Passage Twenty-seven: Everything Spiritual
You look around
And you see the need
And you do not know
If you can help or not,
But if not you, then who?
You go ahead because
You care enough to try
And because
You care too much not to try.
What is needed is not power,
But strength,
Not control, but appreciation.
Your strength is your caring,
And the extension of your strength
Is an arriving at levels of caring
That require you and enable you
To go ahead and try.
My grandfather
Did not have to be asked.
He looked for those in need.
If he ever had a vision,
I never heard of it, but he was guided.
He was moved by compassion.
He was led by concern.
My dad was visiting
Clearfield, Pennsylvania,
Where his parents had once lived
And where he was born.
His dad had been a mailman there,
In the midst of the Great Depression.
My dad learned from a man there,
A man who had been named
After my grandfather,
That my grandfather had helped
To support five other families
With his mailman's wages.
Being the kind of man
My grandfather was,
My dad had never
Heard of this from him.
I can only guess at why
My grandfather kept this to himself,
But I believe my guess
Would be a good one.
My guess is that he did so
Out of concern for the dignity
Of those he had helped.
Such is the nature
Of genuine concern.
It makes everything spiritual.
