The Gallows' Pride

Many fools have stood where I dare not stand,
No dignity left, no respect among man,
No hope that in life or in death they would find,
A name full of honor to leave behind.

Death will come marching with stealth and with speed,
And he finds us all, whether rich or in need,
With all of us grasping for that which we love,
Whether names among men, or in heaven above.

Would that I stood as those fools, fully freed,
With no power to wield in their hour of need,
Would that I laid all my wisdom aside,
To do what no nobleman ever has tried,
And been raised up with my Savior beside,
And wore with the fools the gallows' great pride.

Remember Lot's Wife

I remember when the fire came down on my city
When I was spared and all the others died
While they bore your wrath and consternation
And while I left behind the life I knew

I remember when the fire came down on my city
Limits fell on what could be destroyed
But I still felt the pull to tinder even as it burned
And I still heard the words of angels even as I turned

Remember me
Remember me

Cause I've got rust on all my treasures
And my vaults are filled with thieves
I'd leave them by some measures
But by measures I don't leave

Remember me
Remember me

The Road to Freedom (Part 4)

Just beyond this hill, he said. I didn't know what he meant, but I couldn't help but feel that great heights like the one I had just reached existed only for the purpose of letting a man feel how far he really had to fall. As I looked up, then forward, then down again, I began to feel the weight of each crag we had climbed climbing back up over me, and I remembered my valley. In my valley I knew no want, no joy, and (it dawned on me now) no pain, and there was no great height from which to fall. My ears began to ring. My heart began to pound. My eyes began to blur. And for the first time in my life, I began to take a deep breath to scream.

But before I could let it out, I was interrupted by another sound, most unexpected: a bellow.

"Ha! Freedom." My friend looked at me and smiled. Not a deceitful, beguiling smile, but one full of hope and sincerity. "Let us continue our journey." Rather than scream, I staggered, and nearly fell. The tumble, I'm sure, would have killed me, which I might have welcomed at that point. Instead, my good friend caught me, and lowered me gently to the stone ground.

I woke to the sound of a crackling fire. To this day, I don't know where the wood came from, nor the meat my good friend was roasting, nor what the meat was. It didn't matter. My back hurt. My head hurt. My spirit was broken. At the very least, I could eat a good meal without having to bother with the where and the what of it all.

I ventured a question, "How many hills have you climbed before?"

"I keep no count of past climbings, only future, of which there will be one," he said.

I felt this as a rebuke, but he did not seem to be rebuking me. He seemed to be teaching me. I had learned so much in the time since I had met him. Maybe this was the next lesson. "Will you be my teacher?" I asked.

"My friend, what did you think I had been doing?"

The Sham

Long ago, before men had learned to do evil, there lived a creature with one eye, and a black heart that pumped black blood through all of him, filling him with hate. He had no power to create, destroy, or move another object in any way. Even in his endless wanderings, the ground did not give way beneath his feet. He had only the power to see, and to make seen. His skin was white, and his eye was red; one huge eye in the middle of his face. His black heart with the black blood is what filled him, but his eye is what drove him. Never was there such an eye in all the world. It could see near, and it could see far, like the best of men's eyes. But it was not like our eyes, because it could also see deep. This white creature with the red eye filled with black blood roamed the earth, searching the deepness of things. It is said that anyone who looked into the creature's red eye could also see the deep that the eye looked into. That is why this creature is feared by men in all places. Who could bear to see the deepness of himself? He is not feared the way one fears ghosts or monsters. Over time, it is easier to see that the monster's fangs were actually ridiculous buckteeth. Children fear them most, and the old are nearly immune. Those who know of the white creature with the red eye and the black heart call him "The Sham," and their fear of him does not diminish; it grows more desperate with each thought. But then it was not so. You see, this was long ago, before men had learned to do evil, when all things were beautiful, and all that was covered in the deepness of things was even more so. So, the white creature with a red eye filled with black blood saw the deepness of things and was unsatisfied, endlessly searching the deepness of things to find some evil to bring from its hiding place.

The way that men learned to do evil is a different story for a different time. Today, I will tell you about The Sham and the power he gained when the deepness of things turned dark.