“Persuasion” [Reflections On Nicholas Ostler’s Book Empires Of The Word New York: Harper Perennial, 2005 – Prologue]

“Persuasion” is how languages
Spread around the world, he writes;
Though motives vary widely, but
He seems to be quite right.

To sell a language to a group
Which has to learn from scratch
Is challenging, to say the least,
Grade-school attests to that.

But here we are – again we face
The “Babel issue” square –
There’s allergy between the groups
“Because Creator cared”.

A gift it was to slow us down –
In selfishness we learned
To trash the world around us while
The ways of God we spurned.

God bought us time to smarten up
With “Language allergies”;
Removing walls between the groups
Does not Creator please.

“I gave that gift to help you out –
If you efficient are,
You’ll trash the world efficiently –
You really are bizarre!!

“So send your boundary-crossers there
To shop for treasure troves
To bring back home; but leave those walls
For trashing-work it slows.

“Each culture (language) has a gift
Of choice as central pin;
It takes a mix of all those gifts
To balanced-life begin

For balance in the body is,
That’s how I slowed you down;
Until you change your attitudes
My gift will be around.

“For when you took the fruit and left
The garden for the weeds,
You chose a sucky attitude
Which rectifying needs.

“Until I’m center of your life
Once more (as I’ve designed) –
Then attitudes will trash the place –
It stays that way, you’ll find –

“Until I’m center of all life
(The ‘Tree of life’ in yarn);
It’s selfishness that dominates
Your way of life and harms –

“All chances of a lasting peace
(That’s wholeness), for each one;
So smarten up your attitude
Commence to having fun.

“As soon as I’m the center of
A person’s life, they find
They’re not allergic to the rest,
It comes from being kind.

“The others still allergic are
So you are still shot down;
But half the bridge is crossed at least,
And you don’t wear the frown.

“The language-lessons still must be
Conducted, but, at least
The power-plays have disappeared –
Lets you enjoy the feast!”

So, Lord, as we encounter those
Who “Other” are to us
Thanks for the shift in attitude
Reducing friction’s fuss.

For rich indeed the treasures are
From other language groups;
Your blessings flow from You through all
Enriching what we do.

As I proceed into this tome
To hear what this man’s found,
Bless all his insights I will hear
Through me, then bless my town.

Thanks Lord for this.

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