How is this the World we live in?
Several people have asked for the words that Jeff closed the message with last Sunday, so we thought we’d share it more broadly this week. Keep being the hands and feet of Jesus to each other and the world!
MaryAnn McKibben Dana
“My remarks at today’s vigil in memory of Renee Good and all those killed by ICE”
How is this the world we live in?
That’s the question so many of us have.
The desperate question.
The sleepless question.
The heartbroken question.
The question sitting sickly in our gut, the question heavy on our shoulders.
And the question that follows from that one:
How will we get through this?
The same way we always have. By gathering in groups like this. By lifting our voices and our hearts. By taking care of ourselves and one another. And by doing the next good thing we can. Not always the next right thing, because how can we always know what is the right thing? Sometimes our choice is between horrible and merely lousy, and that’s OK because harm reduction matters.
But that’s how we get through.
Step by step, action by action.
We will hold a sign or hold a baby or hold a clothing swap.
We’ll call Congress or call our mother or call to schedule that scary appointment.
We’ll host a refugee or host a vigil or host a block party.
We’ll attend the training or attend the immigration checkin or attend the grief.
We’ll shape the clay and shape a movement; we’ll adopt an old dog or an unpopular cause.
We’ll run blood drives and run 10Ks and run our elderly neighbor’s errands.
With tremulous voice we’ll say “I love you” or “Here’s how I see it” or “That doesn’t work for me.”
We’ll watch the documentary or watch our roommate’s cockatiel or watch our kids turn handsprings.
We’ll grow capacity and grow friendships and grow pattypan squash.
We’ll learn to dance through the sorrow and learn to mend clothing and learn how to say no.
We will do these things, and many more. We’ll do them regardless of what power does… not because power can’t wreak havoc, it can and it does every day. We’ll do them because they are acts of freedom and resistance, but also because as Ram Dass reminds us, whether this is the first day of the Apocalypse or the first day of the Golden Age, the work remains the same: to love each other and ease as much suffering as possible.
~