{"id":31785,"date":"2022-03-26T01:00:03","date_gmt":"2022-03-26T08:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/?p=31785"},"modified":"2022-03-25T12:05:26","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T19:05:26","slug":"love-is-the-hard-thing-a-smallest-meditation-on-a-poem-by-wendell-berry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2022\/03\/love-is-the-hard-thing-a-smallest-meditation-on-a-poem-by-wendell-berry.html","title":{"rendered":"Love is the Hard Thing: A smallest meditation on a poem by Wendell Berry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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A Zen teaching friend shared this Wendell Berry poem today.<\/div>\n
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Now you know the worst<\/em><\/div>\n
we humans have to know<\/em><\/div>\n
about ourselves, and I am sorry,<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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for I know that you will be afraid.<\/em><\/div>\n
To those of our bodies given<\/em><\/div>\n
without pity to be burned, I know<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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there is no answer<\/em><\/div>\n
but loving one another,<\/em><\/div>\n
even our enemies, and this is hard.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Then another friend offered the whole poem.<\/div>\n
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To my granddaughters who visited the Holocaust Museum
\non the day of the burial of Yitzak Rabin, November 6th 1995.<\/i><\/p>\n

Now you know the worst<\/em>
\nwe humans have to know<\/em>
\nabout ourselves, and I am sorry,<\/em><\/p>\n

for I know you will be afraid.<\/em>
\nTo those of our bodies given<\/em>
\nwithout pity to be burned, I know<\/em><\/p>\n

there is no answer<\/em>
\nbut loving one another<\/em>
\neven our enemies, and this is hard.<\/em><\/p>\n

But remember:<\/em>
\nwhen a man of war becomes a man of peace,<\/em>
\nhe gives a light, divine<\/em><\/p>\n

though it is also human.<\/em>
\nWhen a man of peace is killed<\/em>
\nby a man of war, he gives a light.<\/em><\/p>\n

You do not have to walk in darkness.<\/em>
\nIf you have the courage for love,<\/em>
\nyou may walk in light. It will be<\/em><\/p>\n

the light of those who have suffered<\/em>
\nfor peace. It will be<\/em>
\nyour light.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I treasure the whole thing.<\/div>\n
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And I\u2019m taken with the shorter excerpt, as well.<\/div>\n
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What follows in the fuller poem is a sort of coda, a blessing.<\/div>\n
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The shorter version is more abrupt, almost brutal. And feels like a calling from the deep, at least to me. A calling that doesn\u2019t necessarily come with a blessing. Or, the blessing is darker. Or, might be.<\/div>\n
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This not turning from disaster, from actual evil. It is hard. It calls for responses, sometimes the most distasteful of responses. Which might be read into the shorter version of the poem. But I don\u2019t think so.<\/div>\n
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You. Me. And, whatever else, including all else, we have certain duties to one another. Sometimes even unto death. But. That said, Berry touches the most difficult of all things.<\/div>\n
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If I cannot find love for every corner of the world, even for my enemy, and I don\u2019t need to pretend there are no enemies, there are; those actions I am called to will not merely be distasteful, they become a conspiracy of evils\u2026<\/div>\n
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Love is the hard thing. It is also, among and in the middle of all that we must do, the only answer.<\/div>\n
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The dark blessing of walking through shadow valley\u2026<\/div>\n
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