Monday, February 11, 2008

A poem for our christianity?

Currently this is my favorite poem.......



The Calf-Path
Sam Walter Foss (1858 -1911)

One day, through the primeval wood,A calf walked home, as good calves should;
But made a trail all bent askew,A crooked trail as all calves do.
Since then two hundred years have fled,And, I infer, the calf is dead.
But still he left behind his trail,And thereby hangs my moral tale.
The trail was taken up next dayBy a lone dog that passed that way;
And then a wise bell-wether sheepPursued the trail o'er vale and steep,
And drew the flock behind him, too,As good bell-wethers always do.
And from that day, o'er hill and glade,Through those old woods a path was made.
And many men wound in and out,And dodged, and turned, and bent about;
And uttered words of righteous wrath,Because 'twas such a crooked path.
But still they followed - do not laugh -The first migration of that calf.
And through this winding wood-way stalked,Because he wobbled when he walked.
This forest path became a lane,That bent, and turned, and turned again.
This crooked lane became a road,Where many a poor horse with his load,
Toiled on beneath the burning sun,And traveled some three miles in one.
And thus a century and a half,They trod the footsteps of that calf.
The years passed on in swiftness fleet,The road became a village street;
And this, before men were aware,A city's crowded thoroughfare;
And soon the central street was this,Of a renowned metropolis;
And men two centuries and a half,Trod the footsteps of that calf.
Each day a hundred thousand rout,Followed the zigzag calf about;
And o'er his crooked journey went,The traffic of a continent.
A hundred thousand men were led,By one calf near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way,And lost one hundred years a day;
For thus such reverence is lent,To well-established precedent.
A moral lesson this might teach,Were I ordained and called to preach;
For men are prone to go it blind,Along the calf-paths of the mind;
And work away from sun to sun,To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track,And out and in, and forth and back,
And still their devious course pursue,To keep the path that others do.
But how the wise old wood-gods laugh,Who saw the first primeval calf !
Ah ! many things this tale might teach - But I am not ordained to preach.

1 comment:

Rachel said...

Hey Aaron,

Just so you know, there are more than two people reading your blogg! I tried to write a comment to your cleanse or not to cleanse post, but for some reason it just dissapeared into cyberspace.
Anyhow, I liked that poem a lot. I think I might have heard it before. Sometimes I like to just sit down and try to clear my mind of every idea I have about God and Church or any other religious or spiritual thing that I think I know or learned from someone else. Then I read my bible like I have no pre-set notions or ideas or boxes to put things into, and all of a sudden things get much richer, deeper, a bit more confusing at times, but REAL. And that is the whole point. I say "God, I don't want to know ABOUT you from any outside source, I want to know you from YOU, from your word or however else you choose to reveal yourself." I don't think at this point you would be surprised at how many things we take for granted about God or how to be a Christian or what we believe that actually has little solid biblical roots. It is the same with any learning we do: experiential learning is one of the best ways to know something, not from hearing someone else explain it to us. Do you know what I mean?
I love reading your blogg, and I'm stoked on what God is doing in your heart, your home, and your town. My prayers are with you.

Love, Rachel