loving parents but the way they
read the bible meant no dancing
on my own after college I
took lessons to please my new wife
i was never good but had fun
for years moving with the music
now my knees and back restrict me
to a slow shuffle and a sigh
but in my sleep i leap and fly
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, Feb. 6, 2014
I was reading an article last night about fathers and sons, and memories came flooding back of the time I took my son out for his first drink.
Carling Black Label ad
Off we went to the local watering hole which is only two blocks from the house. I got him a Castle … he didn’t like it – so I drank it.
Then I got him a Carling Black Label, he didn’t like it, so I drank it.
It was the same with the Windhoek Lager and Premium Dry Cider.
By the time we were done with the whiskey, I could hardly push the stroller back home.
– Sent from a friend in Texas. Years ago it could easily have been [we’ll call him] Bob just for the fun of it. Bob’s humor broke the soberness of pondering climate departure. I needed that today.
Nestlé wants to sell more chips,
so the Tollhouse recipe
calls for two times more chocolate
than tastes best–just try and see!
From the yellow packages,
I eat handfuls semi-sweet,
but in cookie dough, like life,
moderation makes the treat.
I love butter on fresh bread,
pancakes, toast and potatoes,
but in cookies, half will do:
half Crisco with sugar goes.
Half brown sugar and half white,
integration tastes just right!
Use real vanilla, not the fake–
you’ll be proud of what you bake!
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL.
Last evening we published Susan Lince’s wonderful poem “Every Stone Shall Cry” and her accompanying art work. Thanks to Susan for permission to publish them.
Not everyone is familiar with this line about the stones. The poetry of the stones crying out has its roots in Hebrew Scripture in a poem from the Book of Habakkuk, later echoed by Luke as Jesus’ response to those who want to silence his disciples and protesters to Roman occupation – “I tell you,” says Jesus riding on an ass into the city occupied by the Romans, “if these [people] were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:40).
The original Ode of Woe against the Chaldeans’ foreign interventions and military-economic occupation becomes, on Jesus’ lips, the ode against the Roman system of occupation and internal collaboration by indigenous leaders, and, on Susan’s lips, it echoes from the walls of intractable powers that nature itself will not long abide in silence. Nature will not be silent! Think of the stones in the wall of Wall Street. Even the stones cry out against the abuse. Here’s the text from the Book of Habakkuk where the reference to the crying stones first appears:
Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own—
for how long? —
and loads himself with pledges!”
Will not your debtors suddenly arise,
and those awake who will make you tremble?
Then you will be spoil for them.
Because you have plundered many nations,
all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,
for the blood of man and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who dwell in them.
Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house [society/empire],
to set his nest on high,
to be safe from the reach of harm!
You have devised shame for your house
by cutting off many peoples;
you have forfeited your life.
For the stone will cry out from the wall,and the beam from the woodwork respond.
Woe to him who builds a town with blood…– Habakkuk 2: 6b-12a
The ode against the Chaldean Empire ends with a lovely line looking for the day when the most intimate knowledge of the Breath of Life will cover the earth “as the waters cover the sea” and the stones will no long cry.
Susan is a writer, painter, poet, composer, environmental and social justice activist. She and her spouse, John Lince-Hopkins, developed the movement Requiem2020. They will lead the First Tuesday Dialogues event on Climate Departure at Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church in Chaska, MN Tuesday evening, March 4, at 7:00 P.M.
Original art by Susan Lince – “Every Stone Shall Cry”
And every stone shall cry
The stone cries
Along the roadside
As the bomb explodes
Killing young soldiers
As well as the children nearby.
And every stone shall cry
The stone knows to cry
Even before the excavator
Upheaves the earth
To take away the coal
And leaves only a ragged empty space.
And every stone shall cry.
The ancient stones
Of the wailing wall
Cry as they have cried for centuries,
Listening to the prayers
Of the sufferers
And the selfish,
The grieving,
And the greedy
That reverberate
With echoes of misunderstanding
About who has been left out
Of the Kingdom of God on Earth.
And every stone shall cry.
Every stone shall cry
Yet goes unheard,
As humankind,
With hardening core,
Pushes violence, power,
Injustice, and neglect
Rumbling across the world
Like boulders.
– Susan Lince, artist and poet, Chaska, MN.
We pledge allegiance to the earth
that sustains humanity,
and to the land, air, water, and sun
on which our future rests:
one fragile creation
in our hands to preserve and protect,
with equality, freedom, justice,
and peace for all
.
– Steven Shoemaker and
Joan Humphrey Lefkow,
2007
Prince Charles recently called climate deniers “the headless chicken brigade”.</p>
“It is baffling, I must say, that in our modern world we have such blind trust in science and technology that we all accept what science tells us about everything – until, that is, it comes to climate science.
“All of a sudden, and with a barrage of sheer intimidation, we are told by powerful groups of deniers that the scientists are wrong and we must abandon all our faith in so much overwhelming scientific evidence.
“So, thank goodness for our young entrepreneurs here this evening, who have the far-sightedness and confidence in what they know is happening to ignore the headless chicken brigade and do something practical to help.
“As you may possibly have noticed from time to time, I have tended to make a habit of sticking my head above the parapet and generally getting it shot off for pointing out what has always been blindingly obvious to me.
“Perhaps it has been too uncomfortable for those with vested interests to acknowledge, but we have spent the best part of the past century enthusiastically testing the world to utter destruction; not looking closely enough at the long-term impact our actions will have.”
– Prince Charles at award ceremony honoring young green entrepreneur.
Think Headless Chicken Brigade Keystone Pipeline.
Views from the Edge 