"Waiting" by A.M. Juster
The other frogs consider me aloof
And mock each out-of-season mating call,
But I regard my plight as living proof
That faith can foster something magical.
So crouching patiently above the scum
With chin uplifted, eyelids low and still,
I wait for my redeeming love to come.
With numbing numbers cruelly reduced
To caviar for snacking perch and trout,
Dessert for weary birds before they roost
Or toys that idle boys have caught for sport,
It all confirms my sense of destiny.
Someday she will appear to grace this plot
And recognize the manifest in me.
(From Davey's Daily Poetry, which is really wonderful and started by an '08 Hillsdale grad. I recently subscribed to Davey's upon recommendation from a fellow Hillsdalian after describing my growing dissatisfaction with NPR's Writer's Almanac, which I used to read daily and now do not miss an iota. If you are in the market for a poem of the day or week, Davey's is a fantastic resource.)
In tandem, here is a fantastic article from Parabola entitled "Beauty Redeemed" by Trebbe Johnson, who says,
"But in other tales from diverse lands and traditions, beauty is redeemed not by the gods, time, or an antidote, but by another human—like the imperious princess. Those rescuers don’t have superpowers. They can’t turn the tortured victim into some other creature, and, in fact, it would not occur to them to try to do so, since the magic they enact is seldom deliberate. What they can do is change the ugly one back to his or her original—and beautiful—form through purely human behavior. In the process, two people transform: the ugly one whose beauty is redeemed, and the redeemer him- or herself. It is not with the petulance of a princess, but with a knight’s sense of honor, that a human act restores lost beauty in the Arthurian tale of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell."
Have y'all heard of or seen the movie 'The Human Experience' by Grassroots Films? Here is the fantastic trailer:
My dear friend Karen and I drove to Ann Arbor our senior year to see a special showing of it and were not disappointed. It follows three guys from Brooklyn on their search of what it means to be human, spending a week homeless in NYC, time down in Lima, Peru with these little, physically deformed kids who have so much joy in their hearts and lepers in Ghana, Africa, as well as sorting through their own personal issues, with Christ at the center. It is amazing, amazing, amazing.
The reason I mention it is because Grassroots Films is offering free shipping for the movie if two or more copies are bought today and/ or tomorrow. I am definitely going to buy at least two: one for me and one for Karen, who is currently a Sisters for Life postulant in the Bronx, which is where Grassroots Films is located. Maybe one more... Grassroots Films have made other fantastic and shorter films like 'Fishers of Men'
and 'God in the Streets of New York'
I think I watch these short films every couple weeks to months. They are phenomenal, and serves as a witness to the secular culture.
Happy Thanksgiving, from my family to yours! We're having both sides of my family over to my house this year, so that should be a rollicking good time! My favorite parts of Thanksgiving are mass, pumpkin pie, the people time and the nap time. I was going to run in the Turkey Trot this year with a few friends but let's get real: 30+ people at my house does not equate time to frolic for 3.1 miles.
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