Practice What We Preach

By John Herlihy

Truth to tell, we don’t always practice what we preach;

Resolving this contradiction seems beyond our reach.

When we are in public, we appear to be so progressive;

We take stands, argue human rights, seem aggressive.

But another, weaker side of us reeks of human frailty;

Our private practices might betray our public morality.

Of course, our voice of conscience knows who we are;

We feel our inner anguish and guilt as near and not far.

We stand up to the injustice of the world, but not our own.

When we are unjust to ourselves, we find it hard to atone.

Moral ambiguity is regressive when we do not play our part;

Inner conflict belies outer calm, enough to break us apart.

I have now made firm resolution to practice what I preach;

Give strength to be true to myself, I do the Divine beseech.

- - - - - -

(c) John Herlihy November 2018