Today at Sunridge I concluded my Game of Life series with a message entitled Trivial Pursuit.  I planned to begin the message by telling the story of a poem published in the March 25, 1939 edition of the Saturday Evening Post.  My wife Robin reads my manuscript every Saturday, and she rarely suggests major changes.  But yesterday she said to me, “Honey, you need a different introduction.”  I have learned to never ignore her advice, so I cut the story out.

But thanks to my “Leftovers” page, I get to tell you about the deleted scene that I left on the editing room floor. 

The poem, “The Night They Burned Shanghai”, was written Robert D. Abrahams.  It was about a Philadelphia couple that was driving across town to play bridge with some friends.  They talked casually about the heroic revolutionary battles that had been fought on the very land they were driving through, and their conversation evolved into a discussion of world travel.  They dreamed aloud about where they wanted to go, and they agreed that they would have to cross Shanghai, China off the list because on that very night it was being burned to the ground by the Japanese Army in a battle that preceded World War II.  Then they arrived at their friend’s home and played bridge. 

The poem ends with two haunting stanzas that speak (to me at least) of the sadness of living a life of trivial pursuits:

Tonight Shanghai is burning

And we are dying too

What bomb more surely mortal

Than death inside of you  

For some men die by shrapnel

And some go down in flames

But most men perish inch by inch

In play at little games. 

When I was in college and seminary, my favorite speaker quoted that last stanza in more than one of his talks, and it had a jarring effect on me.  I hoped it would have the same effect on those I spoke to this morning.  But I’m glad I followed wise advice and opted for plain talk rather than poetry.

If you’d like to hear my thoughts on how to live a life of true purpose rather than trivial pursuits, click here.