Friday, August 25, 2017

members of each other










The way we are, we are members of each other. 
All of us. Everything. 
The difference ain't in who is a member and who is not, 
but in who knows it and who don’t.

...

It was a community always disappointed in itself, 
disappointing its members, 
always trying to contain its divisions and gentle its meanness, 
always failing and yet always preserving a sort of will toward goodwill…
And yet I saw them all as somehow perfected, 
beyond time, by one another’s love, compassion, and forgiveness, 
as it is said we may be perfected by grace.

And so there we all were on a little wave of time lifting up to eternity, 
and none of us ever in time would know what to make of it. 
How could we? 
It is a mystery, for we are eternal beings living in time.




~ Wendell Berry
excerpts from Jaber Crow



2 comments:

erin said...

! and !

how do we live inside this world, dean, and be mindful and celebratory? in every moment. how is it possible?

i'm trying. i'm failing. i'm trying.

xo
erin

Dean Keller said...

I love the gentle reconciliation he brings to our collective disappointment with ourselves; "perfected...by one another's love, compassion and forgiveness."

thanks for your comments erin, glad to hear your thoughts.