the welfare blogger

A poem.

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 18:31:55 -0400

If among the thorns I sow,
And sit to watch the flowers grow,
Long the wait I have indeed
To see a petal from the seed.

Were not i the better off
To clear away the nasty crop?
Then, in time, to plant the seed
And watch and guard and prune and weed.

Time, you see, can trick the mind,
Mark black what is a blurry line
Between the seen and the unseen,
Make us think the two in fact distinct.

Happy Birthday Mike. I don’t really care about the debates. To me, Michael Jordan will always...

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 22:14:54 -0500

Happy Birthday Mike.

I don’t really care about the debates. To me, Michael Jordan will always be the greatest athlete ever, not to mention the best basketball player to lace ‘em up. My belief in that is based largely on what I think are quantifiable basketball and competitive traits as well as what I have seen with my own eyes. But at the end of the day, none of that matters. Sports are important to some, and they help shape those of us to whom they are important. Basketball is the sport that shaped me. And MJ is the man who shaped basketball.

So no matter what people say, I’ll be rooting for him above all other ball players. I’ll be rooting for him to find peace away from the game. I’ll be rooting for him to be successful at Life. Which is to say, I’ll be rooting for him to find that in that arena, the best way to win is to lose.

Cheers to you at 50, Mike.

In response to Evil.

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 22:49:32 -0500

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

_____________________

The above are stanzas four, five and six from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Christmas Bells.” To be honest, there are many times—today being an emphatic example—when the buildup to the sixth stanza, in all its helplessness and defeat, in its resignation to seemingly indiscriminate evil endings of peace and life, whether in the events of our day-to-day lives or the absolute horror of today’s killings—there are many times when I can read no more.

And perhaps the pause is necessary for us—we as followers of Jesus are not commanded to make light of Evil, but we are also not to shy away from realizing its power. Diluting our conversations with meaningless discussion of the “bad stuff” that “goes on” in the world is not only trivial, but displays a lack of understanding for the very deliberate nature with which Evil wages war on the world. Demeaning the power and presence of Evil is, furthermore, delusional, as we can all attest to today and just about any day that one reads the news.

Where we as Christ-followers ought to find ourselves is living in the reality that, while we could never hope to triumph over Evil on our own, we follow the God who made us “alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the demonic rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Jesus.”

I have no answers for Evil other than that. I am weak and unable in my own power to do anything about the war that it wages. I am sick to my stomach at what it does, what we as people do. But I know that Jesus rescued me from the death and bondage of Evil. How could I deny that? And how could I deny that He is the only source of rescue that we can place any hope in? He defeated Evil and death on the cross, and He is even now in the process of making you and me and the rest of His art new. Will we let Him do that? After all, the last stanza has already been written.

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

More haikus, because haikus are awesome.

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 19:29:45 -0500

More fantastic Guest submissions! The Jones family has caught the bug. It’s obvious that you should, too.

midnight musing - by Seth Jones

why can’t we all see
we create our own problems.
everyone slow down.

Southern style - by Seth Jones

it ain’t all that hard
tea, hot water, and sugar
it cures what ails you.

I have three submissions of my own, which are all untitled, and which are as follows:

The more that we get,
the less Thanksgiving we give,
the poorer we are.

______

The dog wants a walk,
and is delighted by it.
The man? A car. Bored.

______

Come, let us reason:
For what do we strive and yearn?
Life, or its crude sketch?

New Haiku Submissions

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 20:51:40 -0500

Obviously, the frequency of my posting has been negligible, but the following submissions by some of my faithful readers show that others have been busy. As you can tell by the content of some of these, they’ve been waiting very patiently to be posted while I failed to realize they were in my inbox. Sorry yall!

Inspired by tonight - by Marc Jones

Sun sets thru bare trees
stars shine in crystal clear sky
winter is beauty

untitled - by Marc Jones

College Basketball
A passage through winter months
that ends in spring time

What My Nephew (Braden, age 5) Told Me On The Phone Last Night About What He Didn’t Wear To Church. - by Sarah Werner

Aunt Sarah guess what
I am going commando
with no underwear.

you could tell miles from coltrane - by Allegra Korver

miles davis plays jazz
while the rain drips. Suddenly
to clean is divine.

good bye (to post after Roddick is done) - by Marc Jones

Kimmie and Andy
Your tennis play was superb
thank you for the joy

remembered - by Marc Jones

Colonel Wayland Jones
Memorial Day is for
men like you who served

alternate reality - by Marc Jones

twenty mile bike ride
sweat covered and leg weary
my mind? Tour De France!

What my day off looks like. Tools of the trade.

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:18:00 -0500

What my day off looks like. Tools of the trade.

I’ve made it through a busy season with all of my limbs intact and with at least 82% of my...

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 21:52:12 -0400

I’ve made it through a busy season with all of my limbs intact and with at least 82% of my sanity. I chose the number 82, because that’s when this happened:

Can you tell I’m excited for college basketball to start?

artruby: German street artist Megx creates Lego bridge in...

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 14:33:35 -0400

artruby:

German street artist Megx creates Lego bridge in Germany.

Guest Haiku

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:48:00 -0400

Like Forrest Gump - by Marc Jones

Michael likes to swim
And swim and swim and swim again
and then he just quit

"Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back." - Ma$e

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 17:07:35 -0400

I’ve passed the CPA exam in its entirety and have started working for an accounting firm, putting to some use that which I have spent the last five years of my life learning in one context or another. In regards to the first clause of the previous sentence, I would strongly recommend not getting to a place where you can write it truthfully, unless you have already begun taking the Exam, in which case I would recommend getting to that place as quickly as you possibly can.

I am, as of this moment, listening to a song by Patrick Lee, called Hands In. Horse sent it to me, because he likes to send me music on Twitter. The songs he sends are always songs that I would never in a million years hear unless he sent them to me, so it’s more or less like opening a present whenever I open the links. Generally more.

Amy and I have moved to a very quaint house. If houses were poetry, I would call this house Haiku. Small, yet full of life.

In light of the recent developments in my life, I have some things to share:

Live with less. For some reason, even though we have access to well-made necessities that are simple and long-lasting, we choose to buy lots of cheap un-necessities that break and become trash very easily. It seems irrational, at best, and irresponsible, at neutral, and perhaps just wrong, at worst.
Do not confuse working hard with working for Work’s sake. Just work well, and with as much danged Joy as you possibly can. This nation is full of people who are dead serious about their jobs and people who aren’t serious at all about their jobs, and like so many other things, we must find our way somewhere in the balance.
Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian of all time. And I really don’t think any rational argument can be made against that statement. Although I am sure that people will try, as is their right. As is their right.

Haikumerick.

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 23:23:12 -0400

Haikus are like bars
on a page of good music:
Structured and free thoughts.

And who is to say
that limericks are better?
They have to be fun.

But following that line can be boring
And the men on the ship are still snoring

I put them to sleep
and there they will keep

til my skills of Haiku get to soaring.

scandybars: Baby Ruth Crisp

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 00:01:18 -0400

scandybars:

Baby Ruth Crisp

A Haiku about Dad.

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 10:23:34 -0400

Now, as for Father:
there are men, but there is Dad—
Coach, Fan, Teacher, Dad

A haiku about Politics.

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 22:39:00 -0400

Angry does not move,
Apathetic wastes the day.
Act, instead, through Love.

"Cities and Thrones and Powers"

Thu, 31 May 2012 00:34:00 -0400

- a poem by Rudyard Kipling

Cities and Thrones and Powers
Stand in Time’s eye,
Almost as long as flowers,
Which daily die:
But, as new buds put forth
To glad new men,
Out of the spent and unconsidered Earth,
The Cities rise again.

This season’s Daffodil,
She never hears,
What change, what chance, what chill,
Cut down last year’s;
But with bold countenance,
And knowledge small,
Esteems her seven days’ continuance
To be perpetual.

So Time that is o’er-kind
To all that be,
Ordains us e’en as blind,
As bold as she:
That in our very death,
And burial sure,
Shadow to shadow, well persuaded, saith,
“See how our works endure!”

__________________________________________________

Education-a haiku by me

Four years of high school,
eight semesters of college,
and fewer answers.

__________________________________________

N.T. Wright on reclaiming furniture and renewing lives.

Thu, 24 May 2012 16:09:28 -0400

N.T. Wright on reclaiming furniture and renewing lives.

Mother's Day

Sun, 13 May 2012 15:12:00 -0400

April showers bring Mom flowers - a haiku by me

Now, as for Mother,
she was always making Home,
and filling it full

my hope - a haiku by Marc Jones

Sun, 13 May 2012 14:16:56 -0400

at my death I pray,
not known as religious, but,
a Christ follower

Maurice Sendak

Tue, 08 May 2012 11:40:36 -0400

dallasclayton:

Miss Haviland: Is there any point that you would like to make, aside from the questions that have been brought up to you before and which you’ve answered again tonight?

Mr. Sendak: I love my work very much, it means everything to me. I would like to see a time when children’s books were not segregated from adult books, a time when people didn’t think of children’s books as a minor art form, a little Peterpanville, a cutsey-darling place where you could Have Fun, Laugh Your Head Off. I know so many adult writers whom I would happily chop into pieces, who say, “Well I think I’ll take a moment and sit down and knock off a kiddy book! It looks like so much fun, it’s obviously easy…” And, of course, they write a lousy book!

It would be so much better if everyone felt that children’s books are for everybody, that we simply write books, that we are a community of writers and artists, that we are all seriously involved in the business of writing. And if everyone felt that writing for children is a serious business, perhaps even more serious than a lot of other forms of writing, and if when such books are reviewed and discussed, they were discussed on this serious level, and that we would be taken seriously as artists.

I would like to do away with the division into age categories of children over here and adults over there, which is confusing to me and I think probably confusing to children. It’s very confusing to many people who don’t even know how to buy a children’s book. I think if I have any particular hope it’s this: that we all should simply be artists and just write books and stop pretending that there is such a thing as being able to sit down and write a book for a child: it is quite impossible. One simply writes books.

– Questions to an Artist Who Is Also an Author: A Conversation between Maurice Sendak and Virginia Haviland (a public interview at the Library of Congress held in 1971)

Maurice Sendak, a great inspiration… you will be missed.

"North America has always been more easily...kindled." - Tolkien

Fri, 04 May 2012 15:33:00 -0400

I was making breakfast, and then I walked into the den, and Amy said,

“Did you know that today is National Star Wars day?”

“No.”

“May the Fourth be with you.”

______________________________________

It is very sad when people die, when all people die. To choose to not be sad over the death of some while choosing to be sad over the death of others seems to me tragic, and flawed, though I myself have done so on a number of occasions.

The reason why it is sad is that every time it happens it rings a solemn, menacing bell of victory for Death itself. How can that ever be unsad?

For no matter what a person has done—perhaps they themselves have helped Death by donating others to its cause—that person’s own death, the good they have left behind notwithstanding, seems simply to say, quietly or with much shouting, “Death has won again.”

I think that is how sometimes we can be okay with people dying; we think that Death’s victory over a bad person simply saved other people from that same victory. Which isn’t true, because it seems everyone faces the Defeat at some point or another. Well then, perhaps that person’s death saved the untimely or cruel deaths of innocents. But who can be assured of that? Is not Death the most formidable of opponents?

And anyway, why would we rejoice in Death for any reason at all? There is no lesser of two evils because it represents the basest of them all, no matter whom it chooses to claim, and when.

Consider the words of Simone de Beauvoir:

There is no such thing as a natural death. Nothing that happens to Man is ever natural, since his presence calls the whole world into question. All men are mortal: but for every man his death is an accident and, even if he knows it and consents to it, an unjustifiable violation.

It is an unjustifiable violation. It isn’t right—not physical death, not emotional death amongst relationships, not the mini-deaths that come upon us and that deceive us into thinking they are actually life-giving—none of it is right. It is a curse that must be broken, or else we live as organisms most of all to be pitied. Those who have the capacity to understand the inequities of death more than any other being, and yet still hopeless.

And, though I barely know how to put into a couple of sentences what has been the most incredible victory, the most altering event ever to take place in history—the curse has been broken!! Though it still has power, though it still causes sadness and weariness, it has no ultimate power, and it will be once and for all abolished some day.

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.