Sandmen

Sandmen:

I've added a new link over in the "Other Halls" section. It's to a blog called My Sandmen, which I discovered only today.

One of the writers there has the pen of a Psalmist.

Victory has been liberated. Her face shines again now. It is humble and benevolent in the light of commensurate respect... yet fiercely resolute when the dark stain of threat soils her tranquility.

A newborn spirit facing ageless horror...

Victory destroys perfidy.
It challenges obstinance.
It terrifies those forsaken.
It detests appeasement.
It is ruthlessly patient.
It is brutally efficient.
It yields mercy to the vanquished.
It vindicates the heroes.
It rewards constitution,
And lends courage to generations.

A Psalm to Victory, who -- as we were discussing just a few days ago -- was known in Greek as Athena, Odysseus' only friend.

"Odysseus," you may not know, means "The Man of Trouble." In the Greek, it is not clear whether he suffers trouble, or causes them. In the poems, he does both.

The psalm is not a mode we often see, any more. The few who can still write them, I admire. It takes a purity and certainty of belief that is rarely to be found.

God of gold and flaming glass,
Confregit potentias
Acrcuum, scutum, Gorlias,
Gladium et bellum.

Such a prayer is only answered for a time. For that reason, we still forge swordsmen.

It happens that the fellow has a post on that, too. It cites Ayn Rand, with whom I'm not in the habit of agreeing. This time, I find that I do.

West Point has given America a long line of heroes, known and unknown. You, this year's graduates, have a glorious tradition to carry on -- which I admire profoundly, not because it is a tradition, but because it is glorious.

Well and truly spoken. Welcome to the Sandmen, who are encouraged to drop by more often.