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Sunday, August 26, 2012

No Ordinary Person

I listened this morning to the BYU Devotional speech by Tad Callister given on August 14, 2012.  He quoted from this poem by Robert Browning that is a reminder that all those who will be associating with us at Esperanza are no ordinary people. 

Rabbi Ben Ezra
The Browning Pages
Robert Browning



Grow old along with me! 
The best is yet to be, 
The last of life, for which the first was made: 
Our times are in his hand 
Who saith, 'A whole I planned, 
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!' 

Not that, amassing flowers, 
Youth sighed, 'Which rose make ours, 
Which lily leave and then as best recall?' 
Not that, admiring stars, 
It yearned, 'Nor Jove, nor Mars; 
Mine be some figured flame which blends, transcends them all!' 

Not for such hopes and fears 
Annulling youth's brief years, 
Do I remonstrate: folly wide the mark! 
Rather I prize the doubt 
Low kinds exist without, 
Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a ark. 

Poor vaunt of life indeed, 
Were man but formed to feed 
On joy, to solely seek and find a feast: 
Such feasting ended, then 
As sure an end to men; 
Irks care the crop-full bird? Frets doubt the maw-crammed beast? 

Rejoice we are allied 
To that which doth provide 
And not partake, effect and not receive! 
A ark disturbs our clod; 
Nearer we hold of God 
Who gives, than of his tribes that take, I must believe. 

Then, welcome each rebuff 
That turns earth's smoothness rough, 
Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go! 
Be our joys three-parts pain! 
Strive, and hold cheap the strain; 
Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe! 

For thence,- a paradox 
Which comforts while it mocks,- 
Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail: 
What I a ired to be, 
And was not, comforts me; 
A brute I might have been, but would not sink i' the scale. 

What is he but a brute 
Whose flesh has soul to suit, 
Whose irit works lest arms and legs want play? 
To man, propose this test- 
Thy body at its best, 
How far can that project thy soul on its lone way? 

Yet gifts should prove their use: 
I own the Past profuse 
Of power each side, perfection every turn: 
Eyes, ears took in their dole, 
Brain treasured up the whole; 
Should not the heart beat once 'How good to live and learn'? 

Not once beat 'Praise be thine! 
I see the whole design, 
I, who saw power, see now Love perfect too: 
Perfect I call thy plan: 
Thanks that I was a man! 
Maker, remake, complete,- I trust what thou shalt do!' 

For pleasant is this flesh; 
Our soul, in its rose-mesh 
Pulled ever to the earth, still yearns for rest: 
Would we some prize might hold 
To match those manifold 
Possessions of the brute,- gain most, as we did best! 

Let us not always say, 
' ite of this flesh to-day 
I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!' 
As the bird wings and sings, 
Let us cry, 'All good things 
Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!' 

Therefore I summon age 
To grant youth's heritage, 
Life's struggle having so far reached its term: 
Thence shall I pass, approved 
A man, for aye removed 
From the developed brute; a God though in the germ. 

And I shall thereupon 
Take rest, ere I be gone 
Once more on my adventure brave and new: 
Fearless and unperplexed, 
When I wage battle next, 
What weapons to select, what armor to indue. 

Youth ended, I shall try 
My gain or loss thereby; 
Leave the fire ashes, what survives is gold: 
And I shall weigh the same, 
Give life its praise or blame: 
Young, all lay in di ute; I shall know, being old. 

For note, when evening shuts, 
A certain moment cuts 
The deed off, calls the glory from the gray: 
A whi er from the west 
Shoots- 'Add this to the rest, 
Take it and try its worth: here dies another day.' 

So, still within this life, 
Though lifted o'er its strife, 
Let me discern, compare, pronounce at last, 
'This rage was right i' the main, 
That acquiescence vain: 
The Future I may face now I have proved the Past.' 

For more is not reserved 
To man, with soul just nerved 
To act to-morrow what he learns to-day: 
Here, work enough to watch 
The Master work, and catch 
Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play. 

As it was better, youth 
Should strive, through acts uncouth, 
Toward making, than repose on aught found made: 
So, better, age, exempt 
From strife, should know, than tempt 
Further. Thou waitedst age: wait death nor be afraid! 

Enough now, if the Right 
And Good and Infinite 
Be named here, as thou callest thy hand thine own, 
With knowledge absolute, 
Subject to no di ute 
From fools that crowded youth, nor let thee feel alone. 

Be there, for once and all, 
Severed great minds from small, 
Announced to each his station in the Past! 
Was I, the world arraigned, 
Were they, my soul disdained, 
Right? Let age eak the truth and give us peace at last! 

Now, who shall arbitrate? 
Ten men love what I hate, 
Shun what I follow, slight what I receive; 
Ten, who in ears and eyes 
Match me; we all surmise, 
They this thing, and I that: whom shall my soul believe? 

Not on the vulgar mass 
Called 'work,' must sentence pass, 
Things done, that took the eye and had the price; 
O'er which, from level stand, 
The low world laid its hand, 
Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice: 

But all, the world's coarse thumb 
And finger failed to plumb, 
So passed in making up the main account; 
All instincts immature, 
All purposes unsure, 
That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the man's amount: 

Thoughts hardly to be packed 
Into a narrow act, 
Fancies that broke through language and escaped; 
All I could never be, 
All, men ignored in me, 
This, I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped. 

Ay, note that Potter's wheel, 
That metaphor! and feel 
Why time ins fast, why passive lies our clay,- 
Thou, to whom fools propound, 
When the wine make its round, 
'Since life fleets, all is change; the Past gone, seize to-day!' 

Fool! All that is, at all, 
Lasts ever, past recall; 
Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure: 
What entered into thee, 
That was, is, and shall be: 
Time's wheel runs back or stops: Potter and clay endure. 

He fixed thee 'mid this dance 
Of plastic circumstance, 
This Present, thou, forsooth, would fain arrest: 
Machinery just meant 
To give thy soul its bent, 
Try thee and turn thee forth, sufficiently impressed. 

What though the earlier grooves, 
Which ran the laughing loves 
Around thy base, no longer pause and press? 
What though, about thy rim, 
Skull-things in order grim 
Grow out, in graver mood, obey the sterner stress? 

Look not thou down but up! 
To uses of a cup, 
The festal board, lamp's flash, and trumpet's peal, 
The new wine's foaming flow, 
The master's lips aglow! 
Thou, heaven's consummate cup, what needst thou with earth's wheel? 

But I need, now as then, 
Thee, God, who moldest men; 
And since, not even while the whirl was worst, 
Did I- to the wheel of life 
With shapes and colors rife, 
Bound dizzily- mistake my end, to slake thy thirst: 

So, take and use thy work: 
Amend what flaws may lurk, 
What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim! 
My times be in thy hand! 
Perfect the cup as planned! 
Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same! 

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