GOOD FOOD for thought is this 1850 poem, Ring Out, Wild Bells of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Most especially so in the light of the current of events in the country: the loss of thousands of lives in Cagayan de Oro, Iligan and some other places in Mindanao;
the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona; the hospital-caged former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo; Hacienda Luisita still undistributed; justice yet to prevail in the over-two-year-old Ampatuan Massacre; the unending oil price hikes; Palparan on the run, etcetera.
Ringing in the New Year
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more,
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out thy mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
May 2012 bring out the best in us all, 24/7.
