Re-solution
Tribal—who’d a thunk it was
The missing piece
That lay between us all
These years – so near
And yet so far –
The chasm of
These ceaseless
Wondering days.There it was –
So crystal clear
In all its simpleness and charm.Yet there it was
With its strange perplexity
And harm.Enough, I thought,
That TCK
And all the messiness
That brings into one’s life –
Enough that is for
One of us –
But two?
Or three?
Or more?It matters not I guess
For in the foldedness
Of each of our affected lives,
There lives enough
To cause such rifts –
Yet bring
Into each life
Sweet liberty
From convoluted
Life.But there it was –
Again, and again
He spoke the words
That after all these years
Unlocked the door
That up ’till now
Remained
Quite closed –
Till now.Perhaps one line
Or two might be excused
As mixed within
By accident –
Perhaps one line –But never this –
The long unfolding statement
Of a life he’d lived
In quiet desperation –
Of a life
Unknown to those
Outside
The boundaries
Of his
Quiet life
Within.For no –
There’s no mistaking that –
Not drawn from books
Or teachers or his friends –The only source
For information quite that good
Is being there –
Informed perhaps
By later contact
With the words,
But at its base
Reality
And life.A TCK –
With all its interwovenness
And anguish of one’s soul –
Alone –
And yet that bridging mix,
One foot on each shore
As each one weaves a tattered kilt
From threads spun out
And drawn from
Each side
Of the pond.I’d wondered if
Effect of journey into
Depths of cultures
Home to me –Had touched his soul
Or had
The deep effects
Of contact
Through my kin.But there it was –
And now a bridge between
The cultures of his kin
And land in which
His early years
Were spent.That blend –
Unique to him
Yet shared and drawn
In all its mixed complexity
From both his childhood sides.And now
A living base
On which to build
An edifice sublime,
Or fit
To crumble,
Taking all
To tangled
Death.Despair indeed –
I know that lonely walk
Of agony
And splendid
Isolation.Perceiving all –
With distant eyes
Which penetrate
From outside
That which others think
Is all you are –But no –
You’re more than that,
And greater for
Not being part
And parcel of
One side.For when complete
A TCK is part
Of both surrounding cultures
Of his childhood
Years.And on that base
Their rises as he grows
A life that’s free –
Enriched,
Yet not enslaved
By foibles
And restraints
Of either side.Paul was like that –
That mix of his rich parentage
And context of his birth.A Jew of course,
But Gentile also –
Citizen of both
Those ancient worlds.His growth enriched
By education from
Contending foes –
He was them
Both.Not superficially –
But deep within his being –
Liberated by that fact –
Yet trapped
For all the richness
Of his Jewish side
Could not be shared
In all its fullness
With his
Other kin.Until that day –
When blinded
By the light
Of seeing life for real,
He stumbled, fell,
Eyes opened
By a friend
He had not met –
He came to life.And so today –
Amazing beauty in his words,
As he poured out
The secret of his life –
As TCK –For in that tribal way of life
Which he described,
I heard that clear
Description of a way
Of viewing life
Which only could have come
From years before –
From people of his
Home.Yes, home indeed –
His Echoland –
So rich and deep,
That sacred solitude
Unwrapped
And still unwrapping
As he lives
Remaining days
Throughout his
Life.How rich that blend –
Of Oji-Cree
And Scottish
Mixed with more and more
Ojibway –
Echoland
In all its splendid
Quite confusing
Mix.Oh yes, indeed,
And now
As we proceed once more
To day set out each year
To celebrate just who we are
As members of this
Global town –We think once more
Of life we live
Here in this land
Of ice and snow –And deep within,
Sense of freedom in our veins
As we live out each day
Enriched – enriched indeed
By all we’ve been
And are.And celebrate today
A life that’s given to us
In all its rich complexity –By One above,
Who bid our fathers journey
From their homes,
And thus enrich
Not just the lives
Amongst the folks
Where they abode –But their own lives,
And lives of children raised
In splendid isolation
From our parents’ homes –
Yet also from
A culture
Not of ours.Enriched indeed
And thus endowed
With gifts to bring
Both groups –The gifts which come
From life enriched
With closeness
Yet that distance
Which enables
Us to see –And seeing,
Be one set of eyes
Which gathers of the best,
And shares across the chasm
Of each culture’s bounded
Shores
The splendid richness
Of each other
Half.And there it was –
The richness of that tribal form
Which those who lost
To treachery and shame
Have all but left behind.But no – it’s there intact;
And lies now on our table,
Fit for structured life
In all its corporate
Enterprise.A set of rules,
So ancient and so wide-spread
No one knows their roots –
The rules of kin –
And tribal life in
All its porous blend
Of tight simplicity.And yet not bound,
For from the other’s shores
Comes liberty
And global openness.Drawn from a Christ
Who said to them –
Take salt
And light
And leaven
To the worldEnrich their lives,
And free them to enjoy
Rich fullness of their ways,
And be a blessing
To them all.They did –
And so our Scottish kin
And native friends
Have been set free,
In splendid solitudes –
To mix at last
Here in this frozen land
In hybrid vigor
Of us
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