Retrograde Motion

  In her book The Need for Roots , Simone Weil discusses the needs of the human soul. She says that a soul needs to be rooted, and that there are negative repercussions when it is not rooted. In the latter half of the book, she examines what it looks like to be uprooted, but in the first section she begins by examining the things the souls needs to be rooted. Society has become more and more rootless, and it is not only Weil who has observed this. In his book The Man Who Was Thursday, G.K. Chesterton observes a group as they wrestle with how to maintain stability in society. He follows them through their struggles and to their differing conclusions about the world and its meaning. Likewise, Evelyn Waugh in A Handful of Dust shows what a society is like without roots. He constructs a setting in which there are no truly connected and rooted people and demonstrates the effects that culture has on a society. Three of Weil’s needs of the soul that are very apparent both of these st...

 

Afar the hunter rises to tread the path above, while I stand down below and marvel, bound by my humility. Am I, a man of lower birth, fit to tread his path? He shines above us all, but I am bound below. His thrice jeweled belt is seen by all and children call his name. Oh, who below can rise and follow on such a plane? Ready the ship! Prepare to rise and meet him where he stands. Tonight I’ll meet him face to face upon that plane. The world I know melts away, but still we fly ahead. Afar I see him smile from his perch and laugh. “Oh foolish man who tries to tread my path: to walk where those immortal stand. Mark how far you have  to fall.”

“How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how shall I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced? For from the top of the rocks I see him, And from the hills I behold him; There! A people dwelling alone, Not reckoning itself among the nations. “Who can count the dust of Jacob, Or number one-fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, And let my end be like his!” Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them bountifully!”   So he answered and said,  “Must I not take heed to speak what  the Lord has put in my mouth?”  -Numbers 23:8-12 (NKJV) ———————————— I read this passage this morning, and it made me think of our society today. We are constantly told what to believe by the world on issues such as gender, race, abortion, and homosexuality. Often enough, people accept what society tells them over what scripture teaches. It’s easier to live that way. If the wor...

The baby birds were screeching loud and hopping in the tree out back. Their new eyes squinting at the sun as they hollered for their mother. A tiny chick unwittingly  jumped much too near the edge, and fell tumbling and fumbling his way to the ground and landed on the heather. This slight disturbance caught the eyes of a passing fox who paused intrigued. He reached the bird in an orange flash. Oh, what a tasty treat!

The folks were traveling out of town. A single light burned in the house, and no one there to watch the place but the lion knocker on the door. The street light flickered steadily but did not steal the knockers gaze. He brooded high up on his perch, and snarled at the stony steps. The sound of feet upon the walk and voices hissing quietly.  The lion knocker crouched in place as darkness took the form of men. The tall one fumbled with a piece of wire. The bald one held a light. The knocker glared into their eyes  warning them to go away. The wire scratched inside the lock searching for the pins. The bald man looked straight in the lion’s eyes and smirked, he felt no bit of fear.  Ring! Ring! Whizz! Clang!  The wire popped the lock, and now the lion bared his fangs as through the house rang roars from the alarm. The bald man tripped on the other’s leg, the tall man leapt off of the porch. And like a heard...

There’s little cheerful left to say. There’s little joy inside of me. I wish that I could go away. I had joy when I woke today, but since death took its costly fee there’s little cheerful left say. I feel as if I ought to stay, but when he’s carried in front of me I wish that I could go away. He’s sought the brighter heavenly way, and in his haste left suddenly. There’s little cheerful left say. I know it’s good it worked this way. Still though I know his soul is free I wish that I could go away. But now he’s finally gone away we think of how things used to be. There is a little cheerful left to say. I wish they wouldn’t go away.