Crown of Thorns -- In All We Say and Do...

Today, the seventh instalment of "Crown of Thorns".

There may go a few days before I post again. I have been shanghaied by family to spend amlong weekend in a cottage up in Sweden where there [aggghh!] is no internet! I'll probably post again first on Monday or perhaps even Tuesday...

A few words about how I understand where the poem is going -- when I speak of "common humanity", it is meant as a relatively neutral expression of what seems to me to be a common element in the vision of all who have encountered true spirituality.

Furthermore, we are, so to speak, united in the body in our common humanity. Our common humanity not only hangs from a tree, but, in a sense is the tree from which it hangs [a.n.a.the tree of life]. In our individuality, we are the leaves (Rev. 22, 2)

Odin spoke of hanging from a tree. In fact, spiritual people know that a certain kind of suffering is the most certain -- and safest -- route to deep spiritual experience.

It is most difficult to say anything specific about this kind of suffering, but it is most certainly not the suffering we inflict on others -- on the contrary, it is more the suffering we see in others and then in ourselves.

We care for or kill in all we say and do
the "feeling of we", our common humanity,
each and every day.
It's a fact, its' true!

But how to demonstrate the certainty?

For me, it's as sure as the fact that the sky is blue...
Ah, but the sky is only blue when you can see it!
The cloudy sky, of course, looks grey to you,
No matter how intense you try to view it!

And when the eye of the soul is clouded by
the ugly deeds we've done, we cannot see,
or understand, or even wonder: "Why?"

Our common humanity is hanging from a tree.

And whether we choose, or choose not to choose:
There ain't no avoiding them Calvary Blues!