straddler (poem)

between poem and song,
land and sea

between cliff and river,
the decision to leap

between here and there
and you and me

between midnight and morning,
doorways out of dreams

between decisions and revisions,
what i want and what i think

between boy and man
at the river's rising

between instinct and grace
and who we come to be,

always i'll be straddling.

Grace

Tonight my family watched the movie "The Tree of Life." I liked it a lot, and it is a lot to chew on. The movie seemed to be, at least partly, about the life we receive in and through grace and forgiveness. The movie's exploration of grace reminded me of a short story called "Babette's Feast" by Isak Dinesen, especially the following passage:

"Man, my friends," said General Loewenhielm, "is frail and foolish. We have all of us been told that grace is to be found in the universe. But in our human foolishness and short-sightedness we imagine divine grace to be finite. For this reason we tremble. . . " Never till now had the General stated that he trembled; he was genuinely surprised and even shocked at hearing his own voice proclaim the fact. "We tremble before making our choice in life, and after having made it again tremble in fear of having chosen wrong. But the moment comes when our eyes are opened, and we see and realize that grace is infinite. Grace, my friends, demands nothing from us but that we shall await it with confidence and acknowledge it in gratitude. Grace, brothers, makes no conditions and singles out none of us in particular; grace takes us all to its bosom and proclaims general amnesty. See! that which we have chosen is given us, and that which we have refused is, also and at the same time, granted us. Ay, that which we have rejected is poured upon us abundantly. For mercy and truth have met together, and righteousness and bliss have kissed one another!"