Answer before Listening,

is folly & shame*

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Dear God, please help (& thanks for help so far)

me to learn by enquiry, not spruiking.

In words of James (who’s Jesus’ next brother)

“..be quick to listen, slow to speak a thing,

and slow to anger* (though I might still need

to get angry, but it should take a while)”.

I’m wondering what he meant by using “speed”

words: Does “quick” here mean accent or a style,

or time that’s taken to initiate?

Or does it mean a living kind of thing? -

where movement might be linked to time and state,

as passage through both time and space may bring*,

or else a movement responsive to will -

and ours is not mature, or fit, quite yet,

for ruling worlds. And it won’t be until

we come out of this womb. But then I bet

our training will be solid till we can

be fit to rule the angels - and this world. 

And then we’ll listen better than a man

or woman could today, wherever hurled.

We quickly, even actively, take on

that list’ning mode to ev’ry -thing and -one,

we might ask questions to find out, that shon

some light to help elucidate. Begun,

it might continue (calling for some speech,

but here the speech is secondary stuff)

not as final judgement that might reach

into the past and future, and be tough!

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Footnotes

e* - Proverbs 18:13

r* - (James 1:18-27)

g* - as the ancients considered the planets to be living (wandering) entities, if not metaphors (or icons) for them.

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