A Poem To Hold You
July 8, 2008
This poem is from a collection of modern adaptions of the writings of Hafiz entitled “I Heard God Laughing” by Daniel Ladinsky.
How Does It Feel to Be a Heart?
.
Once a young woman asked me,
“How does it feel to be a man?”
And I replied,
“My dear,
I am not sure.”
Then she said,
“Well, aren’t you a man?”
And this time I replied,
“I view gender
As a beautiful animal
That people often take for a walk on a leash
And might enter in some odd contest
To try to win strange prizes.
My dear,
A better question for Hafiz
Would have been,
‘How does it feel to be a heart?’
For all I know is Love,
And I find my heart Infinite
And Everywhere!”
In the current debate over marriage, there are times when it seems that those who oppose marriage equality, worship gender, or more specifically, the combination of genders. Over and over “one man and one woman” is lifted up, defining what it is that constitutes a real marriage, family, relationship, and love. One man and one woman wins it all in this odd little contest bent on narrowly defining what is most primal and essential for all humans; to be loved and to love.
I find it inconceivable to think that God is as obsessively concerned with the genitalia of two human beings in convenantal love as are so many of those who attempt to speak in God’s name. Rather it reads in I Samuel 16:7 that “man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart.” Where I believe God’s attention is drawn is to the heart, the intention it holds and the actions that flow from it. Gay or straight, bisexual or transgendered or so queer no other definition will do. Wouldn’t it be grand to drop it all and known as Heart?
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Posted in Human Sexuality
July 9th, 2008 at 6:23 am
Wonderful post.
“Where I believe God’s attention is drawn is to the heart, the intention it holds and the actions that flow from it.”
I believe the same thing. In my own journey, it was this right here, besides your 4 day challenge, that changed A LOT for me. Realizing that God is not concerned with who I love, as long as my intentions and motives are true and genuine, grounded in love.
When I began to move my focus from the heated debate of homosexaulity onto much deeper questions, like what is God really looking at? What is really in my heart? Is it truly full of lust, greed, selfishness desires and darkness? No, I found quite the opposite. I found that my intentions and motives were true.
I really don’t believe God cares about color, gender or whether we wear Gucci or Goodwill, but what is in our hearts and what comes out of them by the way we live our lives.
Again, thanks for this great post!
July 9th, 2008 at 7:45 am
I love this!! One of my favorite Hafiz poems describes laughter as “God waking up” so it is interesting the title he chose for the book. And I agree: I doubt God, who I believe to be so much more than our brains can put together, is overly-concerned with the gender of the people wishing to be married. That seems too pedestrian a concern for God. Thanks for sharing!
July 9th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart. Good verse.
C
July 12th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Hi, Anita!
Lovely post! I just sent you an email, but got an error message, so I’m trying this. I’ve named you for an Arte y Pico award at my blog. Please come and see.
http://choralreef.blogspot.com/2008/07/arte-y-pico-award.html