Rudyard Kipling's 'The Gods of the Copybook Headings'

Doc Noebel read this today to the staff. I found it an excellent poem for today's times. Just as a note, I should point out that Copybook Headings were on the top of students' pages in schools, and they often contained verses of the Bible.

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,

Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

Into the first Session

I love my job. I'm on the night watch at Summit, hence my early morning entry. I stay up all night patrolling the grounds every now and then as well as other nightly duties. I sleep during the morning and miss the morning lectures, but so do staff doing morning kitchen, domestics, or maintenance. Basically, all my work time is during time when students are asleep, and my sleep time is when they're in class. Thus, I have all afternoon and evening to hang out with them.

I'm having a great time getting to know students. Today had some great discussions on the porch with another staffer and a few students. The discussion centered on determinism from a materialistic worldview and whether we have free will. I had another discussion with a student later where he was asking about multiverse theory and Richard Dawkins' arguments on the probability of this world coming about with such fine tuning.

We also had Dr. Francis Beckwith in today who spoke on bioethics, law in America and state-neutrality. The man has an MA in law and a Ph.D in philosophy. Gotta love the mix of legal and philo-talk. Margaret really appreciated him, and I think he was her favorite speaker so far. We had a very fun open forum today; many students asked good questions concerning God's will, abortion, and (for the first time in three years, Beckwith said) his Roman Catholicism. He handled the question very well, eventually telling the student that he can read his book, "Return to Rome." One of the funniest moments was when the student asked "What must I do to be saved?" Beckwith responded, "Nothing. You don't do anything for your salvation." That threw the kid for a loop.

Afterward, I got to spend about half an hour chatting with Dr. Beckwith and Chuck Edwards on the porch. It was really neat, just chatting with these two men about the world and various doctrines. It was truly great fun, and I appreciated the casual setting.

At around 9:30 pm, some of the staff and I went on a night hike up Red Mountain and then ran back; it was a blast. The staff here are well chosen. I know it sounds vane to say, but I truly mean it. This is especially true of the higher administrational staff like Jen, Judson and Dustin. They all do a great job here, and it's an honour having them as coworkers.

I love this job. The fun discussion reminds me of the time in Summit Oxford. True, it's not the same since Nik, Kevin and Daniel aren't here to take the philosophical discussions into really rough territory, but it's still great.

Well, it's about time for me to go. A bit more duty calls, and then sleep.

Day two at Summit

Well, I'm here at the Summit, here in Manitou Springs, CO. For those who don't know what the Summit is, the website is available here.

Our first day, I missed, but that ended up being intros on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. I arrived just in the middle of lunch. That afternoon we cleaned up the hotel and prepared for the students' arrival. That evening, we sang some worship songs and got to know each other. There's a lot of neat staff people here. Judson, Dustin and Russell I remembered from when I was here two years ago. Stephen Sutherland, one of the staff here was with me back at Session 3 of 2007. I'm already making friends and plan to have a great two months.

This morning was wonderful. Eric Smith lead us in group discussion about the importance of love in the Christian life. Many times in discussion, Christians can make the Christian walk sappy and dulled down by focusing on love. This, however, convicted me on how we live. He brought up the story of a pastor whose daughter was killed by a drunk driver and how the father petitioned for a lenient sentence for the man after forgiving him. We considered how we love one another as fellow believers and whether we show agape love to non-believers. How often do we truly love our enemies or those who persecute us? I know that for me, the answer is hardly ever.

There's really great people here. One guy I've really connected with is Brian Genda. He went to Oxford before I did, but not with Summit. He and I have had intense discussions already on the problem of pain, theistic evolution, God's sovereignty, whether the "goodness" of music lies only in lyrics, church heresy, and, well you get the idea. He's actually not staffing this Summer, and he'll likely leave this week. It's really a shame. Hopefully, we'll be able to meet up again in the future.

We're about to take a staff photo, so I really must go soon. I wish I could spend more time on these entries. Perhaps in the future, I shall spend more time and put in a brilliant piece of cultural criticism. Till then...