TOLERANCE | DECEMBER 18, 2019

Not in Our Stars—A Holiday Entreaty

As days pass by and disappear

We fast approach another year,

The last 12 months we pause to weigh

And estimate the progress made;

Have all our dreams for happier days

Grown closer, or more far away?

Did we our destinies fulfill

Or were we simply standing still?

Perusing all that we’ve been through

presents us this disturbing view:

Our vexing problems still persist!

It’s harder now just to exist!

We seek one to emancipate us,

Free and soothe and extricate us.

Who will, we ask, come from the throng,

To ease our every suffered wrong?

Lawyer, judge, or legislator,

Red state or blue, decline-to-stater,

Famous faces and unknowns,

Influencers with their phones,

Leaders and followers of all classes,

(That beast the Marxist called “the masses”)

Sit on the side and wait nonplussed,

And scan horizons for the dust.

Agnostic, atheist, disbeliever,

Pundit, apostate, deceiver,

They who criticize and skewer

Await in vain a bold rescuer,

Some fancied, nonexistent knight

To crush all wrongs and foster right.

Whom shall we anticipate

To come and lead us from our fate?

It may seem mere calumny,

The answer’s always thee and me.

Buddhist, Mormon, Sikh or Jew,

The solution lies in me and you.

No billionaire philanthropist

Will end our strife; there’s only us.

Don’t ask for whom that bell has rung;

You heard it? It’s your lookout, son.

It’s tempting to await salvation

Of someone else’s own causation,

It’s always easier, in the end

Upon oneself to most depend.

Blame cannot brighten freedom’s glow;

Complaints as well we should forego.

Please pardon if I must remind,

The burden’s always mine and thine.

And, if we to this truth adhere

When we look back again next year

How much closer it will seem

We’ve journeyed toward our hoped-for dream.

KEYWORDS

AUTHOR

Jim Meskimen

Jim Meskimen is an actor, director, impressionist and YouTube personality. He comes from a show-business family; his mom is actress Marion Ross, who portrayed “Mrs. C” on Happy Days. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Tamra and daughter Taylor who are also actresses and voice artists.

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