Walls

Italy

Walls

Walls keep in
Protect-
Yet isolate.

Walls keep out
Unite-
Yet divide.

Walls shield
From prying eyes-
Yet blind.

Walls protect
From storms-
But keep out sunshine.

We need walls-
 With doorways.

​-MW

 The Brick Wall

A man and a woman met. They sat together, they ate together, they worked and played together. But one day the woman said, 
"I need-"
"No," answered the man. And he placed a brick on the floor between them. 
The next day the woman said, 
"Let's-"
"No," the man said. He put another brick on top of the first.
Then a day later, the man said, 
"I think-"
"I don't," said the woman. She added a brick to his. 
And so it went.
"I believe-"
"I don't."
"I like-"
"I don't like-"
This continued until the brick wall between them was so high they couldn't see each other. So they stopped talking. 
One day a little creature with a long snout, long ears, and  a long tail came into the house. It went over to the man and sat in his lap. Then it went to the wall and whined. It jumped but it could not get over the wall. 
"Why not?" the man asked himself.
He lifted the creature to the top of the wall. It jumped down onto the woman's side.
She held the creature and stroked it. After awhile, she put it back on the wall and it jumped down onto the man's side again. 
So it went. Both the man and woman loved the creature. But one day, when it jumped down onto the woman's side, it hurt its back. The woman held it and stroked it, but she couldn't heal its hurt. She held it up to the top of the wall.
"Can you?" she asked.
"Yes," answered the man. He took the creature down and held it. The creature soon felt better but then it wanted to go back to the woman. The man didn't want it to hurt itself again.
"Could we-" he asked?
"Yes," the woman answered.
The woman took a brick from the middle of the wall. But the opening was too small, so the man took another brick out. After taking out four bricks, there was an opening for the creature. It ran back and forth happily between the man and woman. But the wall was no longer strong. One day, it crumbled. The creature just barely escaped the falling bricks. The man took the bricks and made a path outside the door with them. He found some wood and built a long sofa. When he brought it into the house, the woman found some cushions. Then they sat on the couch in the middle of the room. The creature hopped onto the couch and sat between them, quite content. And there they sit to this day, all three happy on their couch together. 

​-MW
 

Prague

 An Existential Dance

Bridges are conduits,
They link and direct.
Walls are barriers,
They halt and separate.

Plenty is a boon,
It nurtures and enables.
Want is a bane,
It drains and lames.

Hate is a curse,
It soils and diminishes.
Love is a blessing,
It charms and enhances.

War is a dead end,
It kills and destroys.
Peace is an oasis,
It shelters and sustains.

These either-ors are galore,
The contraries of life,
Polar possibilities
That challenge and unsettle.

And it's all an interplay of choice and chance,
An endless, trying existential dance!

-JM


Cynicism

Lamentation without end,
Criticism ad nauseam.
A jaundiced view of human beings,
A no less dour view of life,
A scoffing cynic are sure to make.

An idealism that expects too much
Readily becomes a gnawing cynicism.
Fault lies less with life and humans
Than in man's quarrel with God's creation.
Cynicism is basically quarrel with the self!

​-JM

An Epigram a Day:

Some listen open-minded, their thoughts evolve.
Some listen selectively, their thoughts harden.

People at odds with themselves are people at odds with life.

Absolutes are the most intolerant and intolerable of fictions.

Conviction and tolerance are incompatible.

Argument tends to spawn less thought than ill feeling.

​Belief is refuge and prison.

​-JM

​Piccolisms:

Walls do not deter me.
I use them as  highways.

Do not leap off walls.
​It is fun but there are consequences. 

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