Faith

You know each has faith at core,

Nothing we do without assurance,

Without belief as feet hit the floor,

Won’t venture out front entrance.

I say yes, faith is real, not at all fake,

But not exactly a hundred percent —

We measure the risk that we must take,

And danger we hope will be absent.

We believe we can step out our door,

Without experiencing undue alarm,

Yet we know from recent historic lore,

Attacks may deal severe harm.

We just know the chances are good

That bad things happening are rare,

Unless it’s Iraq or down in the ‘hood,

We’re just fine breathing fresh air.

Without faith we’d never sit in a car,

For they have been known to explode,

Everyone to kill or burn and char,

We flinch to recall episode.

But we have faith that all is quite fine,

So we get in and drive on our way,

Knowing full well that time after time,

Cars wreck and take lives away.

We drive faster than we can brake,

If a bridge were out without warning,

But river we’ve crossed, for pity’s sake,

In traffic each evening and morning.

So we have faith the bridge is still there,

And it’s fully paved on the highway,

Ohio River bridge outage — despair*,

Yet we arrive at our job for the day.

We spend effort with faith in employers

They’ll pay our wage for time in toil,

Yet Enron story assails — their lawyers,

Whom efforts at recompense did foil.

Finishing our chore, we head for the store,

To pick up food we have faith is edible,

But with headlines of Mad Cows galore

And global viruses more spreadable —

Some doubt in our mind edges a fright,

We don’t know the source of our food,

Wonder if it’s been refrigerated right,

Or handled in ways that are rude.

Still our faith wins out, without a doubt,

For how else will our family be fed,

So we trust the chicken and sour kraut,

And drive the fears from our head.

We have faith in our spouse, no doubt,

That all day was spent true blue,

But divorce statistics have their clout,

It gives a little something to chew.

Ah, but it’s wonderful just being alive,

To be on earth is the greatest worth.

Faith we derive, and some will survive

To old age, their beliefs held since birth.

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* A few years ago a bridge across the Ohio River collapsed and dumped many people and vehicles into the water. I don't know if there ever was an accurate count of the lost.