the Seems Like God blog,
by David Keating

Desiderata - No Doubt

July 7, 2008

You are a child of the universe,
No less than the tress and the stars,
You have a right to be here.
- Desiderata, Max Ehrman, 1927

I’ve always loved that poem. The first time I heard it, Vincent Price was performing it to the accompaniment of a choir on the Carol Burnett show. (Hands up all of you who watched Carol Burnett.) There are lots of versions of course. Several are on YouTube. I heartily recommend giving them a listen.

One in particular caught my attention.

We spend a lot of time criticizing young folks. It’s a generational hazard I think; a pattern eternally repeated. I remember clearly that when I was a teen those old fogies in their fifties and sixties didn’t think much of our dressed up panel vans with eight tracks blaring out of rolled down windows. We were obviously out of control. What was the world coming to?

And whether or not it is clear to you;
No doubt the universe is unfolding as it should

I was thinking about that the other night when I was sitting on a friend’s patio. He lives by the water and we could clearly hear the sounds of a rather boisterous party across the way and downstream. School, as Alice Cooper said, is out for summer.

The party noises steered the conversation into a discussion of "those young people". And to an American news story about a group of teenage girls who apparently had a pact to become pregnant. This, according to a serious faced news commentator, was a result of the corrupting influence of TV and movies that failed to make it a "sin" for teenagers to have a baby.

I don't recommend anyone having a child until they're as prepared as possible for the lifetime commitment of parenthood. However, isn't it better to consider pregnancy as a normal, blessed, even sacred event than to whisk our daughters off to "Aunt Mary's" to "help out" for nine months?

No, it isn't always clear to me that the universe is unfolding as it should. In fact, there are times when it seems more like a train running down hill full tilt with no brakes. Those are the times when I have to remind myself that even when the ride's a bit rocky, the train is still on the tracks.

I think we sometimes believe that God is supposed to not only guide the universe, but should keep us from feeling any of the bumps in the road as well.

God however, seems to have left it up to us to make each other comfortable on the way. Sometimes that's a little discouraging. Then I happen across someone who not only wasn't born when Ehrman penned Desiderata in 1927, but who never experienced the decade that made its words a cultural anthem. And I see her reading the lines that moved me decades ago. And I see them moving her as well.

And I am encouraged.

I think I’ll let Ehrman have the last word -

Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams;
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Indeed.

David Keating