The Greatest of Works

I inherited the Socratic tradition from my Irish Catholic father, who really does have the gift of sparkling laughter, and I joke with him that he is my hero. After all, who would I be without him?

The Greatest of Works

Each of us is born helpless, into the arms of giants,

And rests upon the shoulders, of yet more giants,

Who were every bit as mortal as everyone else,

Born every bit as ignorant, as the least of us.

The secret of change is to focus your energy,

Not upon fighting the old, but upon building the new!

All of us are reaching up through the cracks,

Leaping for the warmth, of the sun and stars,

Where living well is what life is always about!

The zest for life itself enhancing all good things,

Knowing the unexamined life, is not worth living,

Instead, of merely ignorant or just another dreamer,

Become as you may truly wish others to perceive you!

Be the kind of person you would like to meet,

And, live according to your own principles,

Confident, that none might ever do better,

Than to seek, to improve upon themselves.

None might do worse than remain ignorant,

None may do worse, than to chase their tails,

Waste their precious lives on self-stimulation,

Waste their lives merely confusing themselves!

Remember, that all of us fight our own battles,

And, do not do unto others, what offends thee!

Beware the deadliest, of any possible passions;

Rather treat each other, with greater kindness,

Than you might otherwise, believe you deserve.

Know, that lifting up the lowliest amongst us,

Would easily become the greatest of all works!

Knowing only, that we can know, but nothing,

We can still rise above, any and all, situations;

By simply elevating ourselves before all others,

Finding the humility, to love ourselves properly.

For knowledge is the only good, evil but sheer ignorance,

Let those who would move the earth first move themselves!

Let those who would move, first move themselves!

Endowing what we hold most dearest to ourselves,

Our freedom to surrender any hubris in the moment!

That which ultimately goes beyond any of our words,

A singular indeterminate multiverse rules awareness!

Creating Wheeler's Participatory Anthropic Principle.

In order to receive, we must all first be willing to give!

In order to be free we must all grant ourselves freedom!

In order to be free, we must first, make our leap of faith!

In order to be free, all must learn to lift each other again!

For love is amazing grace, no one may compel on another!

Freedom is becoming, more of whoever we wish to become!

Freedom is synonymous with any love, beauty, and humor!

Freedom is the ability to ignore pointless personal bullshit!

Which is why love rules over the pattern matching universe!

Mathematical normalization, implying a singular recursion,

That which all words are remarkably inadequate to describe,

That which inspires any, to nurture faith in our own freedom.

That which empowers us all to perform the greatest of works!

That which empowers any, to do more than we think possible!

That which empowers us all to freely give and receive our love,

Empowering all humanity, to share just one silent explanation,

Despite instant karma gonna getcha mama's love is irresistible!

For the love of mama's life, is the one greater Truth we all share,

Socrates, a career soldier who was certainly no stranger to death!

A peasant, who was certainly no stranger to outrageous fortunes!

Couldn't stand to watch many of the people he admired anguished;

Caught in the middle of the wealthy scrambling to exploit them all!

Pointlessly injuring one another in a mad rush to make more money.

Futilely arguing, over who gets to decide what goes in the dictionary!

His was a Mad, Mad, Mad World, when he championed True idealism,

Athenians rushing to sell their votes, to the wealthy at any opportunity.

Socrates used comedy to throw a spotlight on the more debased comedies.

To exemplify in many cases how academia and traditions had failed them;

For that, he was summarily executed in what had devolved into a lynch mob!

Kangaroo courts, in which the wealthy placed their bets,

Knowing perfectly well, that the entire game was rigged!

Just seeing, how much more money they could make on it;

Because they had rigged it themselves, from the top down!

On who could get anything accomplished in the confusion!

On who might be left standing, after all of the dust settled!

On who had no clue what any others had planned for them!

Socrates sense of humor showed how the games were rigged!

Costing some money, he was eliminated as soon as possible!

Those with the more lowbrow humor all quick with sarcasm!

Accusing the one man left among them close to God of heresy!

The one man, who credited God, for everything he had become!

The one man who credited God, for any wisdom he might have!

Of corrupting children claiming money was seldom the answer!

My father was just such a man, if not as illustrious as Socrates.

A simple man, who'd be the first to tell anyone he wasn't bright!

A warrior, with a sense of humor who wisely shunned high rank;

As being far too political for the likes of a simple honest warrior!

Who grew up admiring heroes from other planets, like Yogi Berra;

With a clear conscience, win or lose Yogi always had a good time!

Knowing how he himself played the game, made all the difference,

For what benefit it a man if he gains the world, but loses his soul?

A hard fighting Irishman who'd inherited some Socratic traditions,

Part of a rich peasant culture, that still knew, the value of honesty!

How to be still as a straight man, or a deer caught in the headlights,

Traditions which are dying out to make way for growth and progress,

A way of life the people no longer find to be as useful as making money,

Yet in a few pubs they still tell jokes on the anniversary of Socrates' death,

Those few who still remember, gentle humor can be more honorable than pride,

Those few who still remember the value of any great ignorant wisdom and virtue,

When my father would always chuckle with that irresistible sparkling laughter of his,

Quoting Socrates, and drinking to the health of those accomplishing the greatest of works.