[MD] The Madman: The Perfect World

[David M]

Hi Marsha

If god were no more than the silence into which
we ask our questions, god would still be very
important to human beings and their culture.

David M

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "MarshaV" <marshalz at charter.net>
To: <moq_discuss at moqtalk.org>
Sent: Monday, October 01, 2007 7:42 AM
Subject: [MD] The Madman: The Perfect World


>
> The Madman:  The Perfect World    by Khalil Gibran
>
>
>
> God of lost souls, thou who art lost amongst the gods, hear me:
>
> Gentle Destiny that watchest over us, mad, wandering spirits, hear me:
>
> I dwell in the midst of a perfect race, I the most imperfect.
>
> I, a human chaos, a nebula of confused elements, I move amongst
> finished worlds -- peoples of complete laws and pure order, whose
> thoughts are assorted, whose dreams are arranged, and whose visions
> are enrolled and registered.
>
> Their virtues, O God, are measured, their sins are weighed, and even
> the countless things that pass in the dim twilight of neither sin nor
> virtue are recorded and catalogued.
>
> Here days and nights are divided into seasons of conduct and governed
> by rules of blameless accuracy.
>
> To eat, to drink, to sleep, to cover one's nudity, and then to be
> weary in due time.
>
> To work, to play, to sing, to dance, and then to lie still when the
> clock strikes the hour.
>
> To think thus, to feel thus much, and then to cease thinking and
> feeling when a certain star rises above yonder horizon.
>
> To rob a neighbour with a smile, to bestow gifts with a graceful wave
> of the hand, to praise prudently, to blame cautiously, to destroy a
> soul with a word, to burn a body with a breath, and then to wash the
> hands when the day's work is done.
>
> To love according to an established order, to entertain one's best
> self in a pre-conceived manner, to worship the gods becomingly, to
> intrigue the devils artfully -- and then to forget all as though
> memory were dead.
>
> To fancy with a motive, to contemplate with consideration, to be
> happy sweetly, to suffer nobly -- and then to empty the cup so that
> tomorrow may fill it again.
>
> All these things, O God, are conceived with forethought, born with
> determination, nursed with exactness, governed by rules, directed by
> reason, and then slain and buried after a prescribed method. And even
> their silent graves that lie within the human soul are marked and 
> numbered.
>
> It is a perfect world, a world of consummate excellence, a world of
> supreme wonders, the ripest fruit in God's garden, the master-thought
> of the universe.
>
> But why should I be here, O God, I a green seed of unfulfilled
> passion, a mad tempest that seeketh neither east nor west, a
> bewildered fragment from a burnt planet?
>
> Why am I here, O God of lost souls, thou who art lost amongst the gods?
>
> ------------
>
> Greetings,
>
> I hope you all forgive me for posting these little gems.  I have them
> playing randomly on my iPod via the Shuffle option, it's uncanny the
> song or piece of music that plays following a parable.
>
> Kudrun
>
>
> Hahahahah
>
>
>
>
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