November 7-17, 2025

What’s So Common About the Common Era?

what’s so common about the Common Era?

nothing, actually, nothing at all

“Common Era” exists only to deny Christ

only that, and nothing more

but the numbers give the Common Era the lie

the years are identical either way one looks

“Before Common Era” and “Common Era”

each shares His birth as its fulcrum

I have so little in common with anyone historic

almost nothing in common with anyone

until about eighteen-eighty-five

when my Opa first drew his breath

there is very little that I have in common

with Nero or Judas or Peter or Paul

our only common thing is our fall

also common to Noah and Moses

and to King David and King Saul

but laying aside our moral dilemma

what have these known of what I know

of clean water and hot coffee

of central heat and road trips

of ice cream on a hot summer day

of red-eyes and moon shots

all that is common to me

was not so to any other

before nineteen-sixty-nine