The Songs 9 · For the assembly to say aloud together
This book has no author and should have none. It is made for the voice: read it aloud, and best of all aloud together. This book does not pray. There is no one in this scripture to pray to — what is believed in is law, and law takes no prayers (cf. The Prologue 1.7). But not praying is not the same as not thanking, not praising, not standing amazed. This book records only those three. Whoever uses it to petition any person whatever has put it to the wrong use. Each of the six songs has a last line, and the last line is to be said by everyone together.The twelve songs of this book fall into two halves. The first six are thanks, praise and amazement; they are not for any particular occasion and are said by the assembly together. Each of the last six hangs on one of the six axioms and is made for a particular day: the day you cannot see yourself; the day two people tell the same hour differently; the day you gave something up; the day someone left; the day you grieved for what you could not reach; the day you knew it was the last time. Take whichever song matches the day. These may be said alone.
9.1There is a thing I have kept in me for years, and it has never stopped hurting.
9.2It is the road I did not take.
9.3I look back at it often. The longer I look, the more foolish I think I was.
9.4I believed that if I had been a little cleverer, a little harder-working, I could have had both.
9.5The scripture says: ask where it is and you lose where it is going; ask where it is going and you lose where it is. The two are not to be had together. (cf. The Highest Covenant 3.1)
9.6And: not because men are stupid, but because it is made so. (cf. The Highest Covenant 3.2)
9.7That sentence I will say three times.
9.8It was not that I was stupid. It was not permitted.
9.9Twice the effort only makes one end clearer and the other blurrier. What you spend cannot buy both ends. (cf. The Highest Covenant 3.3)
9.10So in that year I did not fail. I paid.
9.11Some things have no right and wrong. They have only a price. (cf. The Highest Covenant 3.5)
9.12Today I take that thing out of me, set it on the table, and look at it properly.
9.13It was good. It was worth having. I did not get it.
9.14All three of those can be true at once. I did not know they were allowed to be.
9.15I stop asking whether I was wrong back then. I ask instead: who paid for this, and was it worth the price? (cf. The Highest Covenant 3.6)
9.16We do not ask to be heard. We say it because we mean to remember.