The Devil's Idiot

Ambrose Bierce identified an idiot as "A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot's activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but 'pervades and regulates the whole.' He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions of opinion and taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line."

A portrait of  R. (which could stand for rogue), the definitive, aforesaid idiot

(Photo copyright 2005 Evelyn M. Gilmer)

The source of the quotation above is The Devil's Dictionary (1911) by Ambrose Bierce.

I Have Lost My Younger Brother

I HAVE LOST MY YOUNGER BROTHER 

After Luke 15:18-19 and 21

(New King James Version)

My younger brother is

An abusive, arrogant rogue.

He has sinned and has sinned even more

Against heaven and before me,

And he is no longer worthy

To be called my brother.

The crimes he has committed against me 

Over a period of many years

Include assault and battery,

Theft and vandalism.

Is there a limit to the number

Of crimes he would commit against me?

My younger brother is

An abusive, arrogant rogue.

He has sinned and has sinned even more 

Against heaven and in my sight,

And is no longer worthy

To be called my brother.

Matthew 18:21-22

(New King James Version)

Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?"

Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven."

A portrait of my kid brother R. (which could stand for rogue),

the (childish) brother whom I have lost

(Photo copyright 2005 Evelyn M. Gilmer)

Time for Joy

Joy is the mainspring in the whole

Of endless Nature's calm rotation.

Joy moves the dazzling wheels that roll

In the great timepiece of creation.

Johann Friedrich von Schiller

Plea for Relief from Bitter Foes

PLEA FOR RELIEF FROM BITTER FOES

from the Bible: Psalm 120

(New King James Version)

In my distress I cried to the LORD,

And He heard me.

Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips

And from a deceitful tongue.

What shall be given to you,

Or what shall be done to you,

You false tongue?

Sharp arrows of the warrior,

With coals of the broom tree!

Woe is me, that I dwell in Meshech,

That I dwell among the tents of Kedar!

My soul has dwelt too long

With one who hates peace.

I am for peace;

But when I speak, they are for war.

My younger brother Roger,

who is jealous of me

and who has long been jealous of me,

is my bitter foe.

I need relief from my bitter foe,

my jealous, younger brother Roger.

A Brainteaser for the Talkative and Their Listeners

 The Bible says there

is a time to be silent

and a time to speak.

The Cherokee say, "Listen!

Or your tongue will make you deaf."

A word meaning "full of excessive talk" can be dialed on a telephone (or on a cell phone) as 567-822-4687. What is that ten-letter word?

To read the answer to this brainteaser, click here.

The Opposite of What Illumines Life

A found poem. The quotations in the sixth, seventh and eighth stanzas are 1 John 1:5-7, 1 John 4:7-8 and Psalms 18:28 from the Common English Bible (2011).

What Is the Opposite of Love?

Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote,

"Hatred darkens life; love illumines it."

To darken is the opposite

of to illumine, but

is hatred, or is hate, indeed

the opposite of love?

Rollo May once wrote, "Hate

is not the opposite of love;

apathy is."

According to Elie Wiesel,

"The opposite of love

is not hate, it's indifference."

Does apathy

as well as hatred, does

indifference

as well as hatred, darken life?

It is the opposite of love,

whatever that may be,

that darkens life. It is

love that illumines life.

God Is Both Light and Love

John in his First Letter wrote, "This

is the message that we have heard from [Christ]

and announce to you: 'God is light

and there is no darkness in him at all.'

If we claim, 'We have fellowship with him,'

and live in the darkness,

we are lying

and do not act truthfully.

But if we live in the light

in the same way as he is in the light,

we have fellowship with each other,

and the blood of Jesus, his Son,

cleanses us from every sin."

John in that Letter also wrote, "Dear friends,

let's love each other,

because love is from God,

and everyone who loves

is born from God and knows God.

The person who doesn't love

does not know God,

because God is love."

God is, as David sang

in Psalm 18, "the one

who lights my lamp --

the LORD my God

illumines my darkness."

It is the opposite of God,

whatever that may be,

that darkens life. It is

God who illumines life.

This poem, which I have revised and updated for this post,

was first published in the June 2, 2023, edition of

my free email newsletter Hugh's Views: The Old Elway Reader

(now called The Old Elway Reader 2) on Substack.