Eight people are still missing in the fall of the bridge over the Mississippi River. What a tragedy. Why are our bridges, roads, rails, levees, etc. in such terrible shape? It is fairly easy to understand - the Congressional Budget Office estimates that as of June of this year, taxpapers have spent 500 billion in the Iraq war. And it is further estimated that by the time the war winds down we will have spent over a trillion dollars. And the cost in lives, health and good will? They cannot be calculated. When will the people demand that it stop?
Drowning seems such a terrible fate, and especially drowning in a vehicle. The mind has to retreat from such contemplation. The Buddha may have had it right - life sometimes does appear to be about suffering.
The poem below is another of Emily Dickinson's poems. She has a verse for most life situations.
Drowning is not so pitiful
As the attempt to rise.
Three times, ’tis said, a sinking man
Comes up to face the skies,
And then declines forever
To that abhorred abode
Where hope and he part company,—
For he is grasped of God.
The Maker’s cordial visage,
However good to see,
Is shunned, we must admit it,
Like an adversity.
As the attempt to rise.
Three times, ’tis said, a sinking man
Comes up to face the skies,
And then declines forever
To that abhorred abode
Where hope and he part company,—
For he is grasped of God.
The Maker’s cordial visage,
However good to see,
Is shunned, we must admit it,
Like an adversity.
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