The best revenge

With the death of Fred Phelps comes the wealth (or paucity) of thoughts on what he will find in heaven.  May he be embraced and wonderfully surprised at the embrace, as we all will be... embraced and surprised.  Good living is often hard, for all of us, to come by.

The best revenge

Is life well lived.

Good living is often hard

To come by.

Wealth of thought

Every place I work or have worked assesses people and things differently.  In my volunteer job, on Mondays, there is yet another way to assess people.  I am learning the value of multiple ways of identifying things, the value of diagnosis: not to put people in a box, but simply to learn anew where... to begin.  I am richer for it.

Yesterday

I worked

On the twelve page assessment.

I found the check box

For

Poverty of thought.

I know it is

An official term.

Still I see

A child on the street,

Nose pressed to glass,

The outside

Of a schoolroom window.

I want to invite him in,

Invite her in,

To sit in the front row.

I want

To teach to a broader curriculum,

Hold those poor thoughts

In the light,

Expand those poor thoughts

In the light.

I want to mark a newly created box

On a different page:

Wealth of thought

It would read.

A venerable and veritable

Wealth of thought.

Wealth

Wow.  Today I officially began volunteering at DCC.  I have five clients transferred from the interns who just left.  I saw one today.  There*s a possibility I*ll see all five next week.  When I think about it, I am not surprised at the wealth of opportunity available to me, and yet, still, that wealth amazes me.

  

I am overwhelmed and

It is only Monday afternoon.

A wealth of opportunity sits

In the chairs

At the DuPage Community Clinic.

I have already forgotten the names

Of every volunteer

I met there this morning.

I drive home and

A wealth of opportunity

Stands on every street corner.

 A wealth wanders the fruit and vegetable aisles

Of Valli Produce,

Speaks in languages I can scarcely identify

About food I have no idea

How to cook.

I am glad no one is home yet

But me and the cat

And the turtle asleep

In his water dish.

Soon wealth will arrive home from school.

She will bring even more opportunity

Through the door.