Friday, February 3, 2012

When Johnny Went Marching Home

How did our "Judeo-Christian" American society get to the place where the widow of a World War II veteran who spent her life teaching young people not only how to read and write, but how to behave in a civil manner, is threatened with losing her home of over fifty years because she doesn't have the money for a new roof?

Her husband not only served his country in the US Navy, and met his future bride at a USO dance, he and she served as officers of the VFW for several decades, traveling all over the country to make sure that we never forget the men and women who sacrificed everything for our freedoms. Their only son spent his life as a military nurse, saving countless lives to continue in the service of OUR country. He died of cancer several years before his father, leaving a sister who is also a nurse the full responsibility of her aged parents' care. She cannot leave her work to care for her mother, and her mother only has the memories that surround her in the home she and her Johnny shared, now that her Johnny has gone marching HOME.

She continues to serve in the VFW and loves the city of New Orleans and Louisiana so much that she continues to travel to the French Quarter to tell everyone who stops into the Tourist and Commission office on Jackson Square about the many blessings of being a native New Orleanian. We should be naming her the patron saint of Yats, but instead, she is worrying about how she's going to keep a roof over her head. Really?! Is this the best we can do?

When Will We Take Responsibility?

We are created in the image of The Eternal Light;
This earth can either destroy it or give it flight
It is the responsibility of the parents of each child
To protect and nurture this light for a very long while.

Why else are our little offspring, for so long, so weak
That they still from their parents, shelter seek?
There is so much to be learned about nursing this fire
And protecting it from others' selfish desires.

Where did it really come from, this idea of original sin
That any babies born of the desires of the flesh would not be, to heaven, let in?
While it is true that the urge to procreate is the strongest in all creation,
Our Highest Power included in the act,  brings it to a sacred station.

When we don't honor the Eternal Good that lives inside us, as a soul,
We eventually destroy the Sacred Light, and we cannot be whole.
Those who are born to souls that are dead have much trouble finding the light,
Even though being a child of The Light should be each child's birthright.

We attempt incantations and rituals to wash away our responsibility
To behave in a way that will nurture the child to be all that it can be.
We pretend that our priests have power to wash our sins from our souls;
I believe it is in the parents' shared light that the child will reach its Eternal goal.

The Christ doesn't mean "Jesus," though for many this is the case;
The Word refers to the Infinite Power welcoming back the human race.
Until we are willing to live by, and raise our children, in The Word
All the public proclamations of salvation will not, by their souls, be heard.


When will we stop looking outward for the answers that dwell
Inside our innocent newborn selves?
When will we believe the The Power is within each of u?
It's for each of us to claim our own soul's inclusion in The Just.

This road is not easy, but if we hold tightly to our beliefs,
Our light will find others and The Grace will increase.
There will come a time when the whole world will shine so bright
That there will be only Holy Days and Holy Nights.

How many more Messiahs will it take
Before we, our arrogance, are willing to forsake?
When will we take personal responsibility
For bringing this world back to Unity?