Shine

 I was a kid who had a blankie. I carried it around, snuggled up with it, and the blanket remained on my bed through college. My blanket was pink and soft and had those great silky smooth edges. That pink blanket was a tangible security symbol.  

This remains a painful week.  With the raging pandemic, high unemployment, long food lines and isolation from all that connects us, I look for stability, steadiness and security. 

Allow me to join the chorus of the country and say that I never, ever thought I’d witness an attempted coup in our nation.  We are (were???) the United States of America, the democratic example for the world, nations envied us, looked to us.  

 

Our country has never been perfect and that’s been part of the responsibility we each take on as citizens to build a more perfect union.  We build through study, debate, advocacy, engagement with those who have the power to make the laws and provide the resources. I’ve been doing community organizing for over three decades and as my mentors taught and shown it’s done through learning about the issue, building a base and continually educating one’s self, meeting with elected officials, raising public awareness, being constant and persistent.  

 

The insurrection of January 6, 2021 was a horror.  Persons brought ropes to scale the walls of the Capitol, used flagpoles, fire extinguishers, hard hats, steel-toed boots and wrapped fists to smash windows, break down doors and terrorize.  They came to kidnap, kill and to overthrow. They came rabid urged on by a coward who raged them to action shouting behind bulletproof glass, lied yet again, failed one more time and watched the terror with a sick smile on his face and has yet to show remorse.

 

I’ve had the privilege to be in those spaces, to walk through statuary hall and with pride pause at the statues of our nation’s heroes: Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, the suffragettes. I’ve sat in Speaker Pelosi’s office with other elected representatives and passed chocolate covered peanuts and cashews to Representative Clyburn and received them from Representative Waxman as together with the other elected officials we discussed the role of faith in shaping

policy. I’ve given testimony before a Senate committee and was asked and answered questions posed by both Republicans and Democrats, it remains one of the honors of my life.   The lack of respect, the ignorance, the desecration of yes, this temple of our democracy, and the disrespect sickened and saddened me. Those initial emotions remain fresh with each photo, video and pathetic attempt at explanation.

It was not lost on me that the insurrection of January 6 happened on Epiphany.  I had an Epiphany message ready to post and then could not, did not. Epiphany the season of revelations when we will be given opportunity to see an to witness and to learn and to have truths revealed. In the aftermath, a comment that echoes in my mind is from a Catholic Sister who in response to the comment, “We are better than this. This is not who we are.”  Paused and said, “This is who we are.  It has been revealed to us. Now the question we each have to answer is what are we to do about it.”

 

We must heal and the healing must be open and honest, allowing persons to tell of their experiences, their pain, their anger and to do so in a space of listening, not labeling; of seeking to hear and understand, not to hate and undermine. I’m open to help create, to foster, to join in those we-must-have conversations.

 

The Old Testament lesson for Sunday is Genesis 1.1-5 and we read that earth was a formless void, a nothingness and the Spirit moved over earth, spoke the word, “Light,” and light appeared. 

 

It’s time to speak truth and to keep speaking truth.

It’s time to demand that leaders, networks, posts and persons tell the truth and when they do not to name it.

It’s time to be the Light and shine in this darkness confident and trusting and knowing that the darkness will never overcome it.  

LIGHTEN UP

The poet Mary Oliver called the sun the greatest preacher there ever was.

Light….we order our days around its cycle.  A friend of mine and her husband vacationed at the Grand Canyon where they hiked to the bottom and camped out. Jess shared how energizing was the vacation because the lived and moved in accordance with the sun…rising early and slowing down their day as the sun se

 

Organized religion seeks to move to nature’s light cycle…..Easter sunrise, candlelight mass at midnight, beginning each service with the bringing in of the light. I enjoyed doing the training for the acolytes stressing how significant was their ministry….they carried in the light and started the service and at its conclusion recessed with the light symbolizing our continued work to be bearers of light for our shared community and world.  And, yes, they did an continued so to do while wearing a dress as one aggrieved acolyte expressed.

 

I believe finding and shining light is part of our make-up. Need proof? Give a kid a flashlight and let the games begin.  Part of the fun of camping was getting to use your flashlight; remember flashlight tag or one of the great games of childhood, "LIGHT BRITE?"

 

The question is what type of light bearers shall we be?  Admittedly there will be occasion for us to be a variety as the time and situation merit.  There will be times when we are a beacon calling forth a wrong needed righted and asking others to join in the fight. Maybe it’s because I’m finally reading “The Hobbit” and starting on the trek of this long epic serie, yet, I am reminded of the scene from the “Lord of the Rings” film when the beacons are lit as Gandalf exclaims, “Hope is kindled.” https://youtu.be/QhRFaY8A9cA

 

Or, perhaps we’ll be a warming fire that gathers others in….6-feet distanced of course….

 

Maybe, a searchlight or a candle lit in the darkness….as the familiar song from childhood refrains, “this little light of mine, I’m gonna’ let it shine…..”

 

In these days of gray clouds and cold winter skies, we feel our energy rise when the sun shines --- the same is true when a phone call is made, a written note received.

Notice where light is needed and respond accordingly…..