I wrote this after I started to feel a young person with whom I was having a largely philosophical correspondence back away from me, without rejecting me. Sometimes I think that I challenge people too much. (Or, perhaps I’m more of a nuisance socially speaking than I am willing to admit to being. Probably a bit of both.)
The point of the poem is that I believe that people want inspiration in their lives, but do not want to give too much up for it, or to have to change their lives to live more fully if it means giving up too much of what Alice Walker referred to in her book title “The Temple of My Familiar.” The lyrics of my song are:
I guess I’m too much for everybody Perhaps it’s always been that way I only mean to set the world on fire To bring back glory by the things I say In a brand new situation When I meet some people at first I can see that behind their thin smiles They are dying inside of thirst I always want to quench it When living water springs up in me My mind taps right into its spirit And it flows out in my poetry At first my aim is true And so often it hits its mark I can see when someone’s lifted And I know I’ve lit a spark But so often they will tire And their step will slow or stop I can feel them pulling backwards They want living water but only in small drops Will no one ever have the courage To take flight and stay with me It’s our preference for the ordinary That roots us in our misery I guess this must be my fate It’s a cup that will not pass To always feel loneliness And with love just sigh, alas When the spirit springs up inside of me For me its always been this way Living water flows out in poetry To set the world on fire by what it has to say By what it has to say
I think that this is one of my best efforts, because I believe that it expresses a truth recognized and reported by others. When it comes to inspiration, we all want it, but what are we willing to sacrifice to make it last.1
As Christ observed:
“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”
Matthew 19:23-26 King James Version (KJV)
I find it interesting that it is only my relatively wealthy “Christian” relatives and friends who are quick to claim that this passage does not actually refer to a sewing needle, but rather a geoological passage. Historical evidence does not support the idea of a gate or passage being called “the eye of the needle” during Jesus’ time, and this interpretation seems to have emerged later as an attempt to soften the stark message of the text.
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