“There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily.” —George Washington (1795-
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First Principles: There Is But One Straight Course, and That Is To Seek Truth And Pursue Steadily
Posted in First Principles
Tagged First Principles, George Washington, One Straight Course, Pursue, Seek, Steadily, Truth
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A Song of Thanksgiving
A Song of Thanksgiving
by Michael Doyle
A song of thanksgiving
Sung to be brave
In need of forgiving
I claw my way from my grave
With apprehension
I am reaching out
Beyond comprehension
My thoughts are filled with doubt
Still, I dance
In your rain of kindness
Taking this chance
Despite my innate blindness
I raise my voice
Given up in praise
Hoping to live a better choice
I live again in these days
Caught up as I see
Learning again to love
Lived as my theology
As if in Heaven above
Rising above circumstance
To do those things for good
Set eyes on true relevance
Living the prayer I've understood
(c) January 31, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Apprehension, Better Choice, Blindness, Brave, Chance, Circumstance, Comprehension, Dance, Days, Doubt, Forgiving, Good, Grave, Heaven, Kindness, Love, Poetry and Poems, Praise, Prayer, Reaching Out, Relevance, See, Song, Thanksgiving, Theology, Understood, Voice
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First Principles: Public Virtue Cannot Exist In A Nation Without Private, and Public Virtue Is the Only Foundation of Republics
“Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics. There must be a positive passion for the public good, the public interest, honour, power and glory, established in the minds of the people, or there can be no republican government, nor any real liberty: and this public passion must be superiour to all private passions.” – John Adams (1776)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged First Principles, Foundation, Glory, Honor, John Adams, Liberty, Minds, Nation, Positive Passion, Power, Private, Private Passions, Public Good, Public Interest, Public Passion, Public Virtue, Republics, Superior, The People
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Thought For the Day: Do Not Be Too Quick Too Assume Your Enemy Is A Savage Just Because He Is Your Enemy. Perhaps He Is Your Enemy Because He Thinks You Are A Savage
“Do not be too quick to assume your enemy is a savage just because he is your enemy. Perhaps he is your enemy because he thinks you are a savage. Or perhaps he is afraid of you because he feels that you are afraid of him. And perhaps if he believed you are capable of loving him he would no longer be your enemy.” – Thomas Merton, monk, writer (31 Jan 1915-1968)
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Afraid, Assume, Enemy, Feel, Love, Quick, Savage, Thomas Merton, Thought For the Day
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Inside A Glass Onion
Inside A Glass Onion
by Michael Doyle
It's a dangerous thing
To speak without thinking
It's what the red pill brings
That leaves us drunker than drinking
Bringing the system down and broken
By being violently visible and outspoken
Willing to stab a friend in the face
For the fifteen minutes, you then embrace
That's the real disruption
That jades beyond corruption
As the victim golf claps the charade
Having moved beyond this masquerade
Crossing the lines, hour by hour
Bringing blossom to death's flower
Who knows the passion behind the smile
That makes the Mona Lisa worthwhile
The truth trips beyond all illusion
Crystalline clear yet clouding confusion
A napkin holds the sketch drawn
While the desperate push for the clawn-in
Splashing anxiety in idled paradise
The circumstances roll like loaded dice
Death shows us an unexpected dinner guest
It's the question of intentions that is the test
(c) January 30, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Broken, Charade, Corruption, Danger, Disruption, Drink, Fifteen Minutes, Glass Onion, Golf Clap, Masquerade, Outspoken, Poetry and Poems, Red Pill, Stab, System, Think
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First Principles: I Place Economy Among the First and Most Important of Republican Virtues, and Public Debt As the Greatest of the Dangers To Be Feared
“I … place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.” – Thomas Jefferson (1816)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Danger, Economy, Fear, First, First Principles, Most Important, Public Debt, Republican Virtues, Thomas Jefferson
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Thought For the Day: It Is Wrong and Ultimately Self-Defeating For A Nation of Immigrants To Permit the Kind of Abuse Our Immigration Laws We Have Seen
“All Americans, not only in the states most heavily affected, but in every place in this country are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public services they use impose burdens on our taxpayers. That’s why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more, by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring, by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens. In the budget I will present to you, we will try to do more to speed the deportation of illegal aliens who are arrested for crimes, to better identify illegal aliens in the workplace as recommended by the commission headed by former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. We are a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.” – Bill Clinton, 1995 State of the Union
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged 1995, Abuse, All Americans, Barbara Jordan, Bill Clinton, Burden, Citizens, Country, Illegal Aliens, Illegal Hiring, Immigration Laws, Legal Migrants, Nation of Immigrants, Nation of Laws, Self-Defeating, State of the Union, Thought For the Day, Welfare Benefits
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On Being A Prodigal
On Being A Prodigal
by Michael Doyle
True stories bring such fascination
The church I live is a celebration
So encouraging to live with right intention
Being given in its right attention
The best sermons are those seen
Live out well by Christians being
Being that best that we are
And living large following the Christmas star
Blessed by that holy, sacred kiss
Can you make the room to imagine this
The promises of leading through epiphany
Our lives are made large by gifts of plenty
God opens our eyes to finally see
The purpose of life seen through clarity
Life lived with full sense of compassion
This then was and is God's truest passion
It's okay to offend the Pharisees
It's a case of theology versus ministry
Welcoming the worst to peace and dinner
Jesus turned the worst into winners
Without sin there is no need for grace
This is the case first we must embrace
Bringing others up by going after the one
Never assuming the worse, but that God's will be done
Acceptance and approval are not the same
But to serve correctly is not to blame
God repeats in order to slowly teach
The lost sheep that he wants to reach
The Father gave two sons everything
But sinning choices bring us to nothing
Only to become embraced once again with a kiss
To become alive again with noting to miss
We have a discernable habit of getting lost
Caught in webs spun at huge cost
Maybe all this is necessary to finally see
The path forward is in self-discovery
At our lowest level are the lessons taught
Even when not the necessarily those sought
All of life is given for truth's illumination
Audibly, well-read, and in need of best imagination
As prodigal children, we finally return home
And when we are apart, we were never really alone
Let's celebrate the joys that life willingly brings
And joined together, lift our voices as we sing
Once the same as dead, we are again found
Brought to the edge of cliff, to bring us around
The good we live, if judgmentally, is misbegotten
Compared to Jesus, we are like rags soon forgotten
Pharisees, Sadducees, then there's you and me
Let's never forget that love is our true theology
Our standards of goodness barely grasp at holiness
It is a true belief we teach while reaching for bliss
Like prodigals, we are part of God's blessed family
In a tale of our spared expense told in a homily
To become aware of the deep love we are born to live
Turning to one another and finally learning to forgive
(c) January 29, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Attention, Celebrration, Clarity, Compassion, Deep Love, Forgive, Home, Homily, Imagine, Lessons, Love, Pharisee, Poetry and Poems, Prodigal, Right Intention, Sadducees, Self-Discovery, Sermon, Theology
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Thought For the Day: May Your Trails Be Crooked, Winding, Lonesome, Dangerous, Leading To the Most Amazing View
“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.” -Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (29 Jan 1927-1989)
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Amazing View, Clouds, Crooked, Dangerous, Edward Abbey, Lonesome, Mountains, Rise, Thought For the Day, Trails, Winding
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First Principles: The Most Sacred of the Duties of A Government Is To Do Equal and Impartial Justice To All Citizens
“The most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all citizens.” —Thomas Jefferson (1816)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged All Citizens, Duties, Equal, First Prinicples, Government, Impartial, Justice, Sacred, Thomas Jefferson
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