Knowledge arms: no question.

 But how encumbered am I willing to be

 Seems an important question.

 In poetry, in theology, in dealings with others – 

 Information can drown. 

 Think soldiers in Normandy

 All their accoutrements

 All that gathered up, strapped on, other-imposed equipment 

 Didn’t liberate them…

 (It pulled them down.)
 So how? 

 How does one sort through all what others perceive as necessity?

 How does one remain equipped 

 But light enough to stay unencumbered?

 Don’t assume the trappings 

 Just ’cause they’re there for the taking

 Don’t take another’s word for what’s needed:

 Celebrate the tools 

 And the capable wielding of them 

 – I’m not above them, I’m probably below them – 

 The point is, I’m not them.

 Try on the armor perhaps, 

 See how it feels.

 But don’t keep it on just ’cause it’s been offered

 Find my tool, trust my voice

 E’en though it be a slingshot 

 Such as these have slain giants: and endured.
 So read, consider, deliberate

 But stay afloat too

 Buoyed and buoyant and in command of one’s own weight

 Armed with one’s most well fitting, carefully chosen tools:

 For otherwise I may easily succumb ‘neath another’s trammels

 I was never meant to carry.