A PEACE PILGRIMAGE, Part 1 of 3

So you’re going on a Peace Pilgrimage ...huh?  

With 24 other pilgrims from All Souls, Unitarian, Church in Washington, DC, my destination is Japan – Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Kyoto. 

Different culture. Different religions. And of course, confronting the evil of warfare and the Bomb.

I’m thinking that this can be a wake-up call for me. After years of retirement, I feel like I’ve been slipping into a rut of easy living. Days have a way of blending into mindlessness. Like, what exactly did I do last Tuesday? 

Mmmm...it’s never too late to live more intentionally.

Like everyone, I’ve built a world view. What’s the stuff that shapes mine? Does it build walls or open pathways to learning and understanding? How do my eyes distort reality? Are corrective lenses needed? I’ve got lots of questions.

Already, our group is delving into the meaning of peace making especially in today’s troubled hate filled times. It’s raising even more questions. 

Is peace about going along to get along – a passive cordiality? Or is it more strategic and aggressive? What exactly does it mean to win the peace? Can there be a just war? It’s good to be confronted with these knotty questions.

We read from Lao-Tse.  He's considered the founder of Taoism.

We pause to write a prayer for Peace
and post it among many prayers.

“If there is to be peace in the world,There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.
If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,

There must be peace in the heart.”

This ancient reading has insight, like a prayer.  And I think it’s still relevant in the 21^st century.  

The gate separates secular from the Holy 

Today, we Peace Pilgrims walk with a Shinto Priest through the Meiji Shrine. It’s a sizable wooded area in the midst of busy Tokyo. Believers enter the gate and bow in a prayer.  They honor restorative powers.  

The Kami is here among the gods of nature.

Shintoism is ancient predating Jewish and Christian teachings. It’s woven into the history of the people living on this archipelago. They interacted with natural forces honoring their benefits as well as dealing with their destructive powers. 

Over millennia, they carried in their collective consciousness a way of life centered on purity, honesty and sincerity.

Shintoism is an optimistic faith, as human life is thought to be fundamentally good. They believe evil comes from evil spirits. Rituals of prayer, purification and offerings to the Kami are meant to check the spread of evil and give wellness.

Here two traditionally dressed children walk to the Shrine.  They come in gratitude for wellness and with hope for the Kami to watch over them.  

Before we enter the Shrine, we wash our hands and rinse our mouths. Life has a way of smearing our best intentions. 

At the Shrine we join in a ritual of purification. It is meant to remind us that Kami surrounds us – if only we notice and clear away the dirty film that covers our soul’s eye.

Our Shinto priest tells us a parable: “When we plant seeds in the ground, we say, ‘grow up little ones. Grow up good and strong.’ and so it is with the seeds we plant in heaven – the seeds of kindness, forgiveness, justice and peace. Grow up little ones - good and strong.”

Shintoism married Buddhism in the 6^th century. At least that’s what it seems like to me. 

Instead of religious wars, the two came together and coexist in Japan. About 79% of Japanese consider themselves Shinto and 67% Buddhist. Of course the total is more than 100% because many consider themselves to be both.

It’s no problem. Consider this….While less than 1.5% are Christian, more than 65% of marriages in Tokyo take place in Christian chapels. Even the Vatican allows non-Catholics to partake of the sacrament of marriage in Japan. 

It seems like Japanese are born Shinto, die Buddhist and in between wed as Christians.

This may be influenced by the nonreligious nature of many or the religious tolerance emanating from 6^th century coexistence. 

I find it most interesting, especially in a world where tribalism is having a resurgence.

Late in the day we travel to Kamakura, a region adjacent to Tokyo. We visit a Buddhist Temple where the Great Buddha has been watching over people since 1252. 

It’s massive towering four stories or 44.8 feet over tourists and worshipers.  Buddha dominates the area. I find a comfortable spot at the base of the figure to soak in the tranquility and mystery.

A family passes me by. The father looking at the Great Buddha and then at me. He says, “Great Buddha and little buddha.” I smile broadly as he takes my picture.

Of course upon reflection, there’s deeper truth. They say that within each person is Buddha...yearning to be known. 

We have choices to live towards greater enlightenment.  Instead of living for possessions and power and control of others, Buddha opens a way of peace and harmony and kindness. 

We can live to help others expanding love and bringing more justice, kindness and understanding into our world.

For me there are echoes from the Buddha in Judaism and Christianity. 

I’m learning to appreciate more about the diversity of our world.  Instead of judging, I'm trying to practice openness to our amazing connectedness. 

Recently, I discovered a musical group.  I hope you'll take a moment to discover and be inspired by them. Playing for Change. 

Their songs take me to places of peacemaking where Buddha, The Prophets and Jesus join hands.

Yes, I’m on a Peace Pilgrimage.

Our Local Art Exhibit - VanNess North, Washington, DC

It’s like woodworking. Check measurements twice and then cut. Take time.  Three completed and lots of small ones yet to do. But of course, I don’t have the saw dust.

I’m huddled over my art table cutting mats for my watercolors. In less than a week, I’ll be joining 15 other artists in a Biennial Art Exhibit at VanNess North, my apartment building.

It’s a chance for artists in our building to show their works and maybe make a few sales. My sales will go in support of local charities and social justice work.

I haven’t had too many showings, so each one is exciting for me. I’ve selected three of my larger paintings for the main exhibit.  

This one is entitled Just Goldfish. It evolved from

 one of my small paintings.

I’ve gotten into the habit of posting a watercolor on the door of my apartment. I like trying new ideas and techniques. 

A small goldfish turned out well and I decided to try a larger and more ambitious rendering. Here I learned a lot about tonal quality and blending colors. I think Just Goldfish has captured movement and gentle beauty.

Autumn Color is a composite from photos. Recently, I’ve been taking loads of pictures – many more than before. My smart phone makes it’s easy. As they say, the best camera is the one you carry with you. So I click away.

Back at my art table, I sort through the photos becoming more inspired. Often I’ll combine aspects of one with another or two. 

When folks ask, “Where’s that from?” I say a little from reality and a lot from imagination. In the process I’m learning more about composition.     

Here I emphasized color. I want to draw the viewers eye into the color both near and far. I played with reflections and gave texture to rocks and trees. My hope is that viewers will want to sit on one of those rocks and enjoy the splendor of autumn….

Who doesn’t love birch trees? One day I was clicking through images on Google and I found several that featured birch trees in the snow. I wondered if I could compose a painting of contrasts. 

Snow and shadows. “The darker the shadow and the brighter the light will be,” I thought.   

Winter Shadows invites viewers to slide down the snowy hill and jump between light and shadow. Pick up a few branches of autumn color and notice the contrast on distant hills. Can you find the hint of a pathway?

In addition to the main exhibit, artists are invited to submit smaller paintings for the art bins. Many of my “door paintings” will reappear here. Here’s a sampling...

 

  

If you’re in the Washington DC area, come check out the exhibit. An opening receptions starts at 6:30 pm on Friday, October 20 and the exhibit stays open through Sunday.  

Announcing - Leadership for Social Change

Ideas start in the mind. Along the way, many get forgotten or rejected.  But some ideas remain... growing stronger over the years until they are realized.

For me, this one started in 2011. 

I'm at the Peace Corps office in Kiev saying my goodbyes. After two years of serving in Konotop, Ukraine, I'm flying back to America tomorrow.

“Jud, we're hoping that you'll record your 21 tips talk before leaving,” says Iryna, the PC training director.

My talk of practical ideas for community integration had been well received by Peace Corps Trainees. Iryna wants to use it in future trainings. Of course, I'm flattered and soon find myself sitting in front of the camera for my first ever video – 21 Tips for Community Integration.

I don't know it at the time but a new idea is forming.

Flash forward and I'm back in the Peace Corps.  This time I'm in Macedonia. Here I'm serving as an organizational development specialist helping young community leaders with management and leadership issues.

I learn a lot. I develop short in-office trainings, bi-weekly emails with “Leadership Tips”, and spend lots of hours coaching.

I don't know it at the time, but I'm organizing a body of content.

Moving into present time, I'm back in America again and missing my relationships with community leaders. I'm wondering how I can keep relationships and make new ones.

That's when the idea for a YouTube Channel crystallizes. 

 On YouTube, I can open a space for sharing and encourage community leaders in their work for positive social change.

I think to myself, “I can do this.”

But soon I discover that I can't do it alone. While I have inspiration and content, I don't have knowledge of how to make and post videos.

My son, Matthew, starts my learning process. He helps me map out a plan and shares some links for more learning. And just as importantly, his support motivates me.

Nesko and Ratomir, colleagues from Macedonia, help me solve technical problems. Other, like Sally, Bob, Fran and Barb, are a constant sources of support. When I'm about to give up, I'll talk with one of them.

Once again, I learn that ideas don't easily become reality. This one takes six years and six months.

Yet here I am on July 4^th announcing a new YouTube Channel.

 Leadership for Social Change. 

It's a place where community leaders can discover new ideas and adapt them into their own leadership.

I'm hoping that it will reach community leaders both in America and developing countries.

Maybe Peace Corps Volunteers and others who work with community leaders can pass-it-on.  

I won't be monetizing this project.  It's about helping others. 

So if you can, why not help me pass-it-on.    

Here's a couple of ideas to get you started.

1.  Subscribe yourself.  Leadership for Social Change. When a channel has more subscribers, it shows up more frequently on searches. 

2.  Post these links in your Social Media and tell people about Leadership for Social Change.  

By passing-it-on, you open possibilities for reaching leaders who might benefit a lot.  It's a "three degree of separation" thing.  

     Blog  

http://juddolphin.blogspot.com 

  

     YouTube  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5BcjFBQROBx7G5ONjQTbaw  

Thank you so much.  

Like I say in one of the videos, “We're in this life together. And we are leaders who are working for a better world...one community at a time..”

No More Anger and Fear

Since the November election in America, I've been moaning and groaning.  Like many, shock, anger and fear hung over me.  

But recently, there's begun a transition...It began happening with the Million Women March in Washington, DC.

NY Times photo

With my friends, Jan and Bruce, we're making our way to the Washington Mall. Soon we are caught up in the crowd, shoulder to shoulder.

I look around. Millennials, aging Baby Boomers, Families. Grandmothers with grandchildren. Grand fathers too. Gay families and straight couples. Veterans, Disabled, Women with pink hair and others wearing hijabs.

Jan wears her pink pussy-hat as do so many others. 

The organizers of the March had suggested that people knit these hats as a somewhat gleeful way to say “NO” to the ugliness of misogyny.

I step up on the curb to get a better look. As far as my eyes can see, crowds occupy the space from the step of the Capitol to the Washington Monument and beyond.

Maybe It's not a million, but it's more people in one place than I have ever seen and over the years I've been to more than a few marches.

Everywhere I see signs. “Love Trumps Hate; Dump Trump; Not my President.” 

Among the many jabs, there are others promoting core American values - freedom, equality, justice, and kindness to refugees.

My sign says, “No more hate and fear.” 

I didn't know it at the time, but these simple words became my harbinger for a more sustainable activism.

In the evening we make our way to All Souls Church.  About 800 of us are gathering to learn four part harmony to Leonard Cohen's Anthem. 

Candles are passed out and we perform it for one another. 

Volunteers with cam recorders circulate so that a YouTube video can be made. 

It's quite inspiring. 

Take a moment to see and listen for yourself.

(For a second 1:10, my friend Sally and I are on the stairs in a human chain from historic bell to singers below) 

The March activities are soon over and there's a nagging question. Now what? 

I continue attending All Souls. Along with so many others, we are discussing next steps and trying to figure it out.  I know we are not alone. The same kind of discussions are happening across the Nation.  

One Sunday the minister says with such a big bully in the White House, we need an even bigger love for one another. This begins a discussion about resistance.

Resistance is what you do when faith is tested by the “principalities and powers” of this world, says our minister. It's a response to core values being assaulted. 

It's a relentless effort to meet false tweets with truthfulness; intolerance with understanding; and hate with love.

Another Sunday, the minister gives some guidance for those, like me, who are struggling to find our way during these difficult times. She outlines five tips for resistance.

1.Seek some form of spiritual practice. “We need it to sustain us.” It's not that everyone should sit in a circle humming Kumbaya. No, there are many ways to develop spiritual practice. Find your own way to become more nourished in love for others and connected to God, the source of all being.

2. Take seriously what is being said by the “principalities and powers”. Recently Bannon, chief strategist for the administration, said, “If you look at these Cabinet nominees, they were selected for a reason, and that is deconstruction.” Deconstruction of agencies and institutions?

Does that mean no more civil rights enforcement by the Justice Department; and no more clean water regulations by the EPA; and no more safety in food and drugs because the FDA has been deconstructed.

Is it the deconstruction of the Peace Corps too? Agricultural Department; Labor Department; Medicaid; Veteran Affairs and more? 

Pay attention. Amidst the clowning and tweeting distractions, they’re saying what they intend to do.

3. Stay close to the ones being marginalized. Some of us are fortunate enough to know people who are immigrants, green card holders, Muslim, Black, transgendered or other likely targets. 

What's our plan for supporting them if and when (we all hope never) their time comes?

All Souls and many churches are taking steps to become Sanctuary Churches. 

You can read more about it here in the Washington City Paper. 

People are organizing and preparing just in case. I begin thinking is there something I could be doing?

4. Be positive in our approach. Many Americans are struggling to understand the chaos since Inauguration Day no mater who they voted for. The minister reminds us “to keep kindness in our resistance.” 

As Martin Luther King practiced and St. Paul wrote, “Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21) For me that means letting go of post election anger and fear.

5. Be relentless in our resistance. This is not a time to give up on democracy or a nation we love. 

I was so proud to be an American while serving in the US Peace Corps.  For two years in Ukraine and and another year in Macedonia, I served my Country. When I worked with people, I could tell that they respected America. But now?

It's not a time to destroy the social progress of the past decades. Immigrants and refugees are human sisters and brothers and children. It's not a time to compromise away bed-rock values.  Human rights belong to all.

We have a constitution, institutions and the rule of law. It matters.

A statue lifts a lighted torch over New York's harbor and speaks to me, America and the heart of humanity -

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, 

the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

With the help of others, I'm looking for ways to support values that are true and dear to my heart. I've joined a new public policy and witness group at Church. Another group is working on voting rights. I'm attending their meetings too.

Whatever emerges, I realize that it's time for more justice work. No more moaning and groaning.  No more anger and fear. 

As Henry David Thoreau once said and still says to us, “Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.” 

I guess it's time to get walking...again.

That's How The Light Gets In...

All Souls Church, Unitarian

My friend, Darryl says, “Wanna check it out sometime?” He's been going to a Unitarian Church on 16^th Street. It's a tall steeple one and got organized in 1821 when the United States was still a young country. 

Learn more about All Souls.

We make arrangements for the Sunday following the election...on a day when the nation is deeply divided.

I'm stunned to see the place packed. It's not what you expect to see in a church these days. Usually this place holds about 1500 people on the main floor and wrap-a-round balcony. But on this particular Sunday, it's bursting with about 2000.

Even more, I'm shocked to hear the minister's sermon...interrupted by a standing ovation lasting several minutes. 

Never have I seen or heard such a thing. It's unbelievable to see so many people roaring their approval.

What stirs such deep emotions is the minister's call for the congregation to be true to its history.

As best as I can recall he says, “We are people of sanctuary. We have given support to gay and lesbian human right seekers, war resisters, run-a-way slaves and more. For all of them, we were a place of sanctuary. 

"Now there's coming a time when we may need to be preparing again...for immigrants, refugees, Native Americans, Muslims, people of color, trans-gendered people and others who are dispossessed.”

I feel like I'm in the right place and glad to add my own applause to the cacophony.

A few Sundays later the worship service is centered on hope. A Blues singer belts out Leonard Cohen's marvelous song, Anthem. 

Listen and read what Cohen says about his song.

Leonard Cohen Performing

"The song took ten years to write. There's not a line in it that I could not defend. I delayed it's birth for so long because it wasn't right or appropriate or true or it was too easy or ideas were too fast or too fuss, but the way it is now, it deserves to be born.

It stands for something clear and strong in my heart.

The meaning in the chorus is the background of the whole record: 'Ring the bells that still can ring.' It's no excuse for this dismal situation...and the future is no excuse for abdication of your own personal responsibilities toward yourself and your job and your love.

Ring the Bells that still can ring. They're few and far between, but you can find them.

Forget your perfect offering.  That's a hang-up that you're gonna to work this thing out. This situation does not admit to a solution of perfection. This is not a place where you make things perfection - your marriage, nor in your work, nor in your love of God, nor in your love of family or country.

There's a crack in everything.  The thing is imperfect. And worse, there is a crack in everything that you can put together – physical objects, mental objects, constructions of any kind.

That's how the light gets in.  But that's where the light gets in, and that's where resurrection is and that's where the return to repentance is...with the brokenness of things."

Maybe it's just me being in this place at this time, but the song brings a lump to my throat. When I glance at the woman next to me tearing up, I join her. I think our emotions come from a sacred place.

Leonard Cohen is most known for his song, Hallelujah.  It's been sung around the world by many pop-artists. Its enigmatic lyrics give a pause to everyday. Learn more about Leonard Cohen.

This time the sermon is not interrupted with cheers, but it's timely for a nation divided and losing hope.

The minister re-frames the quest for hope. He says that hope is not like waiting for a gift to be wrapped up with a bow and dropped in our laps.  Rather hope is active. It's something we give our lives to each day and week, month and year. I'm thinking - to make the nation a kinder, gentler and more just place to live one step at a time.

It's just like the Old Testament Prophet, Micah, urged so long ago – “What does the Lord require, but to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.”

I write this post in hopes that it might give you opportunities to think deeply.

After all, living is more than household projects, emails and deadlines. We need encouragement from one another and a new vision of a nation healing old fears, suspicions and hatreds. 

Together we do what we can with what we have.  And we create hope.