One Never Knows From Whence It Comes

Sorry,a lot of words.

I took a break from all things political sometime in mid-August. I was so exhausted from the lack of constructive debate about the issues. I have high blood pressure anyway, so the break was good. I am now putting my toe in the water again. So, I was watching Rachel Maddow tonight. One of her guests was Sarah Vowell author of The Wordy Shipmates about the Massachusetts Colony.

Anyway, I was particularly struck by a John Winthrop sermon she mentioned. It was written in 1630. Yes, 1630. It is the sermon that Reagan "borrowed" his "shining city on the hill" mantra. The interesting thing is John Winthrop never said shining. Oh well. Here's part of the sermon that I was drawn to. I had to overcome my resistance to "sermons". (I tend to follow the teachings of Gurumayi Chidvilasananda and I should pay more attention to her) I was just amazed that how much I connected with something from 400 years ago. The human experience is timeless. I tried to modernize the spelling of most of the words. I think I got most of them correct.

We must operate more like this in our society.

John Winthrop's City upon a Hill, 1630

- Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck and to provide for our posterity is to follow the Counsel of Micah, to do Justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God, for this end, we must be knit together in this work as one man, we must entertain each other in brotherly Affection, we must be willing to abridge our selves of our superfluities, for the supply of others necessities, we must uphold a familiar Commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberallity, we must delight in each other, make others Conditions our own rejoice together, mourn together, labor, and suffer together, always having before our eyes our Commission and Community in the work, our Community as members of the same body, so shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace...

Here's the entire sermon