Further Thoughts About The Cross….. Gratitude…….Human……
by Bernie Bell - 09:07 on 01 December 2025
Further Thoughts About The Cross…..
All the way through, since seeing The Hidden Cross in the Tankerness House exhibition, the song by Prince has been playing in my head.
Tom’s words on how much saints and a pilgrimage cross would mean to poor people, have prompted me to post Prince’s words – which are about how much the Cross, faith and belief meant and mean to people who have very little in this life…..
The Cross
Black day, stormy night
No love, no hope in sight
Don't cry, he is coming
Don't die without knowing the cross
Ghettos to the left of us
Flowers to the right
There'll be bread for all of us
If we can just bear the cross
Sweet song of salvation
A pregnant mother sings
She lives in starvation
Her children need all that she brings
We all have our problems
Some big, some are small
Soon all of our problems
Will be taken by the cross
Black day, stormy night
No love, no hope in sight
Don't cry for he is coming
Don't die without knowing the cross
Ghettos to the left of us
Flowers to the right
There'll be bread for all, y'all
If we can just, just bear the cross, yeah
We all have our problems
Some are big, some are small
Soon all of our problems, y'all
Will be taken by the cross
The cross
The cross
Prince Rogers Nelson
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Gratitude……
Fraiku: Gratitude
Feels like a bear hug
warmth of a fellow human
you're not alone
(A further expression of gratitude: my thanks to Barbara Leonhard, editor at MasticadoresUSA for publishing one of my dog poems, I dreamt I was walking my dogs under the light of the moons.
https://bartbarkerpoet.com/2025/11/28/fraiku-gratitude-2/
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Human…..
We recently watched the final (recorded) episode of the television series ‘Human’, presented by Ella Al-Shamahi, and I came away with the impression that we lived as Hunter-Gatherers as animals among other animals, predators among predators.
Then humans took to farming, and with that came the ‘This is mine – keep off. That’s yours – and I want that to be mine too’, and the Gittery started. A more settled existence meant more successful breeding, and so more of us to extend the Gittery, until the Gittery has become such that we’re going about it the right way to destroy ourselves as a species.
We can’t go back to being Hunter-Gatherers, but we can try not to be Gits.
Then…I remembered in an earlier episode, Ella telling of a group of Neanderthals who were killed and eaten by a different set of early humans, who wanted their place.
They were the better survivors, and so they survived.
Basically ….Survival = Gittery.
When it comes down to it, we’re Gits, and we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden…
Woodstock
Well, I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, "Tell me, where are you going?"
And this he told me
Said, "I'm going down to Yasgur's Farm
Gonna join in a rock 'n' roll band
Got to get back to the land
Set my soul free"
We are stardust, we are golden
We are billion-year-old carbon
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
Well, then can I walk beside you?
I have come to lose the smog
And I feel myself a cog
In somethin' turning
And maybe it's the time of year
Yes, and maybe it's the time of man
And I don't know who I am
But life is for learning
We are stardust, we are golden
We are billion-year-old carbon
And we got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
We are stardust, we are golden
We are billion-year-old carbon
And we got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere was a song
And a celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bomber jet planes
Riding shotgun in the sky
Turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust, we are golden
We are caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
Joni Mitchell
The Fall of Man – the Loss of Innocence. Cain killed Abel because he was jealous. Is that when the Gittery started? It’s a story, but a story with a strong message – don’t kill your brother because you want what he has. Don’t be a Git, if you can help it.
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