Thither Are My Sorrows (VERSE)
Concepcion, M. de Gracia
October 9, I929 THE COMMONWEAL 587 repeal it cannot secure has but two alternatives, supine submission or nullification. Of course, nullificaton as a welbestablished Anglo-American...
...Thither Are My Sorrows The sparrows are again flying with the north wind, While summer is done with its wasteful laughter-And the silver sound of my youth's offering, I hear it glide along unto the vale of the unknown...
...Of course, nullificaton as a welbestablished Anglo-American institution has an excellent pedigree...
...How about transplanting tender little things in a fine mist of rain...
...Will the commission of experts save the country from an impasse greater than any since that which led to the Civil War, by a report declaring unenforceable all law opposed as this legislation is...
...I recopy the mutilated list, and take it up to Reverend Mother...
...Let our lawmakers beware lest they legislate our fair land to destruction...
...IN A CONVENT GARDEN By A MARYKNOLL SISTER ESIDES converting heathen and studying two languages and taking care of rabbits, I am the gardener for our house...
...Holy Church teaches that it is a grievous wrong wilfully to disbelieve statements contained in Holy Writ, and never had I any impulse to think them otherwise than Gospel truth...
...An equal share of blame attaches to the majority which, in the face of the sincere and persistent opposition of a formidable minority, refuses to consider a reasonable modification of the law in question...
...It is indicative of political courage, but such courage is worthy of a better cause...
...To enforce this legislation in the face of the demonstrated numerical and qualitative opposition is not an act of statesmanship and patriotism, but of narrow politics and zealotry...
...And shuddering over the wiggly worms as I do so, and smelling the brown earth fresh and grateful to God for the cool and spreading sweetness of rain ? And knowing that every tiny plant will stand sturdily on its feet and thrive lustily, having got its start in life under such circumstances ? Then, there is the watching for the first blossom on a new variety...
...Nullification of bad law breeds the habit of disrespect for all law, and disrespect for all law presages the end of political organization for the preservation of which we make law...
...Now, every gardener must have a garden...
...October 9, I929 THE COMMONWEAL 587 repeal it cannot secure has but two alternatives, supine submission or nullification...
...They begin with seed catalogues...
...I shall never dare to show such a list to Reverend Mother...
...M. DE GRACIA CONCEPCION...
...A nation habitually flouting the obligations of its formal law, or enforcing objectionable law upon an unwilling minority without regard for sensibilities and consequences, will slowly but surely descend to that point of disintegration where it will cease to be a political unit fit to maintain itself against its more self-respecting neighbors...
...Anehusa--h'm, let me see---well, I can do without the small one, but I must have the big Dropmore one...
...Where russet /eaves are blown never to return ; Where sighs of the golden poplars are held Breathless and alone-Thither, entwined with the mystic weave of night, Have my sorrows flown...
...After all, as an extra-legal procedure, nullification is not without serious consequences for the political integrity of the group...
...I say nothing--no, not one word do I say...
...But some innate quality in my simplicity leads me to accept likewise descriptions in seed catalogues, and I swallow them all whole, blissfully and trustfully...
...I don't know, and most likely theology is dead against me, but I am sure I have a number of them...
...And guiltily conscious in my heart of hearts that I scarcely have room for a dozen in my tiny plot, I reduce it to fifteen (including the colored Aretotis...
...She will never know till the great day that my original list numbered 253...
...I shall die without it...
...Cost, $x6.82...
...Tu autem Domine miserere nostri," says the Sister Reader...
...At last, scanning the closely written sheets of paper, I count the items, and find that I have just 253 kinds of flowers marked down, to say nothing of vegetables...
...If not, conscientious parents must view with grave apprehension the future of the country in which their children and children's children are expected to find their earthly happiness...
...The present temper of both proponents and opponents of the existing prohibition laws being what it is, there is no hope of a modification acceptable to both...
...Thus my list grows, and grows, and grows...
...At last it is reduced by about half...
...Reduced at last, to fifty items...
...Boil down that list to a dozen or so, and then send it...
...I have ordered blue flowers by the dozen, only to have them turn out a deadly purple or a sickly lavender...
...How can one have more than one predominating passion...
...Aretotis--I have seed of the white ones from my own plants last year, but here is a new kind--all colors, with black centre--at a terribly stiff price1 But Aretotis does so well in our garden, and looks so well on the altar--and a colored one, with black centre l So it goes down the list, heartbreakingiy...
...And my garden space is about the size of the front porch where my mother used to sit and gossip over her crocheting...
...Then, in an excess of cruelty, I go over the list again, dosing my eyes, and ruthlessly drawing my pencil through this one and that one and yet another one...
...All during breakfast, while the venerable rule of Saint Augustine is being read aloud, I am nursing the profane intention of slipping out immediately--oh, sooner than immediately, if possible--to see what progress that scabiouse bud has made during the night...
...Nor will the responsibility for its eventual degradation rest entirely or even primarily upon those who refuse to obey objectionable law...
...So I go over my lists and cross out the things I feel that I can live without...
...That is a severe necessity, and Reverend Mother, seeing my great need, nods and smiles indulgently on my follies and indiscretions...
...But, my dear child, she says--where will you ever put fifty kinds of flowers...
...If Ryder's holds forth on the beauty of a new blue cineraria, what can I do but gape and sigh, and mark it down on my list ? If Burpee's elaborates on a blood-red zinnia with twisted petals--I must have it, that is all...
...But ordering seeds is only one predominating passion...
Vol. 10 • October 1929 • No. 23
