“FIRE and ICE” …by Robert Frost, (1874 - 1963)

"Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire,

I hold with those who favor fire,

But, if I had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.”

I’ve always been moved by this poem and doesn’t it seem to be particularly evocative of our world today?

I understand this as Robert Frost telling us that too much of anything is a bad thing. Desire left unchecked becomes fire and can consume us quickly. Hate, on the other hand, is a much slower killer. It turns us into unfeeling human beings with hearts of ice and we can look forward to death by freezing.

The greed and the lust for power and superiority that we are experiencing in today’s world is exactly what I feel when I read these lines. It seems to be telling me that we’d better learn to live with one another and to share our lives and our resources or we are doomed to pay the consequences.

War...famine...fire or ice ? It matters little...they all suffice.



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