What kind of an Hallelujah are we singing now?

I love Leonard Cohen’s Allelujah which has been song by numerous artists. It has been song joyously, sorrowfully at funerals, with glory and praise to God at Masses and other religious services.  I wrote this poem to its music to show how an hallelujah has morphed for our Nation over this last year.
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Hallelujah 2021
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The fires burned the western shore
The plague was pounding on our door
We couldn’t take it anymore.
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We looked to him to end our pain
He turned his back and played his game
The lies falling like toxic rain.
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Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
It’s a broken Hallelujah
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A man lay dead under a knee of blue
It mattered to us but not to you
What’s our Nation to do?
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The votes were in, new things to come
But counting up he denied the sum
His falsehoods continued to run.
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We pray the man who won the race
Will rise above the lies in place
And rule with truth and grace.
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Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
It’s a timid Hallelujah
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Two weeks before Biden’s swearing in
Trump urged the crowd to commit the sin:
Storm the Capitol, block his win.
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The insurrection will be a bloody stain
The Nation’s trauma from Trump’s reign.
With our new president, leadership we regain.
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Hallelujah, Hallelujah
A triumphant Hallelujah

The Book of Love

While cleaning house the year I was preparing to move, I came across a box buried within another box, in the bottom of a chest. Not recognizing it, I assumed it was taken from my mother’s apartment when she passed away decades ago. I opened it up to discover greeting cards. There was a whole stack of them that my dad had given her over the course of many years. I proceeded to sit down and go through them noting how each was romantic using words like “my darling”, “you make my life so wonderful”. Phrases I had never heard my prosaic dad use! And that my mother would keep these baffled me because there relationship was anything but romantic. However, after reading through all of them I realized that this was perhaps the only way my dad could relay tender sentiments to her. I will never know as he, too, is long gone.
I have always kept a journal. They now take up 2+ shelves on my bookcase. These cards from dad made me wonder who would read my journals when I passed away. I have no children, so would I want a friend or maybe a stranger to read through my life? I don’t really know at the moment, but it got me to thinking about that old-fashioned form of writing that today no one seems to do. Yes, things in cyberspace seem to live forever, but is it the same as, say your child or spouse, discovering a journal detailing your life when you are no longer there with them?
After reading an article about a couple where the husband kept a journal that he wrote in only once a year on their anniversary, I cannot help but believe that the handwritten remains of a loved one would have more impact than anything else left behind. Remember the stories we’ve all read about Victorians and their love letters? How those treasured letters, kept and reread, gave solace to a loved one after the passing of its author. You can’t get that emotional feeling from a collection of tweets or even e-mails!
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. I would suggest that instead of a card or a bouquet of flowers, write your loved one a nice romantic letter and give a beautiful journal. You’ll not only surprise the receiver, but you will have sown the seeds that in a future day will bloom into the flowers of remembrance.

Where Were You on Jan 6?

Every night and now during the impeachment trial, the news keeps showing those videos of the Capital being stormed. The same images over and over of the so called Trump supporters spurred on by his rhetoric. I have become numb to these images but for some reason, yesterday, a thought popped into my head: Where in all this were the anti Trump protesters? Why didn’t they come out and “defend” the Capital and Congress from the mob?
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I haven’t heard or read anyone asking that question. It’s not like the mob just materialized that afternoon. There was chatter for weeks on social media about something being planned. We all knew nothing good would come from another Trump rally to “take back the steal”. And yet, not one anti Trump peaceful protester is seen during that melee. I’m not suggesting they should have descended upon the mob with the same type of violence. But what about ringing the Capital so the mob would have had to push through them and thus create a symbolic barrier to protect democracy? What about just coming down to the Capital and walking around with signs against what was happening. Peaceful and a way to catch the media’s eye that not everyone is an insurrectionist.
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But no, you hid in your homes watching it all unfold on TV. I live in NJ but if I would have been within 50 miles of the capital I would have made a sign and dashed down there to PEACEFULLY protest what was happening. What a sad state this nation is in, we the people have power, not only in the ballot box but also in the media. And pictures (video) also speak louder than words!