Dave shared a W.H. Auden poem with me earlier in the week, as we were experiencing cold weather. It’s from “For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio.”  Written in 1942, when the world was at war, Auden’s “Oratorio” is a parable that merges the Biblical and the contemporary in a work that is simultaneously audacious and poetic.The Three Magi are speaking in this excerpt:

The weather has been awful,

The countryside is dreary,

Marsh, jungle, rock; and echoes mock

Calling our hope unlawful;

But a silly song can help along

Yours ever and sincerely

At least we know for certain that we are three old sinners

That this journey is much too long, that we want our dinners

And miss our wives, our books, our dogs,

But have only the vaguest idea why we are what we are

To discover how to be human now.

Is the reason we follow this star.

“To discover how to be human now”– isn’t that one of the great challenges in an ever-changing world?! I can well-imagine it was in 1942, as it is today.

Yours in faith,
Cynthia