Happy
Labor Day.
It’s
the end of summer, the start of a new school year and a time of rest
before it’s back to work...if only we were living in normal times.
But
of course, we aren’t and haven’t been for more than six months.
Covid19 leaps from
nation to nation, group
to group, person to person. We feel helpless. It’s like the
song that’s become an International Anthem for healthcare workers
during
this Epidemic.
We
are all
Waiting
on the World to Change
Meanwhile, I avoid people. I’ve stopped making multiple
trips to the grocery store.
Even when I go, it’s a quick in and
out. Returning home, I always wash my hands from thumbs to elbows and face too. I keep singing Happy Birthday to time the washing just as the CDC recommends.
My
local Giant has
retrofitted plexiglass at checkout counters. Precautions
are in place for both shoppers and employees. Signs
urge distance – at least 6 feet to be safer. Masks are required
and thankfully people comply.
Fortunately,
no Kens or Karens are throwing tantrums here.
Yesterday,
I went on a walk – solo. As I rounded a corner I saw a neighbor.
She lives on the same hallway as I do. Yet, I had not seen her since
before the Epidemic.
Obviously, both of us have been avoiding human
contact. Even in this chance meeting, we step back 6, 8 maybe 10
feet. But still, talking through our masks, we try to connect.
It’s like a moment of human warmth without touching.
I
talk with distant friends via Zoom. I try to have a few calls every
week so that I don’t get to feeling too isolated. That can be a
danger when you live alone. It helps a lot, but honestly, it isn’t
the same.
Risking
a little exposure, I’ve started inviting friends in pairs and
threesomes for wine time on my patio. We avoid hugs even though we
all want to embrace.
We sit apart. We admire the garden. We pretend all is well. But,
it’s not.
Sometimes,
wine time turns into whining time. Between sips, we unload the
stress. It’s not just the little annoyances, but also about the
mega issues.
This epidemic has become a pandemic with economic,
social, and political crises. Disasters scream for attention.
We
talk about lost jobs. I don’t know exactly how they make
calculations, but numbers keep growing. “Did you see that story
about Food Banks being overwhelmed?” So many people are in need
that the social safety net is shredding before our eyes.
Years
ago I was part of a Campaign to End Childhood Hunger. We had success
expanding nutrition programs for children and their families. But
now, gains have been canceled and it seems like a lost cause.
Don’t
we still realize that families without income grow more and more
desperate? And children go hungry…in America.
We
talk about racism. Who can avoid it? Every week brings news of
another black person shot by police.
The nation is shocked to see in
Prime Time the murder of George Floyd. “I can’t breathe,” he
says crying out for his mother before a final gasp.
An
eye witness shares what he saw...lest we forget.
Last
month, a friend told me about a Black Lives Matter demonstration in
which she and her husband were participating.
I decide to join them
at the busy intersection of Wisconsin and Western Avenue.
I
felt safe going to this demonstration since we each had our own
street corner. Maybe there was some exposure in taking a Metro to
get there. But with only 2 or 3 people in the Metro car, I figured
it was worth the risk.
After all, I’ve been waiting a long time for change and
here’s a chance for me to say, “Enough is ENOUGH!”
So,
I hold up my homemade sign – Black Lives Matter.
Surprisingly, passing cars honk and people flash thumbs-up in support.
Increasingly, I feel human goodness bending that arc of
history towards justice just like Martin Luther King once predicted. It's inspiring. A
few weeks later, a friend and I replicated the demonstration on
Connecticut Avenue.
Every Thursday we hold up our signs. Again, cars honk. Passengers gesture support.
People walking up the Avenue thank us. Some
ask if we need water. We invite them to join us. Maybe some will,
but if not, we’ve all had a moment of affirming life no matter the color. Is America
changing?
What
are we to do as we wait on the world to change?
I
keep thinking about a weaving metaphor. It’s like our times are
calling forth a weaving of a new human cloth. Could it be a reckoning of people first? As
strands of yarn are shuttled back and forth, magic can happen.
Colors
mingle together like a rainbow of humanity - red, yellow, black,
brown and white. What's it going to take to see one human family?
Textures make us want
to stop and feel the pain as well as the joys of others. Surely we can care
and love more.
Weaving together thoughts and prayers, causes and demonstrations, acts and plans. Each strand portraying dignity and worth. It's a beauty.
Black
Lives Matter started
in
2013 with
three community organizers. They were outraged by the acquittal of
Trayvon
Martin’s murderer. They
took that outrage and wove it into a new thing inviting others to do the same.
Now
people in America and around
the world
are engaged in change.
There
so much work to
be done and so many talents needed.
Ending racism
and building justice is
no quick fix. It'll take more than signs and demonstrations. But let's begin (again?) A new cloth is being woven by people like you and me – one strand
at a time.
Martin
Luther King called this
the
work
of
a
Beloved Community.
For
King, “The Beloved Community was not a lofty utopian goal to be
confused with the rapturous image of the Peaceable Kingdom, in which
lions and lambs coexist in idyllic harmony.
“Rather,
The Beloved Community was for him a realistic, achievable goal that
could be attained by a critical mass of people committed to and
trained in the philosophy and methods of nonviolence.” - The
King Philosophy
Thank
God these
are not normal
times. It’s
time
for weaving….
