Friday, May 7
\n\u201cBefore you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
\nyou must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several years ago, in early March, a friend emailed me some lines from Naomi Shihab Nye\u2019s poem \u201cKindness.\u201d She connects kinship and love with other things that can wear us down. In her poem, meanness and violence become a context for enduring kindness. No wonder my friend thought to send \u201cKindness\u201d in these times.<\/p>\n
Best to read the poem out loud, with pauses.<\/p>\n
I learned to love this poem long before Covid-19 appeared and began to demand our attention, distracting us from other matters of deep meaning. This Friday the soft slope of the almost-valley morning palate of pale to deeper green leaves on our mix of oak, maple, crab apple and a dogwood or two fresh with mid-morning sun that wants to show off what two weeks of spring rains can do to our imaginations and spirits. We are not quite in picnic weather yet but spring is making promises for us; a contemplative morning.<\/p>\n
Have a blest weekend,<\/p>\n
john sj<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s Post \u201cKindness\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Before you know what kindness really is Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness, Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore, Naomi Shihab Nye Postscript: Yesterday morning, my daughter Mary Tobacco told me that she and some fellow School faculty & staff noticed the signs \u2014 ashamed embarrassment & physical dis-comfort. So they set up what might be called a \u201chead-lice clinic\u201d checking each child, then bathing each one, paying close attention to their scalps for the vermin that affects kids and adults alike who live without fresh running water. Besides soap, they work medicine into the scalps to begin a deep-cleansing and fine-tooth combs both to drive out the bugs and prepare each kid\u2019s scalp with medicine to start healing lice damage. After their showers the team looks for clean clothing that fits each child\u2019s size \u2014 yesterday, seeing the discomfort of a 6 year old whose shoes were too small for her feet, staff found a pair that fit. Mary Tobacco described her joy as she watched that 6 year old skipping and laughing, as she ran around the play ground: \u201chow to care for children locked in the shame of deep poverty? Begin by noticing signs of shame and the physical pain that goes with it; then treat each child with respect; have the right tools at hand – – fine comb for lice, effective skin medicine, knowing how to welcome little people as you help them into clean skin and clean clothes; knowing how to hold that child, and to let her\/him gaze into your eyes.<\/p>\n That\u2019s how Mary T spent her day; one more day, after raising the money; she welcomed the well-drilling team to start work; MT estimates that the well will be working and water flowing by early next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Friday, May 7 \u201cBefore you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.\u201d Several years ago, in early March, a friend emailed me some lines from Naomi Shihab Nye\u2019s poem \u201cKindness.\u201d She … Continue reading
\nyou must lose things,
\nfeel the future dissolve in a moment
\nlike salt in a weakened broth.
\nWhat you held in your hand,
\nwhat you counted and carefully saved,
\nall this must go so you know
\nhow desolate the landscape can be
\nbetween the regions of kindness.
\nHow you ride and ride
\nthinking the bus will never stop,
\nthe passengers eating maize and chicken
\nwill stare out the window forever.<\/p>\n
\nyou must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
\nlies dead by the side of the road.
\nYou must see how this could be you,
\nhow he too was someone
\nwho journeyed through the night with plans
\nand the simple breath that kept him alive.<\/p>\n
\nyou must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
\nYou must wake up with sorrow.
\nYou must speak to it till your voice
\ncatches the thread of all sorrows
\nand you see the size of the cloth.<\/p>\n
\nonly kindness that ties your shoes
\nand sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
\nonly kindness that raises its head
\nfrom the crowd of the world to say
\nIt is I you have been looking for,
\nand then goes with you everywhere
\nlike a shadow or a friend.<\/p>\n
\nb. March 12, 1952<\/p>\n