With respect to the madness gripping the world, with respect to the upcoming Republican National Convention hosted by Cleveland, a powerful poem, a favorite from my youth, emerges relevant. Wisdom for those who can grasp it–the seeker seeking the ways of Christ, the ability to comprehend the Son of God acquesicing to death upon the Cross, the hidden life of Mary, to live life from the inside out, impervious, surrendering while sublimely detached from the overwhelming influence of the secular. No bitterness, no competition, no need to be right, no need to be impressed, nothing grandiose. Simple. Simple. Simple. There comes a time one stops observing with emotion or investment, placing trust and the exercising of faith through stout spiritual practice–patient and loving with regard to matters abiding in one’s healing, family, and properly discerned service to brothers and sisters. To see one’s self as a world problem solver is a dangerous delusional game for one’s self and the world. .

Do you think you can take over the world and improve it?

I do not believe it can be done.

The world is sacred.
You cannot improve it.
If you try to change it, you will ruin it.
If you try to hold it, you will lose it.

So sometimes things are ahead and sometimes they are behind;
Sometimes breathing is hard, sometimes it comes easily;
Sometimes there is strength and sometimes weakness;
Sometimes one is up and sometimes down.

Therefore wisdom avoids extremes, excesses, and complacency.

Unknown poet