The Worth of Tenderness

It seems to be so much easier,

To block everything out.

Not letting anything in,

So self-preservation controls.

It's easy to assume no one cares,

That it's gone all stiff,

Solidifying under pressure,

And becoming an stoic stone.

On the other hand, what would happen,

If in some miraculous manner

Permeation was still in effect?

Such a wondrous difference!

For in its dry sponge-like state,

It's so small, it's practically nothing,

Yet as the emotions pour upon it,

What an extraordinary expanse!

It grows to an impressive size,

Two, three, four times from its original dimension,

Perhaps even larger.

What a difference it makes!

But with its size is an increase of heaviness,

Large and heavy, filled to full potential,

And of course, it weeps,

Oh, how it weeps!

But even in this impressive state,

A presentation of the most beautiful expression,

Gushing out from the very soul!

An intimate and inspiring act to witness!

For even though it saturates all:

The extremely difficult sting of pain,

The exhilaration from those moments of joy,

It's far better than taking in nothing.

In this world, is tenderness worth it?

When any moment could bring it remarkable pain?

It's indeed a difficult journey, requiring courage,

But yes is the final answer, again and again.

Commentary:

Several years ago, I was using an object lesson explaining the difference between a hard heart and a soft heart. In the lesson, I took a rock to symbolize the hard heart, and a sponge to symbolize the soft heart. I had the children pour water over both to see what happened. The hard heart got wet, but otherwise wasn't affected at all, while the soft heart grew and expanded as it took in the water--and it took in a lot of water! After doing the experiment, I found myself not able to verbally explain the lesson, and found it a little frustrating that I couldn't do it properly in the moment, but here I'm able to put some of my thoughts about that demonstration into words. There was far more to my point that I put into the poem, as I was trying to explain how receptive people are to learning and understanding when they allow themselves to receive inspiration, which can be quite vulnerable.

This is by far a reflection of my more positive thinking, since some of my most recent entries have reflected a little bit more on my melancholic state when it sets in. That's just being human. We all have to have some moments of melancholy at some time. But, as I always say, whether melancholic or not: Life is good.