12th July 2024

While on holiday recently, the phrase, ‘You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars’ cropped up in conversation. If your formative years were the 60s and 70s, you’ll recognise it comes from the Desiderata, or ‘things to be desired’ for a good and well-balanced life. Beloved of the hippy generation, it’s a prose poem created by Max Ehrmann (1872-1945), an American poet, writer and attorney. You may even have once owned a wall poster version!

Reading it again many years later, I’m touched to rediscover its excellent, common sense and wise reflection. The hippy dream of love, peace and universal brotherhood was a worthy one no doubt, but, sadly, it never materialised, bringing disillusionment for quite a few. What was lacking was a realistic understanding of human nature and the way things can go in this world. If they’d read the Desiderata more carefully, they’d have found an approach to life that combined positive optimism with guidance for dealing with the doubts, setbacks and hard times we must all encounter.

If I have any criticism of the poem, it’s that this facing up to life apparently has to emerge from within ourselves. God does get a mention, and we’re to be ‘at peace’ with him, but he’s not necessarily the Christian God. There’s no explicit sense of him supporting and strengthening us through life’s trials and disappointments – more a benevolent presence watching how we do. So, while I’m glad to have been reconnected of the wisdom of the Desiderata, I know I also need the peace of God ‘which surpasses all understanding’ (Phil 4:7).

Ken Stewart