{"id":1117,"date":"2013-10-09T12:49:04","date_gmt":"2013-10-09T17:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/?p=1117"},"modified":"2013-10-09T12:49:04","modified_gmt":"2013-10-09T17:49:04","slug":"poem-by-no-means-necessary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/09\/poem-by-no-means-necessary\/","title":{"rendered":"POEM: By No Means Necessary"},"content":{"rendered":"

By No Means Necessary<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When the strident are<\/span>
\nUp in arms<\/span>
\nStaking their claims<\/span>
\nBy any means necessary<\/span>
\nMay such a battlefield<\/span>
\nArouse patience strewn<\/span>
\nA bout<\/span>
\nOf faith<\/span>
\nInciting our most gratuitous hopes<\/span>
\nBy any kinds possible<\/span>
\nThe prison door of necessity<\/span>
\nLeaving us<\/span>
\nUnhinged<\/span>
\nTaking liberties<\/span>
\nOnly in dependence<\/span>
\nOn open hearts<\/span>
\nIn tact<\/span>
\nIn our chest<\/span>
\nNo longer hoard<\/span>
\nSoles in a circle unbroken<\/span>
\nVaulting us<\/span>
\nTo claims unstaked<\/span>
\nIn arms above<\/span>
\nScaling untrodden heights<\/span>
\nWith such generous helping<\/span>
\nHands down<\/span>
\nThe best<\/span>
\nGiving rise<\/span>
\nBy no means necessary<\/span><\/p>\n

This poem is about hope and the possibilities that kindness open up to create a new and better reality.\u00a0 Claiming a need to reach an end “by any means necessary” is precarious moral ground.\u00a0 In common political parlance, the phrase might be “we are leaving all options open.”\u00a0 At best this is a casual amorality, at worst a cruel compulsion or “necessary” evil.\u00a0 I’m not big on “necessary” evil.\u00a0 Militancy focuses on a “you forced me to” mentality, fixating on our most base needs and instincts alone.\u00a0 No doubt, certain actions lead to likely reactions.\u00a0 Nonetheless, we can do better.\u00a0 Acting in hope with open hearts is an invitation to escape from closed-sum thinking and hurt feelings, and join together in something greater than the sum of its parts.\u00a0 Hope is a vulnerable invitation in that it may be rejected.\u00a0 If rejected, in retrospect, it may appear to have been better to have not made an invitation.\u00a0 I think that this is why humans have learned a certain reactionary approach in life.\u00a0 This makes sense, but such a reactionary approach does not represent all that is possible, or even all that is probable.\u00a0 Leaders make invitations.\u00a0 Leaders offer hope.\u00a0 Leaders make themselves vulnerable and put some actual skin in the game, in order to walk the walk not just talk the talk.\u00a0 We can make excuses by saying, “He made me do it,” but this denies our most basic freedom, to do something differently, that is our greatest asset in human progress.\u00a0\u00a0 Not surprisingly, hope is by its very nature a community project.\u00a0 Only by joining together, with mutual invitations and mutual aid, can our highest hopes become real.\u00a0 And the highest hope is a circle unbroken, everyone in and nobody out.\u00a0 The cynical acts of confederates to “get ours” at the expense of others is ultimately self-defeating, degrading the vitality of human community of which we are inescapably a part.\u00a0 Of course, the hope that springs from the faith that humanity is ultimately one is like all other faith: something not fully realized but believed to be present.\u00a0 Such faith and hope cannot become fully realized “by any means necessary,” being by no means necessary; still it may be realized “by any kinds possible.”\u00a0 Do not rise to every occasion in kind, rather, in kindness rise to every occasion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By No Means Necessary When the strident are Up in arms Staking their claims By any means necessary May such a battlefield Arouse patience strewn A bout Of faith Inciting our most gratuitous hopes By any kinds possible The prison … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[227,331,337,269,392,432,115,431,388,305,456,359,457,155,81,379,387,658,94,17,491,649,585,557,601,718],"class_list":["post-1117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","category-political-and-philosophical-musings","tag-amorality","tag-community","tag-compulsion","tag-cynical","tag-evil","tag-faith","tag-freedom","tag-heart","tag-hope","tag-humanity","tag-kindness","tag-life","tag-militant","tag-moral","tag-morality","tag-nature","tag-patience","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-political","tag-present","tag-prison","tag-progress","tag-reactionary","tag-reality","tag-skin-in-the-game"],"yoast_head":"\nPOEM: By No Means Necessary | Poems, Political and Philosophical Musings | Top Pun's Poetry, Funny Puns, Free Posters, Public Health Radio Show! 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