Pondering

Life, these days, feels different. Looks different. Is different. 

Which is why I like to ponder these strange days in context with another time, long ago, that also seemed to not to make sense -- Christ the Savior condemned to death, Christ breaking bread with a traitor, Christ betrayed three times by a trusted follower (and friend), Christ praying to be spared but accepting his suffering, Christ laid in a tomb only to rise again. 

Then, this morning I came across this poem juxtaposing Ghengis Khan, Caesaer, Alexander, Napolean, and Christ. Of them, only Christ showed us how incongruity turns to harmony, isolation inspires revelation, and darkness leads to light. 

Like I said, pondering. 

The Conquerors 

~Harry Kemp

I saw the Conquerors riding by

With cruel lip and faces wan;

Musing on kingdoms sacked and burned

There rode the Mongol Genghis Khan;

And Alexander, like a God,

Who sought to weld the world in one:

And Caesar with his laurel wreath;

And leading, like a star the van,

Heedless of upstretched arm and groan, Inscrutable

Napoleon went

Dreaming of empire and alone ...

Then all perished from the earth

As fleeting shadows from a glass,

And, conquering down the centuries,

Came Christ, the Swordless, on an ass ...