"The Moon" by Carl Sandburg

The Moon
Carl Sandburg

The moon is a dish of light.

The moon looks dirty with smoke and cloud wisps,
then changed till it looks washed and wiped.

The moon is a big penny got lost in the sky
one windy night.

The baby moon sings low, sings soft.

The harvest moon grins, "Howdy."

The half moon says neither Yes or No.

The lonesome moon talks to the lonesome
child saying, "Me too, me too."

The silver moon seems cold, not shivering but
chilly.

The moon is a looking glass you see your face in
if you climb high enough.

The peeping moon jumps out from clouds and goes back.

The rising moon dares you to push it down.

The rising moon can't help laughing a little as
it says, "I don't why I do this over and over
always the same way."

The full moon says it is good to be full and he
would be sorry for the empty if he was empty himself.

The late setting moon says, "I forgot something
and I'll be back when I remember what it was.

Hard Truths

Here are some hard truths about Jesus Christ that you may not want to hear, but they must be said:

First, Jesus Christ loves every single living human being on the face of this planet. From the first human to the last, everybody alive at this moment, everybody in the past, everybody in the future. He loves them all. Equally.

Yes, that includes the person YOU hate the most. Yes, that includes Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, and yes, even Neal Boortz.

And yes, for you hard right wing conservatives, that even means girls who get abortions and gay people. Even liberals too.

Second hard truth, all you people who think you don't need Jesus, you do. He is the only way to Heaven, both here on earth and after you've shuffled off this mortal coil. But not to worry: the only reason why you can't bring yourself to believe in him is reason three - watch.

Third hard truth - Christianity can only be destroyed by ill-tempered, smug, hyer-pious, self-centered, hypocritical, insensitive Christians. It can not be destroyed by outside forces, not Islam, not the Devil, not athiesm, not secularism. None of that is strong enough. But get enough people who claim to follow Jesus and make them so stuck up and bigoted that they drive everybody away from Christ, well, that'll make sure eventually NOBODY hears the message of love.

There are many more hard truths, but I don't think any of us can handle any more for tonight.

Perhaps in a few days, when I've got my strength back, I'll be tough enough to dish out some more HARD TRUTHS.

(maybe just one more: Jesus did say that in the end, when all is said and done, there's going to be a WHOLE LOT of people who go up to Him saying, "Jesus Jesus let me into Heaven, I talked about you all the time!" and He'll say, "Get yourself away from me. I never met you before in my Life!" . . . and maybe, just maybe, He's talking about Christians. Think about it!)

At the Counter

John Steppenwolf, Henry Allen Payne, and Lucky Moran all sitting at the counter, asking the Barista about Verble's outburst the other day.

"Is he gonna be all right?" asks Lucky Moran.

"Oh yeah, he's just fine," says the Barista. "As soon as his wife got here and dragged him to the back and shoved a couple of Valiums down his gullet, he went out like a light. I think he's still sleeping it off."

"Hate to see him when he wakes up," says John Steppenwolf.

"Why's that?" asks Henry Allen Payne.

"Because he'll probably turn on the news and hear about that Republican Senator from Texas - who apologised to BP for their inconvenience - called it a $20 Billion Shakedown."

"Yeah, but he was forced to apologize," says Lucky.

"And he retracted it," says the Barista.

Steppenwolf says, "But the point is: he said it. And all the little followers believe it. You know what Verble will say: the American people are being told to believe by Fox News that BP is actually the good guy. And that to make them pay will be a bad thing."

Lucky adds, "I read today an article that posited that the spill might actually be good for the environment."

"How do they say that?" says Henry.

"Something about slowing or preventing hurricanes this summer. Hurricanes get their source from warm ocean water, and apparently there's been this theory that putting a film of vegetable oil over the surface of the water to try to prevent hurricanes from sucking it up. They think this'll be a natural test."

"Wow," says Henry. "Bet that Republican Senator from Texas will probably want to pin a medal on BP and give 'em back their 20 bil if there ain't no hurricanes this season!"

Steppenwolf says, "Sounds about what they're likely to do. And they're so good at it, America will blindly agree."

"I know," says Lucky, "I'm still in shock that they've convinced Americans that it's actually better for your health NOT to have dependable health care coverage. What a country!"

"It is, indeed!" agrees Steppenwolf, drinking deeply of his morning coffee.

Faith Hope and Charity

Verble storms into the cafe, and before anybody can ask him what's wrong, he angrily declares, "I built this Cafe to be a good place to show the love of Jesus Christ, but I swear to all of you if Glenn Beck ever walks into MY cafe,

he gets charged DOUBLE PRICE!



How DARE he ! How DARE HE! who does he think he is? Stealing the images of the Founding Fathers, and STEALING THE WORDS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

and twisting them in his own sick little mind for his own sick little game? Faith, Hope, Charity! That's the clarion call of the Bible - everything that Jesus taught us in a nutshell, and he's misusing it to promote an agenda of destruction and hate.

And you Yanks are BUYING IT! how utterly misled and myopic can you BE?!

Don't you understand that Glenn Beck has nothing to contribute to America but a rant of bile and hate and filth? He knows nothing of the words and the slogan that he's espousing - and MAKING MONEY FROM!!!!

He has openly admitted that he does what he does to make money, and yet he sells T-shirts with the images of Washington and Franklin, and the words FAITH HOPE CHARITY.

What Glenn SickBeck obviously does not understand is that the Founding Fathers would have had him horsewhipped for being an idiot, and also that the only time Jesus was ever visibly angry, to the point of hurling tables against the walls, was when people dared to MAKE MONEY from His Father's house!

Faith, means faith in God, something beyond ourselves that we can never truly know.
Hope, means the belief that better things are ahead,
But the greatest of these is Charity - which means a love that is so strong that you will give it away without any care of ever getting anything back. Charity is a complete giving of SELF, wanting no payment in return, wanting nothing than for somebody else to have something.

What does Glenn Beck know of that kind of Charity? what to the Republicans know about that kind of charity? what do the Conservatives know about that kind of charity? what does the Religious Right know about that kind of charity? and for that matter, what do Americans know about that kind of Charity?

Glenn Beck - stop making money off of God. Stop making money off of the founding fathers. Stop making money off of lying to Americans.

and to all Americans.



WAKE THE HELL UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Overheard at Table Four

I just read on my news alert today, this blurb, it said:



A student makes a rude gesture at a group of Hell's Angels motorcycle group, hurling a puppy at them and escaping on a stolen bulldozer.



It was one of those times when I just couldn't bring myself to read the whole article, because I just knew that the story would ruin the mental image!

Scatterlings

did you hear about the tumbler in the eiderdown?

after all that's tragic, what remains is unempty

I don't really know if she was really into him or just ran somewhat into him

Bleachers, it was behind the bleachers! It was always behind the bleachers.

I can't believe she just showed up after two months maternity leave and suddenly starts telling me what I supposedly did to frakkup her G/Ls!

Scratch it, don't scratch it. Who's really to say which one is right and which one's wrong?

You find ten for every eleven pennywhisltes in the pudding.

and I told her "I don't know, I just live here!"

Overheard at Table Two

- did you hear about the Harvard student who's gonna be deported back to Mexico? Tried to get on a plane with an old consulate ID and ICE caught him. Doesn't even remember coming here - he was four!

- so where'd he grow up?

- San Antonio.

- Ah. San Antonio. Half the population is from Mexico. Why don't they just deport him back to San Antonio?

- Legal, illegal, dude, that's not the point. The point is that he's going to Harvard. Gangbangers and small time crooks and people who spend a lifetime in and out of jail don't go to Harvard. It's not like the US has such a great wellspring of super-intelligent people - we're gonna deport our college students?

- why not? They're probably gonna get jobs in foreign countries anyway.

- Dude, there has GOT to be a path to getting citizenship - college degree in some field that will help the country, I mean, if these kids are doing something to contribute, why should we send them off?

- How about joining the military? I'll agree with you only about that - some guy or girl's willing to serve in the military and die for this country, I think they should get automatic citizenship. Because there are millions and millions of natural borns who won't lift a finger to defend 'er!

- Amen to that, my brother!



http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127780349&ft=1&f=1001