scoria
oh, to bless the meek,
to inherit the earth,
to drown our hearts
in the raging sea.
to teach a man how to beg
and he will learn how to smile.
to teach a man how to fish
and he will learn how to kill.
and the bottom of our cup
remains fathomless as can be.
– © said sadain 2019
Related reading
Scum of the earth
“We must deny them all their names, their goals, and their claims to legitimacy. The extremists in Myanmar that are carrying out a genocide against Rohingya Muslims are not Buddhist extremists. The extremists here in the United States that terrorize synagogues, mosques and black churches are not Christian extremists. The extremists that terrorized Sri Lankan Christians in their churches and people of various backgrounds in hotels this Easter Sunday are not Muslim extremists. All of the above are merely terrorist scum…. Our response to these attacks needs to be to give these terrorists neither the authority they seek in our faiths, nor the division they seek in our communities.”
– Omar Suleiman, writing for The Dallas Morning News
Read the rest of his commentary here: Terrorists are not religious extremists, they are just scum
“The bottom of our cup”— moving thoughts, Said. Where will it end? How can we not feel despair? As you know, I have Buddhist leanings, and what has been on my mind is the simple teaching that violence brings one thing: more violence.
Thank you for your comment, Steve. Sorry, it has taken me so long to respond. Indeed, violence brings more violence. The teaching of non-violence resonates with the current month of fasting, Ramadan (from May 6 up to June 3 or 4, depending on when the new moon is sighted by then). There is a saying of the Prophet Muhammad regarding this to the effect that if one should be confronted with a fight or quarrel, one should say, ‘I am fasting’, and to withdraw from the situation in silence. It takes real strength to do this kind of self-restraint, and we can only hope that more people can measure up to it.
No need to apologise, Said. I am falling further and further behind with WordPress myself. It is something to hope for, we need all hope we can get.
I appreciate learning more about the two uses of Islam. Cherry-picking holy scriptures to justify any type of evil has been around for a long time. Christians are the ones I’m most familiar with. Even though Confucianism isn’t a religion (I don’t think it is, per se) those who decided to formalize what Confucius said while he was alive used it to enforce a new type of government in China. Opportunists are good at finding opportunities to spin things to their advantage, even if “advantage” equates to dehumanizing, abusing, and/or exploiting others.
Thank you for your thoughts, Lisa. I totally agree with you about the opportunism that puts religion in a bad light. Many times, this opportunism plays on a religionist smugness that followers of religions fall into. So sad.
I’m so sorry it is taking me longer now to get back into interacting with this blogging community. Until then, I wish you all well.
See you on the flipside, buddy 🙂
I read this again – and the lines are quite striking. The irony of the lines hit me just now. Short and powerful piece this is.
Thank you, Imelda. ‘Striking’ is too kind for a piece borne out of exasperation 😀