Relative Everything, Meaningful Nothing

I originally wrote the following poem after (as it says) attending a large convention of professional educators in Chicago some years ago. It's still meaningful to me, as I contemplate a culture that wants to create everything in its own image, and in doing so, loses any definitive meaning.  We live in a culture that overflows with words, but (possibly, at least) says very little.  So from out of the past, here are some "reflections."  The Ferocious Love that answers is still answering...  who's listening?

Reflections on a Big Meeting

(c) Erik Ritschard April 2000

You can feel the mental energy: intellects

Taking off on sudden flights of

Fancy, wheeling and soaring carelessly,

Or purposefully, delighting in the

Intoxication of a mind well-tuned,

Comprehending great ideas and high ideals,

As the delegates swirl in well-ordered

Confusion from one session to another.

Trouble is, most of it doesn’t mean anything.

Oh, the delegates will return

To their respective places

And positions with renewed determination

To Become Significant, but to what end?

One here said, “We must save the planet.” 

Why? While in all the prattle the pretensions

Of relative everything are carried forward

And promoted with such fervor,

No one speaks to the Ultimate Why.

The gods of this particular association do not like why –

At least not Ultimate Why.  How and When are easier

And much more comfortable than

The deep Why that would shake the sandy underpinnings.

Why is painted over with careful word-strokes that seem

To capture everything while saying nothing,

And the delegates depart without

Seeing that the Ferocious Love that answers has gone

Unrecognized and unnoticed.  Why?