Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

".. life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"*

( these rights are endowed to men by their Creator and are so acknowledged by the United States Declaration of Independence)

Though you may be living your life
Under liberty maintained by vigilance and strife
Happiness, because it seldom takes full root,
Remains ... at best ... always a pursuit

You who have fought in battles,
Think back, if you will.
Did you make a solemn promise,
As yet, you have to fill?

Did you ask your Creator,
Your life, as for a while, to spare ...
That sometime, somewhat later --
It would little matter where --
To do His Will on earth,
Would be all you'd really care?

[When their ways of life (livelihoods and their lives themselves) are threatened or otherwise jeopardized, the hopes and fears of those engaged in the battle of life and living are no less serious or extreme than those involved in military operations]

How much does a conflict cost
In resources and laboring done,
And after the battle has been fought,
Does it justify the staggering sum?

The sum of the casualties of war,
Is more than "blood sweat and tears" [Words made known by Winston Churchill during WW2]
It represents a loss of which
Parents have given their years.

The hope of a better world
Lies not in a shooting war,
But war in which the goals are such,
As most .. are striving for
[in one way or another]

You who have borne the brunt of battle,
And remember its carnage still,
And the order your appointed commanders,
Who passed the words -- to kill.

What would be the judged opinion
If the other side had won?
Would they have held a tribunal
To avenge every war-lost son?

For, in the course of a critical battle,
Each side under the banner of its flag,
Allowed additional legalized murder,
So the operations would not drag.

Because life is so precious,
Because life is so dear,
Many men fought through battles
Despite their inner fear.

Fear which left you ever wary
After body tremblings were accepted or done --
And made you as a cunning animal
Looking out for number one.

You can be forgiven by your Creator,
For you were an an animal then,
Driven to end a hellish battle --
By killing your fellow men.

Those other men you knew you as brothers,
But only as a fighting foe,
Whose existence to you was a danger,
Which from experience to you came to know.

The blame lies not so much with you soldiers,
You peons of the war,
As with high military and civil commanders,
Who also know God's Law.

On both sides, men died in battle
At the hands of their fellow men,
And man of these -- had they lived --
Would not kill in wars again.

Some who have dedicated their lives
To furthering their creator's ways,
Not for just a little while
But for all their living days.

And to you who have survived,
What have you to say?
You too, can perform some service
For those [living and dead] who in your memory stay.

Why the undue use of violence?
Why the undue marking of war?
And to use a slang expression
"What in the hell are we fighting for?"

Yet we need not resort to fighting
For the means to produce and to obtain
The needed food, shelter and clothing,
As fighting is so wasteful and so vain.

To desire more than your fellow man
Is to put it very mildly -- quite unfair,
And try as you might, whatsoever your plan,
Being selfish brings worry and care.

We all have so much in common,
We all have so much we can share,
That each an contribute something,
Which is no more than each can bear.

The is a a storehouse of plenty,
Enough presently abound for all,
Thanks to the resources of nature,
And the modern science at our call.

With our given ability to reason,
With our knowledge of history past,
We can work to make things on earth more pleasing,
As long as mortal life is allowed to last.

That the Creator allows disorder
Concerning His created Man,
And allows us to seemingly flounder,
Is part of his worthwhile Plan.

Try as we might with our free wills,
Try as we might with our enacted laws,
Unless we practise God's Commandments,
What we do will always have flaws.

To get along with your fellow men,
Is something to practise not just now and then,
For every single existing day,
All can work to further the Creator's Way.

Wars, as such are not the better way,
Be they of the present or a former day:
And things today are as they were then,
As not enough love God -- and their fellow men.

Our living needs are very little,
Out desires and wants are often great;
While living through what seems a riddle,
Of selfish love and selfish hate
That's disturbing the world of late.

Why are our living needs so little,
B e we of the Earths smalls or greats?
Can life be more than just a riddle?
Can unselfish love remove what it abates,
Our selfish loves and selfish hates?

The body's needs are very little;
Yet, many are deprived of them, as such,
Because those who control the means,
Sometimes forget they have so much,
Or their accumulated means--even themselves--don't touch.

Others, though they have but little,
Sometimes waste it on needless desires and wants,
Much to the detriment of their minds and bodies,
By their actikons -- be they secretive or in flaunts.

So, whether plentiful or moderate be their means,
Some indifferently neglect or abuse, it seems --
Themselves as as well as those needful others,
Be they strangers or blood relations, such as brothers.

Because individual needs are so little,k
Many are able to share
Something of which they acquire
Or come to earn
With those requiring care.

Our basic needs thus being little
Provide many with a choice
Of whether or not to obey
Their advising inner voice.

This voice tells you to regard all others,
As you, yourself. would want to be,
Were you to be in their place,
And could know of what their senses see.

You would come to know their hunger
Is more than just for food,
And that their longing for a better life
Cannot but influence their present mood.

This mood can be influenced,
By what love, freely given, removes or abates.
Their pent-up or expressed emotions,
Such as jealousies, envies and hates.

Many in the world do wonder:
Do those who are able to share, care?
And, if those who claim to serve a God of Love,
Will they additional burdens, somewhere, bear,
And for such efforts, date, prepare?

Dare to express your compassion,
Your understanding of what man can be,
That awaits the resutls of personal sharing,
By means-uncoerced and free --
In contrast to wasteful legalized charity.

So, though you have much or little,
Or be your talents many or few,
There is something you can work for,
For there is some all can do
That shows God's Promise to be true.

Though you live in an age of reason,
You live in an age of trial,
For you live in an age with problems,
Whole solutions will take a while.

History repeats itself so often
History repeats itself so much,
That man is now more aware
Of this purposeful repetition as such.

Repetition serves a useful purpose
If from its lessons we come to learn,
That through our coöperative efforts
We can achieve much of what we yearn.

For if we do not pull together
And have as a motto, "Gung-Ho" [A Chinese phrase meaning work together]
Things will get worse instead of better,
From History, this we known

Knowledge

How? When? What? Why? and Where?
Are questions implying wonder and dare:
1... daring you to continually seek
2... being all the while knowingly aware
That all your searching will not get you there3,
So long as you a mortal4 be,
Whose earthly span ... is not eternity

1. Questions
2. you
3. That is, to the point where your knowledge understanding is complete
4. As mortal* we are unlike our creator whose eternal nature transcends time and space
*Mortal man, individually and/or collectively, continually searches to increase his heritage of knowledge even though he knows he cannot know everything concerning God's creation.

What motivates a writer's* thinking?
What does he think about
Is/are his writing/results ever so clear,
So as to remove all expressions of doubt?
*Scientist, philosopher, engineer, artist, et cetera

A writer is only human;
A writer satisfies a need;
A writer puts forth something,
Upon which the minds of others feed.

No man possesses ultimate knowledge;
No man will ever know it all;
For man, as a mortal being,
Is subject to death's call.

Yet , to stop our seeking for knowledge,
Is to stop our seeking for man's good,
As truth ca nbe found using reason,
And the things -- now understood.

Our seeking will reveal more knowledge,
Concerning the Creator and His Ways,
Ways so intelligently bound in nature,
That man will seek and ponder -- all his living days.

The mind of man is fertile.
Suggestive imagination -- once it starts --
Can lead to realms of contemplation,
Beyond what it first imparts.

How do mental concepts begin?
Where do you get their start,
In influencing your knowledge search,
By the suggestions they impart?

Thoughts stem from all who are dreamers,
Thoughts are motivated by desires,
And are furtherd by the associations,
Into which the mind -- by recall -- inquires.

All know of life something,
Yet more remains to be known.
Upon life's mysteries we ponder,
At times with others, at times alone.

Thoughts concerning disease, of pain, and of sorrow--
There is purpose to such as these,
For they result in a better tomorrow,
By work done now to effect their ease.

Working in the thought-provoking realm of moral awareness,
And contributing of your acquired means, knowledge and best skills,
Trains the truth-seeking mind to better discern good from eveil,
And gives the donscience reason to be untroubled -- and still.

Man's accomplishments now in being,
Used with love as an abiding guide,
Can stir thoughts and concepts into actions,
Which furthers what's been done or being tried,
By those you have come to know the purpose,
For which Christ so lived ... and for which He died.

Some concepts begin with but pretense,
Some pretenses can semmingly become as rea,
As you rationalize and for awhile accept ...
Things, who nature you mentally, feel.

Why do you at times engage in daydreams,
In your thought world of motivated make-believe,
Based upon your desires, hope, and ambitions,
As only your thinking mind can conceive?

Why? Because there are things you would like to know,
Because there are things you remember even yet,
Whose imprint upon your being is so --
That your way of life for a time, by them, is set.

So, to rationalize is human,
Though it should ever be understood,
It depends upon your objective ...
Whether or not its intent is good.

WORDS

WORDS

Words ... words... there are many,

With shades of meaning aplenty,

Yet, we really have much too few.

As it is, by now, known to you.

For, spelled the same, a word may be

Different in use and meaning, you see.

Others, though the same sound take,

Different menaing and spelling relate.

Words... words... you'll just have to accept*

From writers, like myself, who are not adept.

However, you don't have to agree

With the rambling words put together by me.

*Insofar as they are received by your senses

PAGE 4 of Dan's "A Few Minutes of Reflection", Janurary 1986 edition

WHAT IS PAST IS PROLOGUE

The words making up this title appear in the Shakespearean play The Tempest Act 2, Scene 1. They also appear on one of the stones outside the National Archives building in Washington, DC, the capital of the United States of America

Today is the tomorrow of just past yesterday;
And all yesterdays, by thought or heritage, in part may last
To the existing living now*, so that we can say:
"The present is the future with respect to the past."

*The presence of the "now" cannot be limited in terms of the time by being so small that it is no longer present nor can the extent of the existing continuum be measured any more than eternity be measured. The "now" in effect is ever present and eternal.

For What Follows

The Grammar is not the best(1)
And neither is the rhyme(2)
As these things are of less value
Than the imparting of thoughts not mine(3)

Thoughts implied by others,
Both living and dead,
Whose acts and words by us,
Are seen, heard or read.

Some of them being accepted,
By the likes of you and me,
And passed along by us,

So that others may also see.


Notes
(1) Although born and brought up in the United States of America, my Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling and word usage concenring the English language would be better if I remembered what I'm supposed to ... or better understood the referneces I've sometimes consulted

(2) and (3) In addition to some line endings not rhyming, the lines , in many instances , do not have regular measured lengths of cadence; and often whether they do or not, a "sing-song" effect can easily result when they are read aloud with a repeating cadence beat.

DEDICATION

An attribution to God*

And

To you -- the living and the dead --

For all you've done and said,

In part(1) ... this meagre rehash will state,

Something of which your words and acts relate,

Concerning your life in this world of trial,

Being occupied by its problems all the while,

To the extent that you've asked why,

You were born(2) ... to live (3) ... to die

* Since without an original Cause or Creation all things --- material or otherwise -- would not be possible.

Notes

1 ... maybe some of ...

2 ... into this age ...

3 ... Your awareness and make some contributions -- be they good or evil, notable or seemingly insignificant -- and then ...

A Few Minutes of Reflection

Propergations - A Propagating Endeavour - by DAN ENE

Notes: these are the thoughts, poems, and indeed prayers of "Den Ene", the nom de plume of a great but unrecognized hero who gave me sanctuary in the wilds of the Washington, DC suburbs in the mid 1980's.

First his permission to propagate his words:

The whole or any part of this book can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechnical, including photocopying, recording or in any information storage and retrieval system whitout permission in writing from the author as what little that had been copyrighted has since been distributed without copyright notice as in the case with this compilation; furthermore, those making use of this book to publish or formulate plaques or scrolls or other art forms are to omit thhe copyright notice except that its presence applies to their own copyright coverage and that which is excluded as noted.

Earlier editions copyrighted (c) 1958 and 1960 and now nullified were printed in the USA by Dan ENE, a pen name used by Daniel J. DeBenedictis, Greenbelt MD 20770.