The power and the inglorius

As America’s new Potentate, President Obama and his entourage of 500 travel around the globe, let’s keep in mind the power and the inglorious. Also, let’s read some inspiring, golden gems of thought from word masters of the past reflecting upon the here and hereafter.

"Sublime sorrow, sublime reconciliation; oldest choral melody as of the heart of mankind," is Thomas Carlyle’s assessment of the Book of Job in the Old Testament.

"When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six hundred years ago I consider that great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries and make our appearance together," is Joseph Addison’s reflection on the tombs and epitaphs of the dead in Westminster Abbey.

"I can not help turning my attention sometimes to this subject, how mankind may be connected like one great family, in fraternal ties." ... The period is not very remote when the benefits of a liberal and free commerce will pretty generally succeed to end the devastations and horrors of war," is George Washington’s rumination about the brotherhood of man.

"The only true independence is in humility; for the humble man exacts nothing and can not be mortified - expects nothing, and can not be disappointed. Humility is a healing virtue; it will cicatrize a thousand wounds, which pride would keep forever open. But humility is not the virtue of a fool; since it is not consequent upon any comparison between ourselves and others, but between what we are and what we ought to be - which no man ever was," is from Washington Allston.

From these 4 selections we learn that only the righteous in life like Job will achieve glory after death. Heaven is their ultimate meeting place. Doing good justifies the brotherhood of men. The humble shall be recognized and honored by their God. Where are the power and inglorious? Afoot in the reign of Ubermensch Obama, they count for naught in the ultimate scheme of things.