Qoheleth Haiku 4:9-12

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⁹Two are better than one,

because they have a good reward for their toil.

¹⁰For if they fall, one will lift up the other;

but woe to one who is alone and falls

and does not have another to help.

¹¹Again, if two lie together, they keep warm;

but how can one keep warm alone?

¹²And though one might prevail against another,

two will withstand one.

A threefold cord is not quickly broken.

 

Wisdom often lies

In stating the obvious

That we often miss

 

Sharing of labor

Offers opportunity

To meet one’s love need

 

No man an island

We are social animals

We need each other

 

Cooperation

Mutual value affirmation

Community life

 

Give to each other

Time energy protection

And bodily warmth

 

©2013, Qoheleth

 

By design or evolution, we must share our lives with each other.

Qoheleth Haiku 4:7-8

 

http://www.yowzeryowzer.com/2011/12/journey-to-color-anna-guillotte.html

 

⁷ Again, I saw vanity under the sun:

⁸ the case of solitary individuals, without sons or brothers;

yet there is no end to all their toil,

and their eyes are never satisfied with riches.

"For whom am I toiling," they ask,

"and depriving myself of pleasure?"

This also is vanity and an unhappy business.

 

Why are we working

To meet our physical needs

Or satisfy wants

 

Emptiness of wealth

Only known by the wealthy

Others are jealous

 

People need people

People need close connections

Or else life is void

 

Genuine pleasure

In the things that money can buy

Or relationships

 

How we fool ourselves

In material pursuits

Our insanity

 

©2013, Qoheleth

 

Material things serve us best

when we use them primarily to meet physical needs.

Salvation

 http://www.micahray.com/mainblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/single_star.jpg

 

The scene fades to black.

There is nothing left to see.

Those days aren’t coming back;

At least, they’re not for me.

 

Innocence has gone—

With it, the joy and sun.

Every right is wrong,

And life its course has run.

 

Darkness closes in;

And I with laboring breath’

Must answer for my sin:

The consequence is death.

 

In this cul-de-sac,

With no hope of retreat,

Nothing’s left intact,

Suffering defeat.

 

As life ebbs away,

A turning of the tide

Sweeps the beaches clean—

I can no longer hide

 

Suddenly a light,

Finds me cowering there,

Takes me without a fight

Into its healing lair.

 

©2013 Qoheleth

 

When there is no way out, we need deliverance.

 



Qoheleth Haiku 4:5-6

 

 

 https://blogs.emory.edu/parthenonproject/2012/10/21/hello-world/

⁵Fools fold their hands

and consume their own flesh.

⁶Better is a handful with quiet

than two handfuls with toil,

and a chasing after wind.

 

Life best in balance

The golden mean lies between

Too much and too little

 

One who will not work

Cannot meet physical need

Therefore meets no needs

 

Equilibrium

Living life in the middle

Meeting all one’s needs

 

Theory of enough

Avoid greed and hopelessness

Is adequacy

 

Inadequacies

Those who will not work at all

Those who work to much

 

The human psyche

Shaped by cultural context

Chooses the extremes

 
Equilibrium
Exists only a moment
If it is at all

 

 

©2013 Qoheleth



Qoheleth Haiku 4:4

http://marketingforhippies.com/niche-case-study-career-vs-calling/rat-race/

 

⁴ Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work

come from one person's envy of another.

This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

 

Competition spurs

Technology’s attainments

But what does it gain

 

Envy motivates

Increased skill and achievements

Misplaces value

 

Envy indicates

A misunderstanding of

How to meet love need

 

The drive to achieve

Must meet an essential need

Otherwise, it’s vain

 

The race to the top

Attains very little but

A long way to fall

 

©2013 Qoheleth

To get ahead just to get ahead is worse than a hole in the head. 

 



Writer’s Block

 

http://writinghappiness.com/how-to-deal-with-a-writers-block-my-advice-do-nothing/ 

 

I set my mind to wander

Through the wastelands of my soul,

A vast expanse of deserts,

And the terrors that they hold.

 

I set my soul to wander

Through the barrens of my heart,

To the source of emptiness,

No science and no art.

 

I set my heart to wander

Through the badlands of my mind,

Seeking some shred of comfort;

There’s nothing left to find.

 

©2013, Qoheleth



Qoheleth Haiku 4:2-3

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=mjy1s9&s=7

 

² And I thought the dead, who have already died,

more fortunate than the living, who are still alive;

³ but better than both is the one who has not yet been,

and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.

 

To be or not to be

Hamlet’s unresolved question

Qoheleth says NOT

 

To know or not to know

What you don’t know can’t hurt you

Qoheleth’s concept

 

The dead do not know

Anything about their state

They can’t be happy

 

Un-conceived unborn

All things unconceivable

So why the question

 

The state of nonbeing

Being without existence

Virtual being

 

In extreme suffering or depression,

nonbeing seems preferable to being.

 

©2013, Qoheleth

 



Qoheleth Haiku 4:1

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-weight-of-oppression-paulo-zerbato.html

 

¹Again I saw all the oppressions that are practiced under the sun.

Look, the tears of the oppressed--with no one to comfort them!

On the side of their oppressors there was power--with no one to comfort them.

 

One finds it quite strange

That oppressors need comfort

Their greed tortures them

 

Who are the oppressed

The ones power abuses

Usually the poor

 

The disenfranchised

Abused by power elites

Succumb in weakness

 

All social levels

Have the oppressed oppressing

Inside and outside

 

Whom have I oppressed

Whom have I overpowered

Those who trust me most

 

©2012, Qoheleth

 

We sharply criticize those we see as oppressors, when we may be oppressing others ourselves.

 



Elusive Truth

http://aflourishinglife.com/2012/09/listen-up-your-inner-truth-is-speaking-2/

 

See with the eyes of the mind

See through the eyes of the blind

Things that your eyes cannot see

Truth that lies beyond senses

Hiding behind the defences

Of blinded reality

 

Search and you surely will find

Truth that your youth left behind

More than you thought it could be

Unseen due to offenses

Truth God only dispenses

By divine frugality

 

©2013, Qoheleth



Qoheleth Haiku 3:22



http://www.chrislianos.com/the-uncertainty-principle/

²²So I saw that there is nothing better

than that all should enjoy their work, for that is their lot;

who can bring them to see what will be after them?

Live life at its best

Living life in the present

It is all we have

Live in alignment

With God’s design for your life

Meet your needs yields joy

Search for the certain

A task of futility

Ends in frustration

Wise pragmatism

Present empiricism

The most certain thing

More than senses

An absurd reality

The life lived by faith

©2013 Qoheleth