The Right To Folly
For Brother John Sansone

The doctors said four months,
Maybe six.
But he wouldn’t believe them.
Forget the tests he said.
They wouldn’t matter anyway.

He was healing,
God would intervene he said
As he writhed in pain while
Refusing the medications
That might have given

Some relief. Until finally
His resistance was shattered
By agony too great to fight,
And still his belief in angels
And saints filled his sails.

We questioned him,
Held him accountable
For our judgments
Until he finally threatened
To walk away.

All his life he had longed for
Acknowledgement and acceptance
From his father,
From his family,
From his friends,

From us, his Spirit Brothers.
In the end he demanded
His Right To Folly
And we gave it to him.
Grudgingly perhaps

But respectfully nevertheless.
The Deep Stillness told me
That the cause of depression
Is the death of hope,
The loss of tomorrow.

Our dying brother
Never gave up,
Never abandoned tomorrow
Even though his folly
Was plain enough for all of us

To see. Even at the end
When he knew there were
Only hours left,
He still hung on
To that elusive miracle.

Now I look around and wonder
Who amongst us finds
Themselves in need
Of  the redemption found
In that Sacred Right To Folly.

Scott DuRoff 7/27/2013