Tillich Park – “Man and nature belong together…”
Our hearts in the West are well-trained in possessing, controlling, and cajoling reality, bending it to suit our wants. The spiritual culture that accompanies “free market” economics is the drive to acquire and possess. Could our training in the culture of acquisition and possession be like the wall through which the flower breaks in Tennyson’s poem “Flower in the Crannied Wall”?
Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower—but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.
– Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1863
The flower lures him. Yet seeking to possess it, he destines its death. Having to possess it, analyze it “root and all”, he destroys the magnificent beauty that had drawn his eye.
Having and being are not the same. Only being is filled with wonder. Perhaps that is why Christmas Eve Candlelight services are packed with people who otherwise are not drawn there. There is a beauty to the story and the natural light which lifts yearning hearts from the wintry chill of an having into the warmth of wonder beyond our control or possession.
Views from the Edge 
Isn’t it strange that we listen more often to the philosophy of the political pundits rather than to the wisdom of the poets? The poets most often see the undertow of the stream which seems to flow placidly when viewed from the outside. To be alive is to live within the rhythm of God’s creation which I understand is one of stewardship and not possession.
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Jim, I love your comment. Yes, the poets live beyond the expected rants and rages. The live in the spaces between the opposites of punditry. I wish I were a poet. And your use of the words stewardship is so right for our time. We own nothing. Everything is entrusted.
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Gordon, I loved this, you have a poets heart.
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Thanks, JoAnne. I wish it were so. I just know that our sense of wonder has been dulled by the craving to posses even what cannot be possessed. In the end, we own nothing, right? Hi to Bill and happy new year.
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