The main text of Alcoholics Anonymous concludes in this way:
"Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny.
May God bless you and keep you - until then."
The American experience of English as it is spoken shows some common things. One of the errors that can easily persist is the substituting of one two letter word for another. "Of" and "to" seem interchangeable in phrases like "the Road of Happy Destiny" but the actual meaning of the phrase shifts in a remarkable way. Hence this poem:
The Road Of Happy Destiny
or, This Is It
The violet strap
falls across my rump as if
to stripe me, mark me
with your discipline,
make me read this book again,
focus on little
two letter words, "of",
not "to" as I trudge the road.
*Happy Destiny*
It's the road "of" I
trudge, (I read) not the road "to" -
what a difference.
February 27, 2011 9:24 PM
I was taught this by my old friend David. David was taught this by his wife, who was a second grade school teacher when she realized the importance of two letter words. It seems I would do well to remember what I learned in second grade more often.
OF happy Destiny
ReplyDeleteI read and
I read
And I read it again
The word never seeming
To stay the same
But the thing is
In black and white
They
Hopefully
Forever
Stay the same
Instead
It is inside
Of me
From where comes
The change
It's a matter
Of prospective
And capacity
In a world
Full of pain
Full of change
Thank god from me
For me
You stayed the same
Never again will I regain
What was lost
With that
Today
I am OK...
Chris McQueeney 2015
In the end we all give way but it's when and how to give. In space near the end of things the light is clear and remote and one drifts powerless and without any possible guile left. All is stripped and movement ceases before thought. As thought slows, drops below light speed to find the interstellar rate after the sun withdraws all ties, it is then that the final truth is wiped clean of all intent and the journey to the stars begins.
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