The Good of Good Friday

Good Friday had me thinking all day about why is it called good? What is it to be that alone? What is it to be mocked by those that know nothing of you one day and all of a sudden you are famous? How did Jesus stand it or how does anyone stand there and take it? When you are famous everyone seems to know who you are and has an opinion. This got me to thinking about all the many celebrities and politicians that are the “soup de jour” and what happens to them as last year’s scandal has faded away by the next year. So, a mixture of humanness and what it is to be alone. Here are a few of my thoughts mixed into poems of the day. NaPoWriMo #5 and #6

On That Hill

What is good about standing alone?

We are told to stand together, stand united, stand tall,

But don’t ever stand out

If you are alone or the lone voice in the crowd

It is not easy

People remember you for good after you are gone

But while you are there voicing that one opinion

That is not popular, believed, or easy

You are alone

Or supported by such few

That you feel very small

Not like the huge thing inside of you

That makes you shout to the heavens

“Father, why have you forsaken me?”

Or us, as the case may be

You represent the voices of more than just you

But you are “it”

Alone, you stand looking at a sea

Of angry people that know nothing really of you

Except that you represent “it”

Christ being beaten from John 19
charcoal by Sarah Stillion 2001

Whatever that “it” is

“It” has set you apart

On a hill

In the middle

Very much

alone

Fifteen Punchlines

All famous people move on

And become punchlines to jokes

Even if they were respected

We think we know them

So we take what we know

Turning it on its head

Laughing all the while

Because they had a moment

We all knew them or thought we did

They become ours

No longer theirs

No wonder they fight hard

To hang onto normal

Or do the opposite and exploit what they can

As they do what they do

We watch dreaming of being them

Meeting them or hating them

For we are not them

We are removed from the spotlight

So far that it isn’t funny

So we make fun of them

As they will never know