June 7, 2008
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The Fool’s Prayer
THE FOOL’S PRAYER
by Edward Rowland SillThe royal feast was done; the King
Sought some new sport to banish care,
And to his jester cried: “Sir Fool,
Kneel now, and make for us a prayer!”The jester doffed his cap and bells,
And stood the mocking court before;
They could not see the bitter smile
Behind the painted grin he wore.He bowed his head, and bent his knee
Upon the Monarch’s silken stool;
His pleading voice arose: “O Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!“No pity, Lord, could change the heart
From red with wrong to white as wool;
The rod must heal the sin: but Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!“‘T is not by guilt the onward sweep
Of truth and right, O Lord, we stay;
‘T is by our follies that so long
We hold the earth from heaven away.“These clumsy feet, still in the mire,
Go crushing blossoms without end;
These hard, well-meaning hands we thrust
Among the heart-strings of a friend.“The ill-timed truth we might have kept–
Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung?
The word we had not sense to say–
Who knows how grandly it had rung!“Our faults no tenderness should ask.
The chastening stripes must cleanse them all;
But for our blunders — oh, in shame
Before the eyes of heaven we fall.“Earth bears no balsam for mistakes;
Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool
That did his will; but Thou, O Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!”The room was hushed; in silence rose
The King, and sought his gardens cool,
And walked apart, and murmured low,
“Be merciful to me, a fool!”
Comments (3)
We all are fools at some point . . .
Perhaps the jester was closer in his journey simply because he did not have so far to travel as the king.
Terri
@xXxButterfly_ladyxXx -
Or perhaps I’m too dumb to know how to treat people.
Tomas:
Perhaps. However, I prefer to think that you, like everyone else, are still learning.
You don’t reach some magic number on the scale & suddenly achieve all there is to know in the world, both in knowledge & wisdom. Neither can you expect yourself or others to have suddenly “arrived”. Relationships evolve, and are never perfect. Good ones continually give & take, even over a 50 or 60 year period.
You are going through a time of grieving right now, especially hard because it could have been avoided. Any less painful? I doubt it, perhaps more because of the rejection. My suggestion would be to give yourself a little time. This will be less intense down the road. Stop hitting your head against the wall, that changes nothing and just makes a bigger headache for all concerned. You have apologized. The apology will be either accepted or denied, regardless you have done all you can do. You need to stop dwelling on the situation, learn from it & move on.
Treating others well is not difficult. The focus must be off yourself. Treating others as you wish to be treated. This, I’m sure you know, whether or not it’s applied is still an open question. You have the courtesy & manners, do you have the sincerity? Like my daughter and yourself (I suspect), I have a low tolerance for “stupid people”, and there are many of them out there. My comments are not directed toward these types of relationships, but rather toward lasting friendships with quality individuals. Have you considered that if these friendships are meant to be, they will eventually weather this? If they do not, then they were not meant to be and it is therefore good to begin the healing process now before anything further takes place. As Heidi described the circumstances between the young lady & yourself, I have to admit that from the outside circle, there were some questions in my own mind. This is neither here nor there. The point here is you are never too old to learn to treat people better, to develop new friendships & to strengthen old ones.
Greater miracles have happened in the past. Take heart & have faith that you are in the process . . .
Friends ~ Terri