Sermon in the Mud

[aleph_0]

No! You may not fall! Stand! Fight! Die when you are dead--and not before!

Others may fall by the last sigh of summer. Yours is to fall by the first wisp of winter.

You were born a full cup, and not one sprinkle may fall or you spray injustice with your blood.

Look away! What makes you look to others? That was your one fault, your stunted twin who shared your crib. From where did he come? Certainly not justice.

Others may be short teacups and thimbles. Or worse, hollow tree trunks drained from an empty bottom. They lack justice. Will you shame yours and sneak into your cup a bit of mercury? That was your twin's twin, that slow tug of slow death.

But you are back now! You wonder about all the negatives, and nots, and infinite twins, and you are right! For this sermon is not preached atop a reified zero; it is preached from the mud, the not-yet, the unwilled waiting for will like a dog waits on and paws at his master. This sermon vibrates and glistens in the ether between thought and act.

I replace a wise command that you once heard, which itself replaced a less-wise command you once forgot. My tablet over you is: Oh, my brother, focus!

Like lines that meet and burn a blinding white-hot at the meeting. Focus!

Like a man who treads water and lifts himself up from himself, again and again. Focus!

One day he will drown, you say?

Look away!

Damn you, are you so proud in dreams and yet flinch at the first sight of morning!

Look away! Look away, look away, look away! Do you need to hear it in a language you were taught to hear?

Thou shalt not look hither.

Thou shalt focus.

Thou shalt not honour "thou shalts".

"How then?" you interrupt? I was just getting to that, oh impatient life.

Thou shalt be.

Thou shalt just do.

These last two are the same. Pray that they and the others blend in you to one great virtue, a blinding white-hot virtue. Pray that you know prayer is only a reflection. Pray that today you will climb over your tablet.

But I see I have stirred and boiled your chill air of concepts. Good! Stir, and boil, and will, and climb, and focus!