Monday, April 22, 2013

Boundaries

We are nearing the end of our 12-week study of Karen Armstrong's book, "Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life." This coming Thursday we contemplate Step #11: the recognition that there is no "us" and no "them." I am reminded of this poem:

 
Boundary
By Adrienne Rich

What has happened here will do
To bite the living world in two,
Half for me and half for you.
Here at last I fix a line
Severing the world’s design
Too small to hold both yours and mine.
There’s enormity in a hair
Enough to lead men not to share
Narrow confines of a sphere
But put an ocean or a fence
Between two opposite intents.
A hair would span the difference.

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