Go placidly...

Today, my newsfeed is full of fear emanating around  a world I barely know. 

Over my coffee, on a cold, rainy and gloomy South Florida Sunday, I am taken back to my stint as  a child soldier of the Cold War.  Certainly, my earliest recollections of school include learning to skip, and sing, and the musty cloakroom where they checked us for chickenpox.  Fond memories of learning and playing and trusting.  But I also remember the scary world; the one where we were indoctrinated to believe the Russians were out to get us. School was our boot camp and there we were trained to take cover under our desks during air raid drills, to toss boos at the Russian Olympic athletes,  to arm our astronauts with prayers that they might conquer space first.  But being a soldier was scary. It was scary to be so scared.  But I stood up straight, looked straight ahead and tried to march with the rest.

Thankfully for me, my mom taught me so much more.  She took my face in her hands and lovingly shifted my gaze to the right and the left.  She showed me a home always open to those who needed a place to stay, a meal, a drink, a shoulder, a laugh.  She showed me friends from all walks of life, all countries of origin, all places of worship, which in the white homogeneity of Green Bay Wisconsin, was quite a feat. She demonstrated every day that love forms us, love unites us, love wins.  She taught me that I didn't have to be in march step with those around me.  

When I was a teen, filled with the heady belief I would change the world, my mom hung a poem by Max Ehrmann on the wall of my room.  Like the pledge of allegiance to the United States of America I espoused each day in class,  I recited this poem daily, my pledge to the world.  My pledge to me.  It gave me strength and courage and hope.

“Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.”

It still gives me strength and courage and hope. 

Forty years later.

Thank you Max.  Thank you Mom.