The Quiet Man

This is for the quiet man. Being of like stature and birth as a man I am in a way qualified to comment and favoring myself one to observe keenly I feel free to postulate. If this certain man fears God and lives a life of all that entails then why does he stand in a corner and with a tepid determination decide on inaction? How non-deafening the un-betrothed man who is called to spiritual leadership and bears the scars of his cultures methods of dating. He stands there with a hangdog stare and paralyzed heart. Expected to lead but what of it? Shall he learn a better prayer to tickle ears or shoulder the daily process of personal sanctification of another? The quiet man is lifted to a most mysterious office of mentor, leader, and catalyst. He can hear what the swirling masses around him make known. A whisper of only a season of courtship and a lifetime of bliss beyond, a call that he avoids the institution of courtship all together, a measure of shame that he has not fulfilled their purpose. No theory is the same as the marketplace of ideas floods the man with a hundred ways of how it is to be and drowns him by turning simple addition into a multiplication enigma. With each day the night falls earlier as memories of past failure and unrealized expectations make a pact with fear of hurt and untranslatable protocols. With phone or a knock, with candy or a bouquet? These choices seem as light as a feather when faced with possible rejection or public scorn. What else can we ask of the man than that he keep laying his heart at their doorsteps, how much do we expect of him after he retreats? Oh man what then? Why have you forgotten your joy and lapsed into arrangements of speed and folly? Oh shadow why have you made awkward the simple things and watered down the complex? Husk of what was why have you been passed over by peers and beleaguered by those you favor? We who stand with him know that he is never beyond hopeful anticipation. Can we share this truth with him or do we deepen his mire? Unsure of his role and anxious as time marches he draws himself to his full height and with terrifying power lets loose a most horrific sigh. Blessed it is that he can still glorify his sovereign in spite of his perceived sophomoric handicap. Is not the loneliness penalty enough when love is deferred until a time not known? Do not ask him why he traded a lion for a lamb but instead offer him shelter for nothing speaks louder than hope when a man goes quiet.