Happy B’day, Mr. B! 🎂

 For the record, I completely concur with the following quotation and wish heartily we would do something about it! To begin, be sure to read today’s poem. That is all for now.

“This massive ascendancy of corporate power over democratic process is probably the most ominous development since the end of World War II, and for the most part 'the free world' seems to be regarding it as merely normal.” - essayist and poet Wendell Berry, born OTD 88 years ago.

a heron, flown from the hilltop

Photo by J. Harrington

Do not be ashamed

by Wendell Berry

You will be walking some night
in the comfortable dark of your yard
and suddenly a great light will shine
round about you, and behind you
will be a wall you never saw before.
It will be clear to you suddenly
that you were about to escape,
and that you are guilty: you misread
the complex instructions, you are not
a member, you lost your card
or never had one. And you will know
that they have been there all along,
their eyes on your letters and books,
their hands in your pockets,
their ears wired to your bed.
Though you have done nothing shameful,
they will want you to be ashamed.
They will want you to kneel and weep
and say you should have been like them.
And once you say you are ashamed,
reading the page they hold out to you,
then such light as you have made
in your history will leave you.
They will no longer need to pursue you.
You will pursue them, begging forgiveness.
They will not forgive you.
There is no power against them.
It is only candor that is aloof from them,
only an inward clarity, unashamed,
that they cannot reach. Be ready.
When their light has picked you out
and their questions are asked, say to them:
"I am not ashamed." A sure horizon
will come around you. The heron will begin
is evening flight from the hilltop.

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