The Soul Selects Her Own Society

"The Soul Selects Her Own Society"
---Emily Dickinson


On iTunes, I read the "Nothing Selected" icon
as "Nothing Sacred" and I immediately disagree.

"But music is sacred," I say aloud, arguing
with my damn computer. Then I realize my error

And laugh thinking that entire religions
have been created because of misprints, mis-

Takes, and misappropriated blame. Take Jesus,
for instance. He never said, "It's better to give

Than to receive." Paul said that Jesus said it.
But a reasonable judge would throw out Paul's
testimony

As hearsay, which is cousin to heresy. And I
imagine that plenty of folks would consider
me heretical

For questioning the veracity of Paul, but
really, don't you think that Paul, in a moment

Of self-doubt, when he thought that he was
losing authority, might have misattributed
a quote to Jesus?

If the Son of God was my running buddy,
I'd possibly begin every anecdote, psalm,
and dirty joke

With "And then Jesus told me..." It just
adds that extra juice, you know?

In my poems, I have given quotes
to my wife for dramatic purposes, and
her response

Is always, "I never said that," followed
by laughter or a sigh, depending on her mood.
The only commandment

I have to deliver is: Writers should not
marry their believers. But that's all
tangential. What I want

To say is this: The world was not sacred in
its creation. And it's only sacred in parts.
Take, for instance,

A song like PJ Harvey's "To Bring You My Love,"
a blues dirge, which is playing now on my iPod.

It's a gorgeous song, filled with love and lust.
I think it is sacred. But I have to think that

Because I selected it. And if it isn't sacred--
if you download it and think it's only a
rock song--

Then I am guilty of bad taste and worse
theology and will become yet another
unreliable narrator.

Does the world need one more unreliable
narrator? Well, Jesus told me that faith
and doubt are twins.

Do you understand that paradox?
Can you live with it? Can you believe in
a messiah who preaches in oxymorons?


Sherman Alexie

from his book FACE.