Friday, August 16, 2013

598 : Donning the Familiar


Three Word Wednesday requires participants
to use the three words of the week in a composition.
The words this week were Regulate, Habitual and Distraught.


Donning the Familiar

It is easy to slip into the familiar,
To don the well-known and the well worn,
Like a warm fleecy slipper;
The tyranny of the habitual.
The dulling comfort of the routine.

In such a way we regulate our lives,
Control what comes in, 
Control what goes out,
Embraced and enrobed
In the soft, warm gown of the known,
Never to meet the alternative,
The harsh and rough vestments 
Of doubt and learning.
Never to encounter the coarse 
Fabric of the unfamiliar
And the uncomfortable.
No, we retreat into secure, wrapped
In the soft Terri towel of the certainty
That only ignorance can bring.

Should we stop to think?
Stop to question the orthodoxy
Of our views, 
Inherited and embraced,
In their iron-clad entirety.
We run the real risk of—
Of what?

What are we afraid of?

Would questioning leave us distraught?
Floundering, unable to touch the bottom
Of the paddling-pool of life?
Confused, wondering what to believe?

Yes, probably.
.
---
© J Cosmo Newbery 2013
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14 comments:

  1. I agree..an unexamined life is not worth living says Socrates.Also anyone who is so spiritually bereft and imaginatively limited who believes that all truth must be scientifically proven needs to have a conversation with a cat, preferably one not stuffed into a toilet roll, read CS Lewis and study philosophy for starters.

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  2. So true this happens often. There is comfort in the familiar... but taking a leap of faith can be so rewarding.

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  3. Sometimes I feel I'm treading water...'tis those moments the warmth of an embrace given without words or explanation would be most welcome.

    Wonderfully expressed..

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  4. Thank you. Some days I am frantically treading water, and others I am floating. The difference? My attitude. Which I need to remember.

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  5. Doesn't the familiar give you the launching platform for stretching outside the comfort zone you can return to and cozy up in? Treading water keeps you stuck too. Swim with purpose or float and land up God knows where!

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  6. "the coarse
    Fabric of the unfamiliar
    And the uncomfortable" against
    the "soft Terri towel" of certainty

    - oh definitely the former, please - life isn't really meant to be comfortable, is it? but what a comfy nook of life that cat has found for herself... awesome pic

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  7. "They" say control is an illusion...so much is out of our hands, but you are right. We try.

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  8. I think you are right...we are all used to the 'familiar.'

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  9. Ha, love the "paddling pool of life". I hear you!!

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  10. i agree.. we wrap ourselves in the familiar, and everything else is just wrong :)

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  11. Your tone in the poem is so serious, and your approach very intellectual - I love the peek we have at your humour in the choice of picture.

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  12. this, especially, JCN:

    "The harsh and rough vestments
    Of doubt and learning."

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  13. game of pitch and toss is only for the adventurous ...nice lines.

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  14. So true...the realism of life is ignorance. Love the photo...peeking with sad eyes.

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