My Plate Is Full, My Table Laden

Why care?

When my plate is full, my table laden?

Care because caring is nothing to do with your plate or your table; care because your excuses are neither good reasons nor just reasons to not; care because the need to do so is needing and the luxury to do so is caring.

My Plate Is Full, My Table Laden

For all that so many of us pray for plates full and tables laden -

     far fewer of us do more;

for every word of gratitude, thanks, and blessing -

     far less is given;

because our plates are ours and our tables are ours -

     and ours is not yours. 

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Make no mistake:

prayers and words are prayers and words -

     and nothing more.

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But prayers and words are enough!

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If prayers are enough, then why pray for plates full and tables laden? If prayers are enough, then why pray for material gifts? Isn't enough enough?

If words are enough, then why speak of what you have not and why speak of what you want more? If words are enough, then why ask for more than a word?

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Because prayers and words are not enough.

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Unless the prayers and the words are not for you. 

Then prayers and words are enough and no more, because you can do no more than pray and speak and you can give no more than prayers and words.

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An empty solace is neither just nor deserving of gratitude.

Because an empty solace is nothing.

To tender empty solace is to not care, because not caring is what you can do and not caring is what you can give.

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It is easy to rest within the comfort of fullness.

Whether our plates are literally full or our tables are metaphorically laden.

Because it is easy to forget that we are sworn to an ideal of goodness, when we are blessed by the fruits of our lies.

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What are words of gratitude and thanks and blessing in the mouths of liars?

But asks.

Asks for more.

As if our full plates and laden tables are our prayers answered. And yours are your prayers unanswered. As if this is goodness and rightness. Because material gain is deserved. Likewise, material suffering.

As if justice and injustice is the sword and the rod of God. Never mind the hand of human kind that grasps for greed and power.

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This soup of pseudo religious worship cum determinism cum pseudo ideological axiom of deserving cum nihilism is, gee whiz, so convenient, isn't it? After all, in this soup, being sworn to an ideal of goodness, is meaningless.

Why not pray for more? If all of it is meaningless. Except insomuch that all of it is a show. Or a performance. Or an act. Because why not? If nothing matters.

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Not caring is easy.

Whether or not or if or how or because:

     this soup.

But why?

Why give up our goodness to dolers of prayers and words? Why give up what's worth fighting for? If lies in the mouths of liars are lies. Why believe

     this soup is the truth?

Addendum

There is a nuclear option that goes something like this:

     "So and so is evil, but so and so tells it like it is."

Really?

Because evil tells no lies?

     Yes!

Which is to say: you can't see the forest for the performance. It goes something like this:

     A liar who "tells it like it is" is selling a show, a performance, an act.

     No?

     When you believe a show, a performance, an act is "honest",

     you buy the whole sausage,

     every lie and then some,

     including the lie that "telling it like it is" is telling the truth.

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Is it telling the truth -

     to tell you what you want to hear

     so you excuse what you don't want to hear?

Or

is it telling the truth -

     to tell you what you want to believe

     so you excuse what you believe, no matter how wrong and how unjust?

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Which is to say: you see just fine. You see exactly what you want to see. You see wrongness and unjustness being given oxygen and life. And that's not just fine: that's a prayer answered. And why not, anyhow? Because it's about time (yes!) what you believe is heard by someone telling it like it is (amen!).

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Because every evil deserves its day?

As if this soup of pseudo religious worship cum determinism cum pseudo ideological axiom of deserving cum nihilism isn't grasping desperation.

That is, fear.

Fear of justice. Fear of caring. Fear of the truth.

M

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Author's Note

There is a temptation to excuse evil. To see wrongness and unjustness and excuse both. Because of good or faith or both.

But

the temptation to excuse wrongness and unjustness is neither act of good nor faith nor both.

In the end, the unwillingness to see wrongness and unjustness as wrong and unjust; the unwillingness to give up the soup of pseudo religious worship cum determinism cum pseudo ideological axiom of deserving cum nihilism; and the unwillingness to shut down every lie that tells you what you want to hear and what you want to believe

is how wrongness and unjustness is given oxygen and life

by you.

And that's not just fine: that's a prayer answered

by you.

M

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Epilogue

There is a refrain that goes something like this:

     "When and where will it end?"

     or "All that matters - no matter how wrong and how unjust - is what matters to me."

     or "What about this ad hominem and that straw scarecrow?"

That is to say, there is a refrain that excuses wrongness and unjustness. Because wrong speech and unjust speech deserve their day.

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Do they? Deserve their day? Devil be damned?

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If canons that are unjust are your no end; if hearts full with asks for what you have not and what you want more are your matter; if liars who sell ad hominem and straw scarecrow sausages are your good reason and just reason;

     what prayer are you the answer for?

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As if the fruits of lies

deserve oxygen and life and sanctity

and the devil be damned.

M

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Author's Postnote

If words are words and nothing more,

why believe - words?

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That is to say:

why believe - spoken or written - speech?

much less -

spoken and written - free speech - of pseudo religious worship cum determinism cum pseudo ideological axiom of deserving cum nihilism?

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Because you believe in nothing?

but your self-serving self-superior self?

because your "right" to "believe" is your right to put your self-serving self-superior self - above all?

because your self - interest is your master?

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Why care?

When your plate is full, your table laden?

Care because caring is the opposite of seeing wrongness and unjustness being given oxygen and life and saying nothing; care because choking down sausages for sale isn't why your will is free; care because your apathy and your indifference is a miracle in the lap of the grasping and desperate.

M