Frontliners
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
All those in the front line of our war on Covid-19 deserve our thanks, respect and admiration. How they cope, day after day, defies belief. I have been retired for 10 years now, but like to think I would have played my part, although I suspect few of us know how we would react to certain circumstances until they are upon us and we are tested.
My father and I did not get along. From childhood, he never believed I had a hearing problem. More than once would send me to my room for ‘ignoring’ him when I genuinely hadn’t known he was talking to me. Needless to say, this did nothing to improve our relationship. “He’s weak!” I heard him shout at my mother once, “He’s weak, that’s his trouble. Always got his head stuck in a book, it’s high time he started acting like a boy instead of a bloody pansy.”
Later, I asked my mother, “Am I weak?” Her reply was typical of her grasp of human nature. “None of us really know our true strengths and weaknesses,” she said, “… until they and we are tested. Even then,” she sighed, “… it’s invariably left to others to judge and we alone ourselves to know. It’s called life,” she added with a rueful smile. “But just you go to sleep and put it out of your mind…” She turned off the lamp I had been reading by, and I could have sworn I heard her say, “…while you still can.”
I suspect we are tested at all stages in our lives although we may not realise it at the time. As we grow up and grow older, though, we do get to know ourselves, although how much is fact and how much is wishful thinking … that’s for us to take on board, reject or work through for ourselves, hopefully with more than a little help from loved-ones and friends.
Whatever our battles, we are the front line,
win some, lose some…
FRONTLINERS
War
or peace,
whatever
the cause in us demanding
we
fight,
at
the end of the day, it needs to be
for
the better,
if only to keep
us safe , drive any enemy
to
rout
Early
years,
learning
to talk, walks, laugh and play,
choose
friends
come
to recognize certain aspects
of
behaviour…
as in where our empathising with it begins
and
ends
Schooldays,
inviting
us to see how competition
demands
targets our strengths and weaknesses, requires
we
stand up
for
its rights and wrongs or go to ground, head
in
hands
Come, youth
to have its day, before such times ahead
as we know
will test us, even cut us down before any gain
or losses
can
take us where we may (or not) have chosen
to
go
Middle
years,
basking
in sunny climes or sheltering
from
storms
beyond
anticipation for our underestimating
how
maturity
may yet see us bested by any variety of tempting
life
forms
Old
age,
a
final reckoning of sorts, for the better
or worse
as
we harvest all mind-body-spirit has incited us
to
be, urging us
do
whatever may yet see all or some of our parts rest
in
peace
ourselves
to know
Copyright
R. N. Taber, 2021
Labels: coronavirus, Covid-19, fear, global consciousness, growing up, human nature, human spirit, life forces, love, maturity, mind-body-spirit, peace, personal space, poetry, positive thinking, war
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