A Curse…
“I curse you with justice, and with so much compassion your heart cracks wide open.”
In the poem Chant to be Used in Processions around a Site with Furnaces Thomas Merton wrote:
You smile at my career but you would do as I did if you knew yourself and dared
In my days we worked hard we saw what we did our self sacrifice was conscientious and complete our work was faultless and detailed
The speaker is SS Officer Rudolf Hoess, a commandant of a Nazi death camp. Conscientious. Faultless. Detailed.
Doing his job, and doing it well.
And so the wheels of industrious torture and oppression grind on. And so some of us throw our bodies on those wheels to try and stop them.
The wheels, however, are well greased with centuries of tears, sweat, blood, and ground up dreams.
We need more sand. We need more sand to throw upon the gears.
We need to level blessings upon this good, green earth, as it gasps in a great illness.
We need to level curses at the killers of dreams.
And so I wrote this curse. This curse of compassion, because so many already bear the curse of breaking hearts. It is time these other hearts break as well. This curse of justice, because all must face a reckoning, and until justice reigns, there shall never, anywhere on earth, dwell comfort and peace.
Use it as you will. But take care, because to level a curse is to be painted with its power. Justice and compassion may come winging your way.
Cleanse yourself first, to the best of your ability. Center yourself. Get clear. Connect with earth and sky…Take a breath. Hold your target firmly in your mind.
Are you ready?
Let us begin.
T. Thorn Coyle, 10 July 2018
