No one holds the patent right on lying. At some point everyone is a liar. Little white lies or hug lies; they’re lies just the same. But truth is my judge and yours.
I cannot recall a moment in the America of my lifetime when truth been as scorned as it is today. I remember presidents who lied. Some more than others. But never was truth itself under assault as it is in America today. As a child I asked how Germany could have fallen for the rhetoric and incivility of a madman. Finally I’m coming to understand.
I was raised on the great hymns of the church. Among them was Once to Every Man and Nation with lyrics by James Russell Lowell (1845). The newer hymnals have excluded it, most likely because of the black and white thinking between good and evil or because it’s language is not gender inclusive. But I turn to it today in ways I never have before, and I’m left to wonder whether somethings are just plain evil.
Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, October 18, 2018.
Views from the Edge 
This rings true and I’m impressed with you, quiet Gordon 😉
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Thanks, Kiki. Tell me a little your story when you have a chance.
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Litanies Alain
You heard it as a prelude 52 + years ago. Alain wrote this aurael picture of the war clouds forming over Europe.
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I love that piece, Jim.
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I play that or Lizst when overwhelmed.
My first hearing of Litanys was 64 4th Church. I sat next to an old man who wore spats and formal Wear. He never spoke to any one. Beth Paul played it and he sobbed.
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Hearing it in that beautiful setting would always be a treat, Jim. But next to a speechless man in spats and formal wear who sobbed is a once in a lifetime. Thanks for sharing!
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This is, indeed, one of the great hymns, but for its peculiar applicability to this time the “Like” response doesn’t seem right. We need howls of grief and rage, followed by faith in the promise of the last verse, and stiffening resolve to try to help work toward it, plus resignation to God’s will. A complex of emotions difficult, indeed impossible to express in one word.
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You, Barb, and I remember this hymn from childhood at Marple Church. We are better prepared, I think what’s happening now.
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This was not what I had in mind for my “mature” years. Or ever. I’m working very hard on finding some peace in the madness, but I don’t think I’m doing very well.
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Marilyn, I think you’re DOING great. You’re just not FEELING great. Keep on keeping on!
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Excellent commentary, Gordon. Like you, Once to Every Man and Nation, comes the moment to decide… and our moment is upon us! Also appreciated your nod to non- dualistic thinking! Rohr might be rubbing off on you!!
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Thanks, Horse. I’ve marched to that hymn all m life, as have you and the rest of us.
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Yup! That’s the appropriate hymn
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evil is prosperous and extravagant prosperity is evil?
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