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Sunday, January 31, 2021

The Love You Take

 

 
—Photos by Michelle Kunert
—Poetry by Michelle Kunert, Sacramento, CA



Poet James Lee Jobe suggests that, in the time of COVID-19, maybe you should consider writing your own obituary
     But I do believe a poet should perhaps leave their eulogy to others in their lives as an opportunity to share their own perceptions
     Please consider a quote from comedian Moms Mabley about how people need to prepare their lives in preparation for when they die:
     "They say you shouldn't say nothin' about the dead unless it's good. He's dead. Good!”
     Mabley said don’t be the kind of person who would make people praise in their minds and hearts that you died, rather than that you will be missed
     There are those who say “try to leave the world a better place than when you came into it"    
     but a major problem is that those like Adolf Hitler also believed the same thing
     Hitler as a young artist wanted to bring beauty into an ugly world but, although he too could make the world a better place through the politics of a racist national socialism for an economically ailing Germany to eliminate its poverty, he became one of the worst notorious monsters
     Hitler the hater passionately and poetically wrote down his own eulogy before he committed suicide, praising the “good” things he had done out of “love"
     "In these three decades I have been actuated solely by love and loyalty to my people in all my thoughts, acts, and life…. I die with a happy heart, aware of the immeasurable deeds and achievements of our soldiers at the front and our women at home, the achievements of our farmers and workers and the work, unique in history, of our youth who bear my name.”
     But you don’t have to be like Hitler to think that, just because you’re an artist, you can attempt to run the world better than God’s plan for peoples' salvation and redemption as written in the Bible
     Even if the Bible was a work of fiction, and one doesn’t believe in God, the principles and examples of how to live a decent life are still there, even if there is no heaven one goes to after death
     Poets indeed should perhaps also heed Paul McCartney’s statement reflecting the Golden Rule toward others: “And, in the end, The love you take is equal to the love you make.”

___________________

—Medusa, with thanks to Michelle Kunert for today’s poem and photos!
 
 
 
Mosaic Table
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



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