Long Range Snipers

My father was a gunner in the army

Long range snipers

Royal Artillery

Firing shells at enemies

Obliteration game

Damaged hearing in the end

Couldn’t hear the same

 

Verbal salvoes rent the air

We are snipers all

Firing at each other

Shell bursts verbal maul

For us or against us

Time to make your choice

Then come join the mayhem

Add your raucous voice

 

Society fears difference

You must be on my side

If not I cannot tolerate

The gulf is far too wide

Then let us walk together

Have confidence to speak

And willingness to listen

And to learn what others seek

 

Brian Fahy

5 November 2021

 

+ Timothy Radcliffe O.P. reminds us that synodality means walking together side by side, and that today society is riven with sterile culture wars of right and left. People are tempted to live in bubbles of like-minded people, and we have made ourselves unable to tolerate difference. Healthy people have the confidence to speak for themselves and also the humility to open themselves to how and why other people feel and think differently.