How Are You?
Talking, relating; paying attention, face to face, while presenting a steady expression and demeanor - these things are a key to life, according to Shamai in Avot 15:1 (sever/panim/yafot). There's also the saying that silence is a fence to wisdom, as explained by Rabbi Abraham Twerski: When a friend has a problem the temptation is to offer fix-it style advice and if that doesn't work then you're out of there. In such a situation, the precursor to wisdom, is to listen. Then comes true wisdom in the form of being by your friends side with or without words, simply sticking around an other in need can be most profound.These ideas were on my mind, as is often the case, but even more-so than usual, and then I woke up and the first thing I saw was this poem by Robert Frost:
A Time to Talk
When a friend calls to me from the road
A Time to Talk
When a friend calls to me from the road
And slows his horse to a meaning walk,
I don't stand still and look around
On all the hills I haven't hoed,
And shout from where I am, What is it?
No, not as there is a time to talk.
I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,
Blade-end up and five feet tall,
And plod: I go up to the stone wall
For a friendly visit.
g- Robert Frost
posted by rabbi neil fleischmann @ 6:29 AM
2 Comments:
Thank you so much for posting these Frost poems recently. Even when discussing seemingly mundane things, Frost is always profound and meaningful.
Frost's greatness was tricking people into thinking he was all homey and woodsy and earthy and straightforward and simple. While we weren't looked he deep sea dove down into the essence of human existence, relationships, psychology and and and.
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