LIFTING AND LEANING

There are two kinds of people on earth today,

Just two kinds of people, no more, I say.

Not the good and the bad, for tis well understood

The good are half bad and the bad are half good.

Not the happy and sad, for the swiftly-flying years

Bring each man his laughter and each man his tears.

Not the rich and the poor, for to count a mans wealth

You must first know the state of his conscious and health.

Not the humble and proud, for in lifes busy span

Who puts on vain airs is not counted a man.

No! the two kinds of people on earth I mean

Are the people who lift and the people who lean.

Wherever you go you will find the worlds masses

Are ever divided in just these two classes.

And, strangely enough, you will find, too, I ween,

There is only one lifter to twenty who lean.

In which class are you? Are you easing the load

Of overtaxed lifters who toil down the road?

Or are you a leaner who lets others bear

Your portion of worry and labor and care?

--Ella Wheeler Wilcox

-- Debra (??@??.com), July 15, 2000