The poem details the wake of woman, who lies under a sheet, On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.If her horny feet protrude, they come... all the while nieghbors and relatives gather
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.Let the wenches dawdle in such dress As they are used to wear, and let the boys Bring flowers in last month's newspapers. They didn't even have the decency to bring her funeral bouqets in vases, but instead brought them in old newspapers. The lady's body lies dumb, while the guests enjoy themselves on ice cream. The young ladies dwadle and flirt with the boys -all of them ignoring the dead woman and what she represents.

 

What we call the West has been on a kind of death watch for decades. Some believe the West died in blood soaked fields of Flanders; while others, said the West died behind the barbed wires of Birkenau. What little legacy that remained continued on in the 2 or 3 generations of Americans who continued to transmit (in an ever thin veneer) to thier children. But what of that legacy? The thoughts, feelings, and consciousness of Americans in 1938 are a far cry from what we know and feel today. Tradition, no matter what the Buchanans and Reagans of America say otherwise, had a very shallow foothold in this nation of ours. For decades we were a nation of pure becoming -very little inclination to look back. Most Americans were always moving forward as they ran from thier past. I can still remember reading about Nixon's Quaker parents. They originated from that pious colonial stock that ran from tyranny, and eventually moved to Fort Wayne Indiana before settling in California. These people, children of the European bloodbaths, fleed Europe and its oppression only to settle in a land that was indifferent to thier plight. Within 3 generations the US did what no European King or Papist could ever do - cause thier religious community to become extinct. Orginally, the Founders attempted to water down relifious passions with economic and civic activities. Thier assumption was that the citizenry would always retain the Christian Zeigeist in the face of a plurisitc society. All religions were welcome. This tolerance wasn't just a pie-in-the-sky sentiment, but was the results of clear hard thinking. Europe was just beginning to recover from the disasterous Thirty Years War (which witnessed the near total destruction of Central Europe). The memories of charnal houses and mass grave still haunted thier memories.

 

What evolved was not luke warm Christianity, of which the prophets warned, but its wholesale destruction. Protestant ministers now talk of sustainable energy instead of Heavan and Hell; Catholic Bishops decry pollution and the lack of gay rights. Children and grand children are raised on the thin gruel of diversity and empty tolerance. And traditionalists are branded with that most effective label - they are simply called Insane. With each passing year our ability to fight off would be oppressors, buffoons, and civic messiahs weakens. The coming of President Obama is only a symptom of what ails us.

 

But one only has to look to Europe to see our future. The Europeans are much farther along. Comfortable, genteel, and childless, the Europeans simply are dieing off. Thier legacy is about gone, and like the passengers on the Titanic they arrange the deck chairs of thier sinking ship. Thier souls are barren; they rejected the mystic chords of Tradition for  the pleasures of the moment. But there is a new, darker future in store for them. A wise man once said, "Nature Abhors a Vaccum". An Islam is just the cure. Like the Quakers of the 19th and early 20th Century, the Christian worldview is an extinguishing its light.

 

So, as we gather around the corpse and indulge in our pleasures, will anyone of us look upon the "horny feet" of the deceased and let the lamp light affix its beam?