James Muir © All Rights Reserved.
20″ H
edition 9
“What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us. What we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal -therein lies true Good Shepherd.”
James Nathan Muir
“Going to war was the only unselfish thing I ever did for humanity. I hated it. Detested it. Loathed it.”
David Niven – Actor
Capt. British Commander WWII
“A parable in bronze of the “Good Shepherd” who, having ninety and nine of his one hundred sheep safely gathered within the fold, yet ventured out again to recover the last one still “lost in the Wilderness.”
In this “HOPI” version, the old shepherd, like the classical “Diogenes” of yore with his lantern alight and his faithful “Hound of Heaven” – the “Shadow Wolf”, relentlessly pursue the one errant, wayward, lamb. The little black sheep, in its rebellious and self-misguided wanderings, has slipped on the treacherous ground and fallen headlong into the “shadowy valley of men” – the chasmed fears of the Abyss. Yet, tracking in “unhurrying chase and unperturbed pace,” with footfalls of both man and “bruit”, the Good Shepherd, in sheepskin boots and lambskin gloves, knows full-well the pitfalls besetting those of his flock that become “lost” in straying too far from the straight and narrow Path.
“Loma Lalai Take” – the Good Shepherd, knows better than all – “that none shall be lost”
Personal Note:
Inveterate thespian that I am, in conceiving this piece, I remembered from years ago playing “Diogenes”, a small bit part, in a High School play. Still fresh in the recesses of my mind was his primary line of “this is my dog and this is my lantern.” The role called for my repeating that line three times with increasing frustration, as the gathering of people I was addressing were volubly not listening to me in my sincere efforts to be heard and kept cutting me off.
How curious it is, when we look back over the labyrinth pathways of our lives that, if we truly “see” and “listen” with our Hearts, as well as our Minds, we can often times recognize the interconnected patterns, if not serendipity, in that which we thought to be a discordant maze. How many have been, and are, those “starry, starry nights” when we were not listening, when we’re not listening still – perhaps we never will or perhaps we simply don’t know how.
Perhaps even that same “Diogenes” – the Good Shepherd of old and his “Hound,” unshakeable in their pursuit will yet find us in the Lantern Light and we’ll listen, now!
“RISE 7 RISE AGAIN
UNTIL LAMBS BECOME LIONS”
Robin Hood
James Muir © All Rights Reserved.