First Things RSS Feed - N. E. Dunkle https://www.firstthings.com/author/n-e-dunkle en-us Copyright 2025 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:55:02 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/n-e-dunkle 60 Winter Concert https://www.firstthings.com/article/2011/12/winter-concert https://www.firstthings.com/article/2011/12/winter-concert Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500 At St. Progressive University
We toil to demonstrate diversity.
Before our concert, let me tell you how
We come to sing of winter solstice now
Instead of Christmas as we did until
Three students asked that ash tree Yggdrasil
Be raised beside each lighted Christmas tree
To show respect to Norse mythology.
So now you can feel safe; there’s nothing here
Denoting Advent or the Christian year.
Progressive is the light, and we have seen it;
We still hum Christmas tunes, but we don’t mean it.

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]]> If All Is Relative https://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/08/if-all-is-relative https://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/08/if-all-is-relative Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0400 An interrogative:
If all is relative,
And truth (like time and space)
Has no fixed thought or place
Where God has said, “Be still,”
Why can’t I simply will
That truth be as it seems
In all my ego-schemes?
So, spinning on my heel,
I’ll deem this cosmic wheel-
The whole, not some few stars,
But galaxies as far as
Light itself extends
Or human thought ascends-
May be just what I see,
One vast complexity
All orbiting round me!

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