My Mother's Poetry

Here are two poems written by my mother, found in Dorothy Hall's materials and just sent to me by her son Allen.

          A Transformation on Mother’s Day

One night I had a feeling
    That’s odd as it could be;
It seemed the years had dropped away
    And made a child of me,
And as the sun was setting
    I stood at Mother’s side–
“Child, why are you so quiet?
    Does something hurt inside?”
And I asked her many questions:
    How God could make a tree,
About the stars, and moon, and wind
    That none of us could see;
Why do the tigers have big stripes
    And not the leopards spots,
Why apples fall upon the ground;
    Would pumpkins grow in pots–
Like Grandma keeps her flowers in,
    And does a hornet die
If it should leave its stinger in–
    And why don’t kittens fly?
She surely had great patience–
    She taught me carefully,
And answered every little thought
    That seemed to come to me;
And many times since then I’ve felt
    Her presence by my side;
Though she is many miles away
    She’s still my loving guide.
The things I learned in chldhood
    Are stamped upon my heart,
And I can still remember
    When she told the wiser part
That Mary chose in Bethany
    Of listening to our Lord,
When Martha, faithful worker,
    Spoke one complaining word.

True, we all must be workers,
    And help the best we can
To do our own little bit on earth;
    But yet the Son of Man
Spoke further, of a finer realm
    Of happiness and love–
An ideal home, like Mother said,
    We’d all live in above;
And Mother always tried to help
    Us understand the way.
That’s why I’m just a child again
    On every Mother’s Day.

Hazel Lewis, 1938




         Treasures of a Modern Tree Farm, Near Our Home

Old logging roads, now beckoning trails
To beauty and calmness of mind;
Dogwood shining among the dark firs,
Pale green maple and alder and pine
    Tiny wood-violets, lilac and golden,
    Pungent fragrance of Indian soap-blooms;
    Star-like blossoms of the wild strawberry
    The tips of the firs are soft plumes;
Huge stumps of old forest giants
A rare little white pine tree–
Birds singing among the green willows,
Bees droning and a wind blowing free;
    Deer tracks lead to a steep dugway
    Down the cliff to the roaring white river,
    Deep-green ferns and mossy-damp stones
    And the sudden cool beings a swift shiver;
Surrounded by towering, wooded hills
And topped by a shining blue sky.
Where the distant jet pilot adds plumey clouds
To the treasures of nature near–by!

June 1963 –  BZ Corners – Hazel Lewis

Political Attitudes Research Insights

     Here are some ideas that have informed my political perspective since my undergraduate college years.  They are based loosely on some post-WWII research by Hans Eysenck, a German-British psychologist.  Eysenck used factor analysis to study political attitudes of persons in a number of countries.  Factor analysis is a statistical technique in which the variability in responses to a wide variety of measures is reduced mathematically to a small number of common factors which explain the majority of the variance in all the measures.  Once identified, these factors are then further analyzed to define them by their relationships to other measures. 
     As I recall (although the literature contains a lot of differing interpretations), Eysenck found only two major factors which accounted for the majority of the variation in political attitudes of his respondents.  The first was a sort of progressive/liberal vs. conservative dimension.  The second dimension was defined as being democratic vs. authoritarian/radical. 
     The first factor, of course is forever being redefined, especially the current perception of what it means to be a liberal.  But it seems to encompass the range of left to right positions in a democracy.
     The second factor seemed largely to differentiate how far a person is willing to go to enforce their views upon others.  This authoritarian/radical end of this continuum is interesting to analyze.  First of all it could represent a danger to democratic forms of government or at its worst, generating even killings or wars.  Interestingly, persons scoring high on authoritarian/radical end this dimension seemed to easily transfer their allegiance on the first dimension.  In other words, it was not uncommon for persons with an authoritarian/radical bent to move from being radical progressives to radical conservatives and vice versa, seemingly to show perhaps that these person are more interested in power than in principle.  We also need to be aware that these dangers exist at bother ends of the progressive/liberal vs. conservative spectrum.  Neither side is immune to radicalization.

Some Reflections on the Search for Truth and Meaning

     The Savior recited a parable about the actions of a seeker for truth upon finding the greatest of all truths, the kingdom of heaven (the Gospel, God's true Church):
               Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:
               Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had,   
           and bought it. (Matthew 13: 45-46)
     There is a short story by 19th century author Nathaniel Hawthorne, called The Great Stone Face.  In a rural valley there is a rock formation in a nearby hill that is imagined, by many locals and visitors, to resemble the shape and features of a human face.  Local folklore includes a prophecy, alleged to descend from the Native Americans, that at some future date a native son would be born whose features would resemble the Great Stone Face.  People would see him and recognize that he was "the greatest and noblest personage of his time." This prophecy inspires an innocent youngster of the valley, Ernest, who feels within himself the quest to help identify or uncover this hero.
     As time passes, the story of the stone face in the glen becomes well known across the entire country.  Other aspire, unlike Ernest, to be recognized as the hero.  One by one, they visit the valley to seek public recognition and acknowledgment of this resemblance.  But each reveals himself to have character flaws that prevent them from fulfilling the conditions of the prophecy, the latest being a writer.
     Meanwhile, Ernest has become a spry but aged man.  He has progressed from being a hill farmer to the position of local lay preacher.  The writer, who (in contrast to the other contestants) frankly acknowledges his failure to fulfill the prophecy, caps his visit to the valley by attending one of Ernest's impromptu sunset sermons.  By popular demand, the congregation has asked Ernest to deliver his sacred remarks from a site at the base of the hill where the worshipers can see the Great Stone Face high above.
     At the conclusion of Ernest's sermon, the face of Ernest assumed a “grandeur of expression, so imbued with benevolence, that the poet, by an irresistible impulse, threw his arms aloft and shouted, 'Behold! Behold! Ernest is himself the likeness of the Great Stone Face!'  Then all the people looked, and saw that what the deep-sighted poet said was true.  The prophecy was fulfilled.  But Ernest, having finished what he had to say, took the poet's arm, and walked slowly homeward, still hoping that some wiser and better man than himself would by and by appear, bearing a resemblance to the GREAT STONE FACE.”
     This story seems to me to contain the message that virtue and goodness we seek may be closer to home than we might realize. 
     Here are some lines by T. S. Eliot about the search for truth and meaning:
               We shall not case from exploration
               And the end of all our exploring
               Will be to arrive where we started
               And know the place for the first time.
     I relate this to some who are tempted to stray from the Gospel, and then search the whole world for meaning and purpose.  Occasionally they come home to the Church, having discovered that this is where they belonged all along, that nowhere else can a person find greater meaning, purpose, hope, and direction for living.