"Is"

My favorite part of yesterday's celebration was when the Munchkins came out and sang "Ding dong, the witch is dead. . . ."  That was really something.  Obama's speech, though, got me thinking about virtues, so I posed the question to people I met: "What's your greatest virtue?"  In truth, mine was evasive.  I am still thinking.  It made me think of moral codes, too, those guiding values by which we live our lives, that let us make distinctions about good and evil.  I find that most people have a very difficult time articulating their moral codes.  Try it.  Then try living by it consciously for two weeks and see if it is difficult.  Most people I query break their moral code several times a day.  And this is the same moral code by which they value others whose own codes are different, if not in word, then in mood or emphasis.  

Obama's speech got me thinking about all of this, and of course, it was a terrible night.  Obama's speech urged us to put away childish things, and I wonder about that.  I know that he means those selfish, spoiled, and wasteful things of a spoiled child and is not referencing those wonderful parts of childhood, the whimsical, joyful thrill of simply existing, the natural part of life as opposed to the fashioned, mechanical things.  Surely he meant that, right?  I think he should have said so.  

But I am with him.  We must be more productive.  To make things, to have skills, to work with metal and wood and the land--those actions are to be honored.  Still, it is hard for me to get excited about a world where you can count on getting a job in a factory.  I keep wondering how many factory jobs he has held, how many times he has tilled the land.

But I am parsing from the cheap seats.  I, too, am tired of people who do not pull their weight, who use resources without giving back, tired of the drug dealers who wave to me as I go to work with superior grins, tired of the wise guys at the Y in their expensive ties who know how to fix the economy.  Sloth and Greed and Avarice are everywhere.  Those are definitely "do nots" in my moral code.  

I ended my evening alone after a particularly memorable exchange in which I was asked to question who cared for me.  The list, according to my questioner, is notable for its brevity.  I think that worked on me, too, as I lay in my bed on the coldest night of the year, wondering about the challenges that face me, both individually and collectively.  But perhaps last night, as the Obama's danced the evening away into history, many of us were thinking about the same things, wondering about our place in the world, about what we've done to bring us here, about our deeds and responsibilities and about the seismic shifting in social values and codes.  

There is a new moral order, I think, by which we all must evaluate our lives.  

But I am still mostly haunted by "childish things."  I do love them so,  preferring the "is" to the "un".

you said Is
there anything which
is dead or alive more beautiful
than my body,to have in your fingers
(trembling ever so little)?
Looking into
your eyes Nothing,i said,except the
air of spring smelling of never and forever.

....and through the lattice which moved as
if a hand is touched by a
hand(which
moved as though
fingers touch a girl's
breast,
lightly)
Do you believe in always,the wind
said to the rain
I am too busy with
my flowers to believe,the rain answered


(e.e. cummings)