Never Dead, Never Ceasing

The poetry of earth is never dead . . .

Happy 221st Birthday John Keats: born on Halloween 1795
Gone too soon: February 23, 1821
"The Grave of Keats" ~ by Walter Crane
At the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University, England

On the Grasshopper and Cricket
The Poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;
That is the Grasshopper’s—he takes the lead
In summer luxury,—he has never done
With his delights; for when tired out with fun
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
On a lone winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever,
And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,
The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.
~Keats

And here's another little autumnal insect, to go along
with the Grasshopper and the Cricket . . .
the Ladybug!

Thanks to Carmen & Sacred Mists

Further reading for the three - day season of
ALLHALLOWTIDE
From Catholic & Protestant Perspectives

Cubs

Cardinals Fans Aaron & Pam

World Series Thoughts from my brother Aaron, "A True Statesman"
With Responses from my brother Bruce
Aaron: I'll probably catch hell from many in Cardinals' Nation for saying this, but Go Cubs!! Congratulations to Cubs fans, the city of Chicago and the Cubs organization for making it to your first World Series in 71 years!!! As a life-long Cardinals fan I can't imagine how they must be feeling right now. I mean, an entire generation of Cubs fans have come and gone just waiting and hoping for this day to come. As Cardinals fans we've become spoiled with play-off baseball and World Series appearances (and victories!!), so when they don't make it, it doesn't seem right. The worst drought they've experienced in my lifetime was the 1970s. Actually a little longer; 1969-1981 with no post-season baseball. So at 55 years old, I can't imagine what it would be like to have never seen the Cardinals play in a World Series game. Unfathomable!!! So Congratulations & Go Cubs!!!!

Well, whether they beat the Indians or not, I'm happy for them.

After thinking about it, the Cardinals' longest World Series appearance drought in the past 55 years was 15 years; 1988-2003. They made it into the post-season four times, but not to the World Series. Still, it doesn't compare to 71 years!!!

I wouldn't go so far as to start putting Cubs stickers all over, but since the Cardinals didn't make the playoffs this year, yeah, I'll root for the Cubs.

Bruce: Five years ago I had just witnessed the fifth Cardinals' World Series championship of my lifetime. This was the last paragraph of my five-year FB memory this morning:

"The older I get...the more seasons that pass without the Cubs winning a pennant...the more I realize that this could easily be the last Cardinals' World Series win I ever see. And if that happens, I can't be sad or upset. I'm just grateful that somehow, for whatever reason, fate allowed me to be a Cardinal fan. My life as a baseball fan has truly been blessed, and I consider myself very fortunate."

go cubs

Lower case to denote lack of heartfelt enthusiasm for the sentiment, though intellectually I'm in agreement.

go cubs

For my friends who are Cubs fans: The first loaf-at-a-time bread slicing machine wasn't built until 1912. So, if you're a Cubs fan, winning this World Series really would be the best thing since sliced bread!

Dave: I saw my first Cubs game in the early spring of 1968. I had been back from Vietnam about six months and TET was upon us (ancient battle). I was in desperate need of something to occupy my mind. A fellow at work gave me a ticket to watch the Cubs and after clearing it with my SgtMaj I caught the "El" and went to my first professional ball game.

It was a very interesting experience. I had almost no idea of how the game was played but I could still see the symmetry and grace of how it was played. In the next two years I went to probably four or five games. Somehow, their message of "never give up" and "wait til next year" infused me and I took it for my own. In many ways, it was similar to learning how to become a Marine.

I have never regretted adopting The Cubs as MY team.

Winding Lanes

"Custom was the keystone of life. . . . the underlying deep continuity that represents the nature of England itself. . . .

"The ancient roads, the witnesses of prehistoric life and travel, still persisted in the medieval landscape. But they were joined by other highways in the historical period. Many winding lanes between farmstead and farmstead, many sunken hollow - ways leading to the village, deep - set and drowsy on a summer afternoon, were constructed in the twelfth century" (7, 119).

from Foundation: The History of England
From Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors
by Peter Ackroyd, British cultural historian (b 1949)

From Auntie Jan's to Auntie Margaret's

From Auntie Margaret's to Auntie Tina's

Almost to Grim & Gram's

Out for a Walk

To Sunnyfields

Down the Back Lane

Crispin Crispian

Twin Brothers and Patron Saints
of Cobblers, Cordwainers, Tanners, and Leather Workers
In between Michaelmas and Martinmas, comes St. Crispin's Day. How to celebrate? Some traditional foods might be in order, along with a re-reading or re - watching of Shakespeare's Henry V (nevermind the controversy):

This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say "To-morrow is Saint Crispian."
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say "These wounds I had on Crispin's day."
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words—
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester—
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers . . .

~ from Henry V (IV, iii, 18–67)

St. Crispin's Decor ~ Chinese Lantern Plant
Artificial from Menards

Homegrown from My Garden

Welcome Autumn Welcome!

Also 2015 & 2018 & 2019

Best Costume Ever!

"Always behave
as if nothing had happened,
no matter what has happened."

English writer, Arnold Bennett (1867 – 1931
[Sunrise Greeting Card Photography by Retna / Veer]
I found the above blank card to be perfect for Halloween because of the resemblance to Scout's ham costume in To Kill a Mockingbird. What will you be wearing this year?

Surely one of the best costumes ever!

Best Treat Ever!
Halloween Caramel Shortcake from Thorntons

Paying It Forward at Aldi

New Halloween Welcome Mat from Aldi
A couple of weeks ago, my friend Katy gave me a soon - to - expire Aldi coupon for $10 off. She wasn't planning to shop there any time soon so, knowing that I was, she passed the savings on to me. Gerry and I stopped by the store on the last day of the sale, piled our cart high, and got in line. Unfortunately right at that moment, the line seemed to grow unusually long right in front of everyone's eyes.

Not to worry. After only a minute or two of waiting, another lane opened up, and the cashier waved us over to be first in line. As we started to unload our basket, we couldn't help noticing that the man right behind us was holding only a couple of items, and delicious ones at that -- a big box of chocolates and a big container of cashews. Well, naturally, we had to let the candy and nut guy go ahead of us, since we had more like fifty or a hundred items. Despite this tiny delay, even our big order was soon processed, and we were halfway through bagging our purchases when it suddenly occurred to me: I forgot to use the coupon! Dang it!

I asked the cashier, who by now was working with the next customer, if it was too late. "No, not too late." However, it would require some awkward refunding and paperwork. Gerry and I instantly came to the same conclusion -- it wasn't worth holding up the line for everyone else on such a busy day. Instead we glanced around and handed off the coupon to some students who said they'd be happy to use it. Okay, that was almost as good as using it ourselves. At least someone would reap the $10 value.

Next thing we knew, just as we were ready to go, the cashier reached out to us, "Here's your $10."

"Oh, but we gave our coupon away."

"No problem!"

So there you have it, a few quick and easy ways to pay it forward:

1. give away $10 store coupons to friends or strangers

2. let people with small orders move ahead of you in line

3. stop by Aldi to buy a fun, seasonal doormat (featured above)

4. You never know -- someone may just hand you $10! But if not -- and here's the moral of the story -- you'll still feel good about paying it forward!

P.S.
A couple more grocery store anecdotes
of unexpected good deeds.

"Beautiful and terrible things . . . "

~ Autumn Trees, Shadows, Reflections ~

“The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party* wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you.” ~ Frederick Buechner

*Guess what? When Buechner says party, he does not mean political party! Our current and recent thoughts, however, are of politics; thus I offer the following:
~ Pre - Election Reflection ~

From Guest Blogger Bruce L. Carriker

@ The Fortnightly Kitti Carriker:
A Fortnightly [every 14th & 28th] Literary Blog of
Connection & Coincidence; Custom & Ceremony

Previous guest commentary includes:

Eulogy for our Brother - in - Law Ron

Lives, Fortunes, Sacred Honor

Pearl Harbor Day

A Break From Politics

October, Baseball, and Cats

(also on facebook: A Note About The Cardinals)

Thanks Dave!

Happy Birthday to My Twin Brother Bruce

A World of Octobers

“I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
from Anne of Green Gables
by L.M. Montgomery

Detail from October
by John Whetton Ehninger

Original at the Smithsonian

Click to learn more about Knickerbocker:
Family ~ Ancestery ~ Literary Group

Closer to Home:
Autumnal painting of beautiful
West Baden Springs ~ Indiana

And a few miles down the road,
a summery October day
at Indiana University, Bloomington

"What is so rare as a weekend in October?"

AI Is Easy

Coinciding with Purdue's Dawn or Doom16 Conference last week was the appearance on my facebook page of this wry revision of Richard Scarry's Busytown (thanks Ned Stuckey - French). It was pertinent to the moment but also brought back a chain of memories. When my nephews Jerrod and Dan's outgrew their old multi -lingual 20th Century edition, they passed it on to my boys, Ben and Sam, who in turn sent it back to Jerrod's girls, Brittany & Kiyah, when the time was right for them to enjoy it!

Upon seeing the 21st Century spoof, my brother Bruce right away wanted to be the "rage pundit," and Gerry observed that there were some possible Dawn or Doom occupations listed here, such as "tech start - up executive" and "tech start - up P.R. disaster recovery specialist."

Garrison Keillor had a similarly good one the other day: "Platform Resource Imager." I guess that's a real thing. And here's a half - in - jest one from Dawn or Doom Keynote Speaker Dave Eggers: "Director of Ensuring the Future" (see "The Circle, p 3).

At the conference Eggers briefly discussed his novel (and upcoming movie) and then moved on to bleaker topics. He expressed concern that we don't embrace the future the way we once did, that we lack substantial forward - looking projects, such as NASA, the Race for Space, and even the Jetsons -- that inspired kids in the 1950s & 60s. Eggers recalled a time when the anticipation of Dawn seemed to outweigh the apprehension of Doom.

On the other hand, Keynote Speaker Marcus Shingles came down clearly on the side of Dawn with his vision of abundance for all: "The future is better than you think; we must strive for distribution of innovation" (in a subsequent session Bret Swanson drew similar conclusions).

Looking at both sides, guest speaker Mike Fong urged us to guard our personal information with vigilance. He described the prevalence of unmonitored information - gathering that takes place all the time (primarily through our cell phones), recording every step we take, every move we make, every thought we think, every turtleneck we purchase, and so forth.

While it's true that information, if misused, could lead to our Doom, it also carries the potential of Dawn. Fong's cautious optimism -- "We should be able to unite humanity in a common awe . . . but we just don't have all the information" -- brings to mind that great passage from James Morrow's novel, Only Begotten Daughter: "Science does have all the answers . . . we [just] don't have all the science" (90, 187).

As for Artificial Intelligence, Shingles entertained the audience with his quip that "AI is Easy, AV is Hard" (while making a last - minute switch in presentation topic and searching his laptop for the corresponding powerpoint). The previous day, Professor Jennifer Neville had explained that AI can be Easy (teaching computers how to play chess) or it can be Hard (teaching computers to have good manners, social skills, common decency). My personal observation: using my cellphone -- my own little piece of AI -- is convenient but not easy!

Random notes from The National Writers Panel:
"Reporting on Emerging Techologies"
Quentin Hardy:

"One person looking at a cell phone = five different stories, at least."

"Technology breakthroughs: something akin to magic has just occurred in our world."

"It's kind of big! Where do I stop?"

"Reporting on emerging technologies is really a task of covering delusional people, because if you knew the odds of your start - up failing / succeeding, you'd never get out of bed!"

Jared Parrish:

"A million problems that percolate up and result in a whiteness in journalism."

"There is a lack of diversity both in journalism itself and in industries being covered; both in the start - ups and on the reporting staff who cover start - ups."

"People want to be what they see."

Natalie Di Blasio:

"The day of journalism happens; then the evening of commentary descends on Earth."

Emily Dreyfuss:

It is important to cover all topics, not just topics of personal interest.

"Readers crave depth, difficulty of topic."

Additional Reading Suggestions
Amygdala vs Prefrontal Cortex

Marc Goodman: Future Crimes

Walter Kirn: "If You're Not Paranoid, You're Crazy," Atlantic, November 2015

Ray Kurzweil: The Singularity is Near

Language Quality Game (Thanks Karthik Kannan)

Linear Steps vs Exponential Steps

John Markoff: How Tech Giants Are Devising Real Ethics for Artificial Intelligence

Podcast: Lexicon Valley (Thanks Charlotte VanVactor)

Podcast: "Note To Self"

Pro Publica: Breaking the Black Box: When Machines Learn by Experimenting on Us (Thanks Marguerite ~ Chapman)

Someone mentioned an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie:
was it Total Recall?

TED Talk on Monkey Money

Apparently the data center at the heart of the
Carmike Coastal10 movieplex
is run by Invisible Zombies.
"Dawn or Doom," I ask?
Gerry McCartney answers: Actually Dawn in this case.
Diana Hancock replies: I think it is beautiful,
but suspiciously lacking in the human touch.

Previous Posts

Dawn of Doom

Wisdoom

Twister

Dawn or Doom2

Dawn or Doom?

Safe Home

And More

A Dawn or Doom Valentine! ~ Really Thumb - Thing

Smart Beautiful City

Dawn or Doom Comes 'Round Once More

AI is Easy

Dawn of Doom

Last year, the Dawn or Doom take-away for me was the term wisdoom. I never did figure out if it was an unintentional misspelling or an intentional pun; but either way, it captures the intertwining essence of Dawn or Doom -- in much wisdom is much sorrow; in much dawn is much doom (to extrapolate from Ecclesiastes).

This year's winning moment occurred when Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor for The New Yorker Magazine, glanced over his introductory notes with a quizzical look and said, "I just now realized that the title of this conference is Dawn or Doom. I thought it was Dawn of Doom!"



Mankoff went on to define various theories of humor such as nonsense, bisociation, and incongruity resolution -- reminding me of a long ago Humor & Satire class in which we learned Aristotle's theory of frustrated expectation and Plato's theory of derision and superiority. He explained how an A.I. editor could be taught to sort for key words and length of punchline, even if it was not endowed with a sense of humor.

But what I kept coming back to throughout the day was that little misreading: Dawn of Doom. It was kind of funny but also worrisome. Have we been keeping watch all through the night in anticipation of the Dawn of Doom? I carried that potentially gloomy revelation with me for the remainder of the conference.

As we used to say when studying Keats, "After dark vapors -- dark vapors." In this mostly optimistic dawn - foretelling sonnet, the poet predicts sweetness after sorrow, a "long dreary season" followed by the "calmest thoughts":

After dark vapors have oppress’d our plains
For a long dreary season, comes a day
Born of the gentle South, and clears away
From the sick heavens all unseemly stains.
The anxious month, relieved of its pains,
Takes as a long-lost right the feel of May;
The eyelids with the passing coolness play
Like rose leaves with the drip of Summer rains.
The calmest thoughts came round us; as of leaves
Budding—fruit ripening in stillness—Autumn suns
Smiling at eve upon the quiet sheaves—
Sweet Sappho’s cheek—a smiling infant’s breath—
The gradual sand that through an hour-glass runs—
A woodland rivulet—a Poet’s death.

John Keats, English Romantic Poet (1795 - 1821)

Aside from the sadly accurate prophecy of the "Poet's death," Keats opts for a vision of Dawn; but back in the day, we graduate students took a gloomier view. Forget all that sweetness and light! The first line of the poem was all that we needed: "After dark vapors -- dark vapors." We shared the sardonic grad school humor of

1. Woody Allen: "Mankind is facing a crossroad -- one road leads to despair and utter hopelessness and the other to total extinction -- I sincerely hope you graduates choose the right road."

and

2. Jorge Cham, roboticist and cartoonist, who entertained us at Dawn or Doom16 with his books and movies, particularly The PHD Movie and The PHD Movie 2 (watch both).

Thanks to Jorge Cham ("1. Never 2. Probably Never 3. Maybe In A Million Years" ) and Bob Mankoff ("How About Never--Is Never Good for You?") and so many others who spent a day at Purdue exploring the spectrum from Brave New A. I. World to Techno - Apocalypse.

Previous Posts

Twister

Dawn or Doom2

Dawn or Doom?

Safe Home

St. Francis Day

Fuqua (black) and Pine (tortoiseshell),
sunning themselves and being nice to each other!

It's always nice to see everyone else's pets out socializing,
but my cats would be way too nervous to attend a social event,
such as The Blessing of the Pets (this coming Sunday).

A Sermon for The Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi ~ October 4th
given by The Reverend Nancy C. Tiederman
on Sunday October 8, 2006
How we love St. Francis . . . [and] blessing our pets and other living things in his honor. Francis was a theologian and a liturgist. He believed God to be the source of all, and he wrote prayers and canticles praising God’s wonderful creation.

We see pictures of Francis with animals, and we read stories of his ability to communicate with birds, wolves and burros. A person who could “whisper” with so many kinds of creatures must have been the equivalent of today’s scientist – a careful observer, paying attention, listening, watching, thinking and interpreting his observations.

We live with a different scientific world view than a 13th century Italian monk. We know about solar systems beyond our solar system, about black holes and quarks and sub-atomic particles. We live in a post-Darwinian world and Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution makes some people very anxious, even fearful.

To protect their understanding of God and of the biblical account of creation, some deny any truth to the theory of evolution. To respect the scientific approach to life, other people deny the possibility of God. Another group tries to ride both horses and presents an assumption (not a theory) called “Intelligent Design.”

The Bible is not intended to be a source for scientific and historical truth. The Bible records God’s unfolding self-disclosure through time to specific people: first, the Israelites, then the people on The Way. In the 3rd century, Christian theologian Origen taught that some stories are both true and factual (the crucifixion of Jesus) and some stories are true but not factual (parables like the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son). Origen could not believe light and darkness existed before the sun, moon and stars were created. Or that the invisible and transcendent God took a daily stroll in the Garden of Eden to enjoy the evening breezes. Or that the Maker of heaven and earth could not locate Adam and Eve when they hid from him. Origen called these “absurdities” and said they were unsubtle hints from God that he wanted the account of creation read in an altogether different way, as truth embedded in the semblance of history, truth conveyed through story. Genesis answers the question of why the world exists, but not how it came to be.

Religion addresses moral and existential issues. What is the meaning of life? How do we live with each other? Science describes the observable world of experience. Both science and religion have been major contributors to the development of Western civilization. Both play important – but different - roles in our lives.

The well-financed Intelligent Design movement is a highly organized attempt to defeat scientific materialism (and its’ so-called destructive moral, cultural and political legacies) and replace it with theistic understanding. To refute Evolutionary theory, they argue from incredulity: i.e., how can you believe otherwise? Living organisms on Earth are so complex and so intricately constructed they cannot plausibly have arisen through the unguided action of natural selection, so there must be an Intelligent Designer. People find intelligent design in the natural order because they read the evidence through the spectacles of their prior Christian faith. Observation of order does not account for dis-order; for tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes which doom the innocent. I.D. is not science: it is opinion, philosophical preference, a belief, natural theology, religion. Existence of God cannot be proven from observation. God exists outside of creation, beyond observation. We believe in the existence of God by faith – by wavering, skeptical, trusting, humble faith.

Science plays by different rules. “Science,” said Albert Einstein “describes what is.” Science consists of the description of certain laws of nature, summarizing observed patterns, and science consists of theories. In every day speech, we use “theory” when we mean speculation. Scientific theories are not uncertain speculations. To convey uncertainty; a scientist uses the word hypothesis. Scientific theories are based on experiment, experiments which can be repeated. Lasting theories start with an assumption, and then describe all appropriate phenomena. Theories can be broadly applied. New theories are built on old ones. Theories become the basis for predictions. Evolutionary theory is the unifying theme of all modern biology. Darwin’s theory of evolution is entangled with Gregor Mendel’s theory of genetics. The predictive power of Darwin and Mendel is stunning. Hundreds of Darwin’s predicted missing links have been found. The genes Mendel postulated in 1860 are seen these days with electron microscopes; biologists routinely cut and paste genes and observe the evolution of new ones that enhance fitness to survive. The theory of evolution is justified by the rules of science; it is not religion and it does not replace religion. It neither denies nor confirms faith in God.

We affect evolution through genome efforts. We keep alive infants who would have perished prior to recent scientific knowledge. We seek to heal cancer, Parkinson’s, diabetes and other diseases through manipulation of cells. We must use scientific discoveries wisely and that begins with having respect for science and scientific methods.

Religion is the assurance of things not seen. Religion provides the ethical frameworks with which we make decisions about how to use scientific discoveries. Religion guides aesthetics. Interwoven with the evolution of a human exists a love for the music of Bach and Mozart. Why? Where did that come from? Interwoven with the evolution of the human has come increasing understanding of mathematics. We don’t invent mathematics: we discover mathematics that already exists. We needed arithmetic. We don’t need mathematics to survive, so why do some humans spend time pondering mathematical proofs?

Isn’t it possible, isn’t it true, that we are co-creators with God – affecting our planet, changing our air, land mass, vegetation and water. Isn’t it true we sometimes create wisely and sometimes disastrously? Isn’t creation on-going? Isn’t God in the creation from the bottom up instead of from the top down? Isn’t God in the soup out of which came life. I believe that in each and every moment, God is inviting or luring us into the best possible choice for that moment – whether the choice is in our cells, in our observing and thinking, or in the ethics of the situation. We may choose wisely or we may choose foolishly. In the next moment of time, God offers us choices from the new options now available – we may choose wisely, we may choose foolishly. When we choose wisely, we move towards redemption and ultimately reconciliation. When we choose foolishly, we speak of darkness, evil, Satan.

During WWII, Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, wrote: “If we choose wisely, God is with us. If we choose foolishly, God is with us. Wise or foolish, God is with us.” Amen. Emanu-el. God is with us. Do not fear science. Don’t accept the substitute of a weak philosophical approach or a flight to biblical literalism for intellectual thought. Demand systemic rigor and ethical methods in scientific research. We have intellect. Develop it; use it; apply it. Praise God with it by giving God your best. Praise God in song. Praise God in rigorous thinking. Jesus died to take away your sins, not your mind. Emanu-el. God is with us.

~ The Rev. Nancy C. Tiederman

Kitti & Nancy ~ at the Seattle Art Museum ~ March 2016

Additional Blog Posts & Thoughts from Nancy

Cairn

Prepare Ye the Way & Crones At Last

Dark Days & I'm With Her

Ready for the Shift & Childlike Spring

Heart of Hearts & Commonplace Book

Sean or Sam? & Celtic Blessing

Swimming ~ Swimming ~ Christmas

Harry Potter Christmas Letter ~ 2000

Bringing in the Sheep

Bringing in the Sheaves:
The Harvest, 1882

Bringing in the Sheep:
Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep, 1886

These two paintings by Camille Pissarro perfectly illustrate the confusion I experienced as a small child whenever my grandmother sang the old hymn "Bringing in the Sheaves" -- or as I heard it: "bringing in the sheep." An understandable mix-up, don't you think, amidst all the Sunday School imagery of sheep and shepherds!

Bringing in the Sheaves
Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness,
Sowing in the noontide and the dewy eve;
Waiting for the harvest, and the time of reaping,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

Chorus:
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves;
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

Sowing in the sunshine, sowing in the shadows,
Fearing neither clouds nor winter’s chilling breeze;
By and by the harvest, and the labor ended,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves. (Chorus)

Going forth with weeping, sowing for the Master,
Tho' the loss sustained our spirit often grieves;
When our weeping’s over, He will bid us welcome,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves. (Chorus)

Lyrics & music by Knowles Shaw ~ 1874
Alternate tune by George Minor ~ 1880

Apparently, I'm not the only one
who thought this was a song about sheep!