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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200528
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SUMMARY:peace\, love & happiness 5/28/20
DESCRIPTION:painting by Charles Erickson \n  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love & happiness \nMay 28\, 2020 \n  \nIn 1681 William Penn\, an English Quaker\, was granted territory in North America by King Charles II. The land was named Pennsylvania. Penn planned to build the city of Philadelphia\, which means “brotherly love.” Before coming to America\, on August 18\, 1681\, he wrote this letter to the Native American chiefs: \n  \nMY FRIENDS\, There is a Great God and Power\, that hath made the world and all things therein\, to whom you and I and all people owe their being and well-being; and to whom you and I must one day give an account for all that we do in the world. This Great God hath written his Law in our hearts\, by which we are taught and commanded to love and help\, and do good to one another\, and not to do harm and mischief unto one another. Now this Great God hath been pleased to make me concerned in your part of the world\, and the king of the country where I live hath given me a great province therein; but I desire to enjoy it with your love and consent\, that we may always live together as neighbors and friends; else what would the Great God do to us? who hath made us not to devour and destroy one another\, but to live soberly and kindly together in the world. Now I would have you well observe that I am very sensible of the unkindness and injustice that hath been too much exercised towards you by the people of these parts of the world\, who have sought themselves\, and to make great advantages by you\, rather than to be examples of justice and goodness unto you\, which I hear hath been matter of trouble unto you\, and caused great grudgings and animosities\, sometimes to the shedding of blood\, which hath made the Great God angry. But I am not such a man\, as is well known in my own country. I have great love and regard towards you\, and I desire to win and gain your love and friendship by a kind\, just\, and peaceable life\, and the people I send are of the same mind\, and shall in all things behave themselves accordingly; and if in any thing any shall offend you or your people\, you shall have a full and speedy satisfaction for the same\, by an equal number of just men on both sides\, that by no means you may have just occasion of being offended against them. \n—William Penn (1644-1718) \n* \nAnother Seventeenth Century Englishman had this to say: \n  \n28 \nYour enjoyment of the world is never right\, till every morning you awake in Heaven; see yourself in your Father’s Palace; and look upon the skies\, the earth\, and the air as Celestial Joys: having such a reverend esteem of all\, as if you were among the Angels. The bride of a monarch\, in her husband’s chamber\, hath no such causes of delight as you.  \n  \n29 \nYou never enjoy the world aright\, till the Sea itself floweth in your veins\, till you are clothed with the heavens\, and crowned with the stars: and perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world\, and more than so\, because men are in it who are every one sole heirs as well as you. Till you can sing and rejoice and delight in God\, as misers do in gold\, and Kings in sceptres\, you never enjoy the world.  \n  \n30 \nTill your spirit filleth the whole world\, and the stars are your jewels; till you are as familiar with the ways of God in all Ages as with your walk and table: till you are intimately acquainted with that shady nothing out of which the world was made: till you love men so as to desire their happiness\, with a thirst equal to the zeal of your own; till you delight in God for being good to all: you never enjoy the world. Till you more feel it than your private estate\, and are more present in the hemisphere\, considering the glories and the beauties there\, than in your own house: Till you remember how lately you were made\, and how wonderful it was when you came into it: and more rejoice in the palace of your glory\, than if it had been made to-day morning.  \n  \n31 \nYet further\, you never enjoyed the world aright\, till you so love the beauty of enjoying it\, that you are covetous and earnest to persuade others to enjoy it. And so perfectly hate the abominable corruption of men in despising it\, that you had rather suffer the flames of Hell than willingly be guilty of their error. There is so much blindness and ingratitude and damned folly in it. The world is a mirror of infinite beauty\, yet no man sees it. It is a Temple of Majesty\, yet no man regards it. It is a region of Light and Peace\, did not men disquiet it. It is the Paradise of God. \n  \n—Thomas Traherne (1636-1674) from Centuries of Meditations\, First Century\, also quoted by Aldous Huxley in The Perennial Philosophy\, pp. 67-68 \n* \nThis was written more recently: \n  \nKindness \n  \nBefore you know what kindness really is \nyou must lose things\, \nfeel the future dissolve in a moment \nlike salt in a weakened broth. \nWhat you held in your hand\, \nwhat you counted and carefully saved\, \nall this must go so you know \nhow desolate the landscape can be \nbetween the regions of kindness. \nHow you ride and ride \nthinking the bus will never stop\, \nthe passengers eating maize and chicken \nwill stare out the window forever. \nBefore you learn the tender gravity of kindness \nyou must travel where the Indian in a white poncho \nlies dead by the side of the road. \nYou must see how this could be you\, \nhow he too was someone \nwho journeyed through the night with plans \nand the simple breath that kept him alive. \nBefore you know kindness as the deepest thing inside\, \nyou must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.  \nYou must wake up with sorrow. \nYou must speak to it till your voice \ncatches the thread of all sorrows \nand you see the size of the cloth. \nThen it is only kindness that makes sense anymore\, \nonly kindness that ties your shoes \nand sends you out into the day to gaze at bread\, \nonly kindness that raises its head \nfrom the crowd of the world to say \nIt is I you have been looking for\, \nand then goes with you everywhere \nlike a shadow or a friend.    \n  \n—- Naomi Shihab Nye \n* \nHer poem reminded me of this line from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”: \n  \nWhoever walks a furlong without sympathy\, walks to his own funeral dressed in his shroud. \n  \nIt’s a good line\, but he’s just getting warmed up: \n  \nAnd I or you pocketless of a dime may purchase the pick of the earth\, \nAnd to glance with an eye or show a bean in its pod confounds the learning of all times\, \nAnd there is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero\, \nAnd there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheeled universe\, \nAnd I say to any man or woman\, Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes…. \n  \nI hear and behold God in every object\, yet understand God not in the least…. \n  \nWhy should I wish to see God better than this day? \nI see something of God each hour of the twenty-four\, and each moment then\, \nIn the faces of men and women I see God\, and in my own face in the glass\, \nI find letters from God dropt in the street\, and every one is signed by God’s name\, \nAnd I leave them where they are\, for I know that wheresoe’er I go\, \nOthers will punctually come for ever and ever. \n* \n  \nWalt’s 201st birthday is this Sunday\, May 31st. We’re going to have a group reading of “Song of Myself” at 3 pm (West Coast Time). To enjoy this exhilarating event\, go to the Zoom website and click on “Join a Meeting.” The meeting ID number is 892-8123-9555. Then\, the password is 623246. I hope to see you there! \n—Johnny Stallings
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-newsletter-5-28-6-3-2020/
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