The Sublime Roundabout

I slide the thumbdrive Into the USB slot And access what is called Flash memory This device Its design and function Is called solid state Because there are no Moving parts The memory stored on it On this stick Could be accessible Forever But in reality The memory contained therein Is always moving Always touching For in it I see your face Ethereal and ephemeral

'tis true, you know That time does flow Like mountain streams Or childhood dreams Each year comes round New treasures found Along rocky trails Or on high seas to sail Or along pathways fair With the speed of a hare Footsteps light and free Grand vistas to see And the year rolls by On wings does it fly What was, now is not And dreams come to naught Yet somewhere within Deep, secret, and hidden Lies that essence, true That is the real you Undimmed by the passage Unchanged by any message It shines like a star Glowing bright and afar And as I draw near To the one I love dear With each passing year It becomes ever more clear That to her I must steer Eyes undimmed by tears Heart devoid of fear Eyes open, like a seer For what is more precious and good and holy On this mortal coil that we call the Earth Than the day on which and Angel and Queen became lowly And entered this place through a thing we call birth Truly, I am grateful For in you In

There is a point out there A point in the distance where The sea meets the sky. And standing on the beach Looking as far as the eye can reach One can see where it lies. Along a straight line At a nexus that is so fine The two meet, but never do. Gazing at this sight Sky blue turning to white And the sea remaining the deepest blue You begin to get a feel That the universe is real And bigger than we will ever know The immensity of the sky Too much for human eyes Meets the immensity of the sea below. And there lies the deepest calm A universe held in your palm The horizon contained in your eye.

So I finished the First Circle. Again. It's maybe the 10th time I've read it... I always find it enjoyable and learn something new as well. The winding up scene of the book has some prisoners being transported in a cargo van through Moscow. These boxes are painted to look like delivery trucks, the side of which is stenciled with the words (in a couple of languages) MEAT and BREAD. This was done to mask the transport vehicles as ordinary delivery trucks, as well as to give the impression that there is plenty of meat and bread to go around. In reality, the trucks were filled with prisoners in transport, being carted off to one branch of the GULAG or another to provide essentially slave labor in terrible conditions. It seems to me that there's a symbol there. Knowing Mr. Solzhenitsyn as well as I do (read: not at all) I know he has a wry sense of humor that is subtle and clever. Yet this one is pretty obvious: human beings, their time, labor, talents, etc. are commodities

The sun came up this morning It was beautiful, bright and clear How I love the sunshine Warming my soul Filling my heart With light and peace and hope We struggle through A benighted world Things are never as clear As we would like them to be And even though the sun shines Bright in the heavens above Our feet are often entangled By earthly cares below The sun continues to shine Providing light and warmth Filling all of creation With hope and understanding

A question was asked this Sunday whilst in Sunday School about the difference between killing in war and murder. I thought it a very good question, and one that deserved more exploration than we were able to have in that forum. So, you get to read about it here. At least, here are my musings: I served in the military. Some of my training involved the utilization of various weapons. I found that I was quite proficient at it. I qualified as a sharpshooter on the M-16 rifle, which meant that I was able to put a round through a target the size of a large pumpkin from over 200 yards away with 90% accuracy. This was with only using iron sights (no scope). I also shot different kinds of weapons, including the grenade launcher, the pistol, and a AT-4 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M136_AT4 ). While we used targets and dead machinery for our training purposes, there was always the lingering understanding that there would be people at whom I would be really shooting. And when we were trained,