Posts Tagged: Robert Frost

“The Sweetest Dream that Labor Knows”

On September 6, 2021 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“There was never a sound beside the wood but one,
And that was my long scythe whispering to the ground.
What was it it whispered? I know not well myself;
Perhaps it was something about the heat of the sun,
Something perhaps, about the lack of sound—
And that was why it whispered and did not speak.
It was not dream of the gift of idle hours,
Or easy gold at the hand of fay or elf:
Anything more than the truth would have seemed too weak
To the earnest love that laid the swale in rows,
Not without feeble-pointed spikes of flowers
(Pale orchises), and scared a bright green snake.
The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows.
My long scythe whispered and left the hay to make.” (Robert Frost, “Mowing”)

On this Labor Day, I have been thinking about work. I haven’t been doing a lot of work, just thinking about it.

I think it was Studs Terkel who said that work is an act of violence. Sometimes that is so. However, Robert Frost has a different take on work. I don’t know precisely what the next to the last line of this poem means. Often, Frost’s poems mean more than they say. But I suspect that the poet is saying that the actual doing of the work is the thing that is sweet.

Now, I grew up on a farm. In fact, I have sometimes used a handheld scythe to mow hay next to the fence where it wasn’t safe to use the tractor and power mower. It was hard, sweaty, muscle-cramping work. So was much of the work on the farm.

However, once in a while, I felt a great satisfaction in work accomplished. The work I did on our own farm was not for pay. Dad felt that providing me with a house, food, and clothing was pay enough. He was right. But sometimes, that pleasure of finishing a task—or even being in the midst of it—was payment in and of itself.

I still feel that way sometimes. Sharon needed some help with washing the windows a while ago, and also some help getting the curtains back up. There was pleasure in doing so. I feel a similar pleasure when I write. Writing is work, but it is good work.

To take pleasure in work is not always an easy thing to do. But there is pleasure to be taken. And we should also take pleasure in appreciating the hard work of others. The pleasure of work is no substitute for adequate pay, but it is a nice perk.

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“In Praise of November”

On November 17, 2020 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

In the not-too-distant past, I hated November.  Well, maybe “hated” is too strong a word.  No, on third thought, it isn’t!  I used to hate Novembers.

Oh, don’t get me wrong: Thanksgivings were kind of nice.  But one day out of thirty does not a good month make.

But the other day, I decided to enjoy November.  Of course, I enjoyed the drop-dead-beautiful days we had last week.  Sunny dry and in the 70s: What’s not to like about that!  But that is not when I decided to like November.  No, it was when the weather turned cold and grey and rainy, and all the leaves were stripped from the trees.  I looked out my study window at a tree that had been so beautiful a couple of weeks ago.  Even a few days ago, the tree had a lot of lovely yellow leaves.

But now, the tree stood there, naked.  A strong wind made the tree shiver in the cold.  I realized that I could see the limbs and the bark much better now, and I could also see that they were beautiful.

It also hit me like cold water in a shower that I wouldn’t enjoy spring or summer nearly as much without the winter.  And suddenly, I was awake.  The cold water washed away my contempt for November.  My desire for custom-made weather had kept me from enjoying the beauty of the is-ness of things.  And with that realization, a flood of gratitude washed over me.  There is nothing wrong with November after all!  There never was!  I was the problem with November.

My wife was born in November.  That, even more than the beauty of the trees, should have provided plenty of incentive for cherishing this month.

After the great flood, God gives his word that,

“As long as the earth endures,

seedtime and harvest,

cold and heat,

summer and winter,

day and night

will never cease.” (Genesis 8:22, New International Version)

God made all the seasons.  God made every month—November no less than April or June.

Robert Frost has a wonderful poem about the lovely companionship of November.

My sorrow, when she’s here with me,

     Thinks these dark days of autumn rain

Are beautiful as days can be;

She loves the bare, the withered tree;

     She walks the sodden pasture lane.

Her pleasure will not let me stay.

     She talks and I am fain to list:

She’s glad the birds are gone away,

She’s glad her simple worsted grey

     Is silver now with clinging mist.

The desolate, deserted trees,

     The faded earth, the heavy sky,

The beauties she so truly sees,

She thinks I have no eye for these,

     And vexes me for reason why.

Not yesterday I learned to know

     The love of bare November days

Before the coming of the snow,

But it were vain to tell her so,

     And they are better for her praise.

My next task in my quest is to learn to love the nighttime as much as I do the early mornings.

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“Balancing What I Need to Do and What I Enjoy Doing”

On September 23, 2018 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

Have you ever said or written something, and then wondered what you meant by that?  I had that experience just now.  I was writing my daily e mail report and affirmation to send them to my sponsor.  Here is my affirmation for today:

“Today, by God’s grace, I am balancing doing what I enjoy doing and what I need to do.  When I do this by God’s grace, I am discovering that what I enjoy doing and what I need to do are the same thing.”

There are things I need to do—lots of them.  They range from cleaning the bathroom, to taking care of the dog, to preparing for a class I’m teaching tomorrow at the university, to helping my wife lead our community group this evening.

And there are things I would enjoy doing.  They range from taking a ride on the Little Miami Bike Trail to taking a nap this afternoon.  (I will try not to do both of these things at the same time.)

In this context, it was the second sentence of my affirmation that struck me, and that I am trying to understand.  Can those two things—what I need to do and what I enjoy doing—really be one?

I think that the short answer is, Yes!  However, as with most short answers, this “Yes!” needs to be unpacked.

Can necessity and enjoyment be one?  Yes, but the word “can” is crucial here.  The unity of “need-to” and “enjoyment of” is possible, but not inevitable.  We all know people (and some of us have been those people) who never enjoy anything—even things they enjoy!  If that sounds like a contradiction in terms, it is.  But we’ve probably all experienced that, either with other people or with our own selves.

In his book The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis has one of his characters (who is in hell) say, “I now see that I spent most of my life in doing neither what I ought nor what I liked.”  I do believe that there is hell.  I don’t know if people are that honest and aware in hell.  But sometimes, I do suspect that some of us occasionally visit the suburbs of hell.  Any time when we don’t do what we need to do or what we enjoy doing, we are probably flirting with hell.  And rest assured that hell will always flirt back.

And perhaps, on the other side of the equation, one aspect of Heaven is that those who are there have discovered a way to make necessity and enjoyment one.  Perhaps the last stanza of Robert Frost’s poem, “Two Tamps in Mud Time” strikes the right balance, which is Unity.  Frost pictures a man (himself?) splitting wood when two unemployed lumberjacks walk by.  One of them stands to watch, and the man splitting wood knows only too well that the lumberjack is silently asking for work to make some money.  And the necessity of one man trumps the enjoyment of another man.

But Frost ends with the following observation:

“But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future’s sakes.”

So, today, by God’s grace—and only by God’s grace can I do this—I will balance and unify what I need to do and what I enjoy doing.  Writing this blog post is a first step.

 

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“OF ART WORK AND FRAMES: IN PRAISE OF BOUNDARIES”

On June 29, 2017 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“BEECH”

“Where my imaginary line

Bends square in woods, an iron spine

And pile of real rocks have been founded.

And off this corner in the wild,

Where these are driven in and piled,

One tree, by being deeply wounded,

Has been impressed as Witness Tree

And made commit to memory

My proof of being not unbounded.

Thus truth’s established and borne out,

Though circumstanced with dark and doubt—

Though by a world of doubt surrounded.

THE MOODIE FORESTER”  (Robert Frost)

 

My wife and I went to a Civil War reenactment.  We visited with friends and had a good time.

There were various crafts and activities in the town square.  My sweetheart talked me into trying my hand at “spin art.”  I would call “spin art” “art for those who can’t do art.”  In other words, it was precisely the sort of (non)art I could do!

I was advised as to what colors to use, and where to drizzle the colors.  With a great deal of supervision, I did a fairly good Frisbee, although it looked a bit like what I imagine an L.S.D.-induced vision of an eye might look like.  As I said, I am not an artist.

The seller of the Frisbee probably felt sorry for me, and let me do a little sheet of paper for free.  It looked outstandingly mediocre when I was done with it.  However, my radically generous sweetheart said it was good.  Since she is a good artist, I was very humbly pleased.

However, I thought she was going more than a bit overboard when she wanted to buy a frame for it.  When my Princess gets an idea in her head, she is harder to stop than a Trane—or a train.

I thought that buying a frame for my spin junk . . . , I mean spin art . . . was a mistake.  The fact that she had bought the frame at The Dollar Tree (where everything really does cost a dollar) somewhat mollified my stingy attitude.  And I have to admit that, with a nice little frame around it, my spin art did look much better.  Frames don’t make art, but they can make art look better.

I’ve never liked boundaries, but this little vignette helped me to think differently about boundaries, borders, and frames.  Perhaps frames or borders don’t simply limit art.  Perhaps they enhance art.

In life also, frames or borders are important.  In Psalm 16:6, the psalmist says, “The boundary lines have fallen to me in pleasant places.”  Apparently, the psalmist didn’t simply love his territory.  He even loved the limits of his territory.

I have boundaries, limits, frames, in connection with my body, my mind, my time, my finances.  Do I love the limits?  Or, am I always wanting more?

That great philosopher Clint Eastwood said, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”  Yes!  Perhaps that’s a huge part of the art of living.

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“The Purpose of Life versus Purpose within Life”

On April 27, 2017 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“A Prayer in Spring” (Robert Frost)

“Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.”

I’ve decided that I don’t know the purpose of my life.  I’ve also discovered that this does not matter.

Perhaps I should explain—at least to myself.

If I try to think of the overarching purpose of my life, it just gives me despair and a headache.  I can’t figure out my life purpose.  I’m not saying that some people can’t figure this out.  I’m not saying that you can’t.  I’m just confessing that I can’t.  That doesn’t mean that my life is purposeless.  It does mean that I can’t figure out what the heck it is.

However, what I can do is to find purpose within life—within the daily tasks, the daily relationships, the daily things that happen.  It doesn’t matter how mundane the tasks, how frayed the relationships, how bad the things that happen.  I find that my purpose within life is to be grateful for the good stuff, and grateful for the lessons I learn through the bad stuff.

Looked at from another angle, my purpose within life is to (as my sponsor never tires in reminding me) to “just keep doing the next right thing.”  Do I always know what the next right thing is?  No.  But I know what it is more often than I care to let on, and more often than I actually do the next right thing.

Take today, for an example.  It is a beautiful, spring day.  This afternoon, it will be summer, with a high in the mid eighties.  I have six yards of mulch to put down (or as much of it as I can).  Then, hopefully, I will be able to teach Hebrew.  Also, I had several good phone calls with twelve-step friends this morning.  I talked to my wife on the phone, and told her how grateful and happy I am that we share the same last name.  I sang silly songs to my mother-in-law over the phone, and told her how much I love her and am thankful for her.  Right now, I am writing this little post for tomorrow.  I also mailed some thank-you cards to folks who made my birthday great fun.

Meaning within life is easy to discover.  I just have to have open eyes, an open heart, an open mind, and the willingness to keep doing the next right thing.  Purpose within life is low-hanging fruit.  No ladders required!

Enjoy your day!  Care to join me for some fruit?

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