The Step

The step
(by R.P.Edwards)

Mountain high
With jagged peak
Or lifting words
Where none will speak
Or going forth
Through promised pain
The conquerors…are all the same
Their tasks, their goals, their deeds, their win
They all spring forth
Where hopes begin
That simple place
The step…so clear
To choose, to conquer
Every…fear

It’s all relative.  The personal conquering of…whatever.  There is a decision…a place where desire, or need, or desperate necessity…pushes you past the barriers, the chains, the shackles, the fetters… of fear and doubt.  It’s a vulnerable place.  Where potential injury (in its various forms) goes from possible to probable…to certain.  And there is a conquering, because the goal, the focus, the objective…is all that moves you.  Moves you to a place…beyond yourself.

I saw a little of that this week when my youngest boy learned to ride his bike.  A while back he had the desire well enough, but some rather hard falls curtailed his enthusiasm considerably.  Indeed, he associated the task…with pain.  And, my manly exhortations weren’t quite enough (not for this one anyway [funny how each kid is different]) to get him back on.   However, over time (a considerable amount) he internally wrestled with the thing until…there was a conquering.  The result? Now he’s a two-wheelin’ bloke.

And I think of our nation.  I think of our grand republic.  Birthed of patriot’s blood…and preserved through the same.  And I think of the efforts of a few, an isolated elite who are trying so desperately …to turn us into something else.  Something foreign.  And I think of we--the many, the majority--who have been comfortable and complacent, coasting on the weakening wave of past generations sacrifice.  And I wonder, if, with the very soul of our America at stake; I wonder if “we” will push past the pain; push past the doubters, and distorters, and deceivers; push past the revisionists and revilers and rogues; push past our very selfish selves…to lay hold, once again, of the words, and the meaning behind the words… “We hold these truths to be self evident.”  Yes, I wonder if there is a “conqueror” …in us.  For if there is not.  All…is lost.

That’s what I think.  How about you?  Click comments below…and say.