Dividend

What do you do

when complementary

is not at all complimentary;

when the conversation

reveals diversified opinion,

and the rift threatens

to become a continental divide?

What is the common core

that can hold us together;

the knot that can

keep us from unraveling?

Hope placed in anything less

than the self of God,

faith raised in anything but

divine mystery's recipe,

cannot withstand life's storms.

A willingness to recognize

our own personal shortcomings;

an openness to learn the stories

of those who feel mostly "other";

these are the threads

that weave us together

into the drama that will

one day become a narrative

of unconditional love.

© 2014 Todd Jenkins