay" and a "draft dodger," or say that Rubin was a murderer. The fellow that Rubin was accused of being confessed on his death bed, and identified the guy that Rubin's co-defendent, John Artis, was accused of being.
Those on the defense team knew their identities since 1975. Within 24 hours of the brutal triple murder, for example, we learned that while Rubin and John passed polygraph tests, those two both failed. One was held in jail for several weeks. But even though the guy confessed a few years ago, some people just can't let it go.
stage left
(2,966 posts)A great poem.
H2O Man
(73,630 posts)Bundbuster
(3,205 posts)A timeless capture of (im)morality, so descriptive of those who today, more than ever, vote against their own interest out of pure spite.
Thank you, H2O Man.
H2O Man
(73,630 posts)I think it fits the US very well. And most of the rest of the world today.
Saoirse9
(3,684 posts)Saving.
H2O Man
(73,630 posts)malaise
(269,211 posts)Thank you