This morning I heard these words spoken out loud.
Not once, but several times.
Some of them said our loud over and over again.
Justice.
Peace.
Joy.
Enough.
A place for all.
Loved…as in I am and you are.
Church (or another place to worship) may not be for everyone.
I know all too well how judgmental and insular and narrow churches can be.
But for me, one of the things I value about the church I attend is the language.
Words I don’t hear anywhere else.
Said out loud.
Words which stand counter to so much of what we hear
In the news.
And, on our social media feeds.
And, in the midst of our daily round.
Words which remind me and challenge me and turn me towards what I desire and hope for.
Not just for myself.
But for us and for all.
Words….
“You have to treat them like shit.” *
“We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace
And the norms and notions
of what just is
Isn’t always just-ice.” **
“Laziness is a trait of blacks. It really is. I believe that.”
“We the successors of a country and a time
Where a skinny Black girl
descended from slaves and raised by a single mother
can dream of becoming president
only to find herself reciting for one”
“[Vice President Pence] didn’t have the courage yo do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.”
“We are striving to forge a union with purpose
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and
conditions of man
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us
but what stands before us”
“Crooked Hillary. Mini Mike Bloomberg. Crazy Bernie. Pocahontas. Cryin’ Chuck Schumer. Dope Frank Bruni. Alfred E. Newman (Pete Buttigieg). Sleepy Joe Biden.
“We close the divide because we know, to put our future first,
we must first put our differences aside
We lay down our arms
so we can reach out our arms
to one another
We seek harm to none and harmony for all”
“Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about election results. All talk, talk, talk – no actions or results.”
“That is the promise to glade
The hill we climb
If only we dare
It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
it’s the past we step into
and how we repair it”
“The point is you can never be too greedy.”
“When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it”
WORDS MATTER.
*All words in regular type are words written or spoken by Donald Trump
**All words in italics are from the poem The Hill We Climb written by Amanda Gorman and read at the inauguration of President Joe Biden on January 20, 2021.
Be…
Today on Facebook I saw and shared a photo which listed 33 adjectives you could call your daughter besides princess and beautiful.
It caught my attention because words matter.
And what we say to our children hear matters.
And what we say to each other matters.
The words we use both shape and describe what we see and feel and experience. But, the photo with its list of words made me think about how I want to be today. What if, instead of just saying something like this to our children, we also said it to ourselves.
Would it make a difference?
Maybe.
So, on the off chance it might make a difference, here is my list of how I want to be today. If I can’t be all these, maybe I can at least be a couple of them.
Be brave.
Be strong.
Be curious.
Be creative.
Be generous.
Be sensitive.
Be respectful.
Be gentle.
Be resilient.
Be thoughtful.
Be imaginative.
Be kind.
Be honest.
Be trustworthy.
Be compassionate.
Every day.
He Put His Name On It
I just returned from visiting my son and his family in Los Angeles.
Each day I was there I took a walk with my 19 month old grandson.
Sometimes we walked with him holding onto my hand.
Other times he rode in his stroller.
Besides the mountains in the distance and the trees which lined the street and the dogs and cats we saw, one of the things I noticed was the imprint in the sidewalk with the name of the general contractor who poured the sidewalks in that neighborhood.
One one hand that is great advertising.
His name is there for everyone to see each and every day.
On the other hand, what if something were to go wrong?
What then?
It takes confidence to put your name on it.
To trust your work.
To stand by your words.
Words Matter
Over the last couple of days, the contrast on my social media feeds has been stark.
On one hand is the political rhetoric of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.
On the other hand is the remembered witness of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
One panders to our fear.
The other reminds us of hope.
One points out our differences and all that separates us.
The other reminds us of our common goals and our shared humanity.
One does its best to set us against them whoever the them is.
The other does its best to remind us we are all in this together.
Words matter.
They both reflect and shape our reality.
They can either reinforce the narrowness of our stereotypes
Or call us to something more.
Something better.
So, which set of words describe the community and the country in which you want to live?
Which describe the community or country in which you would like to raise your children?
I know my choice.
What is yours?
May the words of our mouths…
Words matter.
How words are used matters.
Jewish and Christian sacred text includes these words:
“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”
Right now, our words are not…
Acceptable, that is…
To God or to anyone else.
When our political leaders speak in ways that denigrate other elected officials, they give tacit permission to those who listen to them to speak in the same way to and about those with whom they disagree. When our news outlets speak of every political decision or compromise in terms of winners and losers, they help to create a competitive environment where leaders do all that they can not to be seen or labeled as losers. And, what happens there filters down to here and to me and to my neighbor and to my community. We draw up sides.
Me versus you.
Red versus blue.
Us versus them.
Urban versus rural.
Black versus white versus Latino.
Neighbors become strangers.
We become suspicious of each other.
Something has to give.
Either we are going to draw the line in the sand deeper and wider making it harder to cross or someone has to be strong enough and brave enough to step forward and begin to speak with and about the other side in a different tone of voice, and challenge the language and the rhetoric of those who constantly belittle and demean. Maybe that is just wishful thinking in the arena of hardball politics, but I am afraid if we don’t find a better way forward the fabric of our communal life and common good will become much more frayed than it already is.
But, here is the other side of the equation…
What if the rhetoric we hear from our elected officials is merely reflective of what is at play in our communities? Where you and I live? What if they are merely saying out loud and in front of a camera what we whisper to each other on the street corners about those who are different or who think differently than we do? If that is the case then it is not their problem, but our problem. Then you and I need to be the ones to find better, more civil ways to talk to and with each other. Maybe if it starts here, it will filter up. Maybe if you and I can find a way to do it, we will become the model for our elected officials to do it as well.
Rather than looking elsewhere,
Maybe you and I are the ones who need to be the leaders right now.
