{"id":71459,"date":"2020-06-27T21:03:33","date_gmt":"2020-06-28T01:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=71459"},"modified":"2020-06-27T21:03:33","modified_gmt":"2020-06-28T01:03:33","slug":"blessed-are-the-thinkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/blessed-are-the-thinkers\/","title":{"rendered":"Blessed Are the Thinkers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI always knew I\u2019d be preaching to the choir.\u201d<br \/>\nJohn Lithgow<\/p>\n<p>Firstborn daughter<br \/>\nof two preachers,<br \/>\nI was groomed to follow<br \/>\nthe family tradition.<\/p>\n<p>I sang on stage when I was three.<br \/>\nBy four, I was picking out songs<br \/>\non mama\u2019s piano.<br \/>\nIf only they hadn\u2019t taught me<br \/>\nto be a critical thinker,<br \/>\nit might have happened,<br \/>\nI might have been an evangelist<br \/>\nlike Mom and her sister, Bonnie.<\/p>\n<p>I might have been a pastor,<br \/>\nlike Dad.<\/p>\n<p>Comfortable on stage,<br \/>\na mighty voice,<br \/>\nlover of words,<br \/>\nbut some of those stories<br \/>\njust didn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d ask questions,<br \/>\nand I wasn\u2019t always comfortable with the answers.<br \/>\nI preferred logic to magic,<br \/>\nbelieved faith required proof.<\/p>\n<p>I knew I was a disappointment,<br \/>\nthe discordant voice in the family choir.<\/p>\n<p>Even so, I think I followed their footsteps,<br \/>\nministering<br \/>\nto students instead of parishioners,<br \/>\npreaching<br \/>\nthe importance of thinking for oneself,<\/p>\n<p>I want people to find heaven on earth,<br \/>\nto be accepted for who they are.<\/p>\n<p>Kindness and love are holy enough for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI always knew I\u2019d be preaching to the choir.\u201d John Lithgow Firstborn daughter of two preachers, I was groomed to follow the family tradition. I sang on stage when I was three. By four, I was picking out songs on mama\u2019s piano. If only they&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":665,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/665"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71505,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71459\/revisions\/71505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}