Leftovers OR Food for Thought

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

Most critics agree that the poetry of Robert Browning is influenced by the devout Christian views of his mother and wife. I often wonder, though, if he ever regretted penning the lines, 'God’s in His Heaven/ All’s right with the world.'For me, they convey naive if not misleading approach to life and God, but in the context of Pippa Passes (in which play-poem they appear) a wry irony is also present. 

Now and then devout Christian and other religious fundamentalist readers get in touch to berate me for attacking their religion. I never attack any religion. What I attack is a tunnel-minded if not naïve view of life and God, invariably based on either misinterpreting passages in various Holy Books or taking them out of context (which amounts to much the same thing) and using them to justify shutting out just about everything and everyone else.

Religion is meant to be about love and peace. In reality, there is too much divisiveness,not to mention  one-upmanship between the world religions and within themselves, ensuring that world
 peace will always be up against it.  Let’s face it. The absence of a world war doesn’t mean we are at peace. Take Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East…and local conflicts worldwide. And that’s just the fighting. Whatever happened to peace of mind?

I often  refer, on the blogs and elsewhere, to those people I have met in the course of my life whose humanity is every bit as important as their religion. Sadly, it has been my experience that such people are a rare if not a dying breed, which is why I rejected religion and turned to nature even as a child. As I grew older, I saw no reason to change my mind. Meanwhile, nature feeds my mind and imagination; it also gives me a sense of spirituality and peace I never found in religion. Nor does it have anything to do with my sexuality, but simply the kind of person I am.  Besides, I hate tunnels. A teacher at my old school once described history as "a tunnel through which we travel towards the light we call learning." Maybe, although I suspect there are more takes on what ‘learning’ comprises than fish in the sea. Apply the same metaphor to religion and the light would be what some call Faith, God, Heaven or whatever. Oh, but how many takes on that…?

I dare say we all experience more than our fair share of tunnels, yet Life is an open road. Yes, even as we struggle to head off the  COVID-19 pandemic. Religion, too, is an open road for those to whom it means so much, as it did to a very dear mentor of mine, the same who once told me that we all need to at least try to keep an open mind and open heart or we are betraying our common humanity; by default, any religion that, in practise, denies this may well be said to be betraying its very origins.

A university tutor of mine once paraphrased the late American humorist, Evan Esar, with the comment "All things in life may well come to those who wait, but they are mostly leftovers from those for whom it wouldn't."

LEFTOVERS

“Come with us, we leftover ghosts

of all seasons past and enjoy the feast

that lasts forever, no fear of hearing

cries of hungry men and women again

or whimpering skeletons of children 

promised mortality is humanity's road 

to Heaven, discovering differently

"Come with us, we leftover ghosts

of seasons past, "and toast the peace

that lasts forever, never fear to hear

the groans of warring men and women

or whimpering children left to pray,

assured the price for war is paid in pain,

all things under the sun God-given ..."

"Come with us, we leftover ghosts

of seasons past, "and let’s play the jest

that lasts forever on any ignoring 

the groans of brave men and women

trying to save the planet’s children,

keep its trees and flowers fairest colours,

feed refugees, let asylum seekers in ..."

Copyright R. N. Taber, 2009

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears in 'Tracking the Torchbearer by R N Taber, Assembly Books, 2012; the original quote by Esar is "All  things come to him who waits, but they are mostly leftovers from those who didn't wait."