Happy are those who work for peace…
Matt. 5:9
At the beginning of prior years, I’ve started the year here with theme words, a word, or a verse. This year it’s a verse.
Please join me in working for peace this year.
“How?” you might ask.
Let’s work for peace in our families, our neighborhoods, our workplaces. Be willing to have lunch or coffee with someone from the other side of the aisle. You don’t need to talk politics. In fact, it might be best if you don’t. Instead, get to know other people as people. Talk about their hobbies, their families, the music they like, and their favorite hot drinks. Ask about their first cars. If you want to go deeper, ask them what they care about, what keeps them up at night, what difference they’d like to make in the world.
And then listen.
Anybody up for coffee?
c[_]
I will sing for people who might not sing for me.
I will sing for people who are not my family.I will sing honor songs for the unfamiliar and new.
I will visit a different church and pray in a different pew.I will silently sit and carefully listen to new stories
About other people’s tragedies and glories.I will not assume my pain and joy are better.
I will not claim my people invented gravity or weather.And, oh, I know I will still feel my rage and rage and rage
But I won’t act like I’m the only person onstage.I am one more citizen marching against hatred.
Alone, we are defenseless. Collected, we are sacred.
Excerpted from “Hymn” by Sherman Alexie.
Please go read the whole poem.1Update. According to NPR, Sherman Alexie “issued a statement admitting he ‘has harmed’ others, after rumors and allegations began to circulate about sexual harassment.” I don’t know how we deal with situations like this. We can’t ignore, yet do we wipe their work from the public space? Maybe. At least we provide an asterisk, a footnote. Maybe you don’t go read the whole poem. At least now, it’s your choice.
I can’t stand by and do nothing.
Rick Best was one of three heroes1Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche, Rick Best, and Micah Fletcher. who last week in Portland stood against ignorance and hate. May their actions and Rick’s words inspire the rest of us.
The best investment any of us can ever make is in the lives of others.
Bill and Melinda Gates
Bill and Melinda Gates
This quote is from Bill and Melinda Gates’ 2017 annual letter to Warren Buffet on the “impact his gift has had on the world.” It’s well worth a read.
I want my friends to understand that being “sick of politics” is privilege in action. Your privilege allows you to live a non-political existence. Your wealth, your race, your abilities or your gender allows you to live a life in which you likely will not be a target of bigotry, attacks, deportation, or genocide. You don’t want to get political, you don’t want to fight because your life and safety are not at stake.
It’s hard and exhausting to bring up issues of oppression (aka “get political”). The fighting is tiring. I get it. Self-care is essential. But if you find politics annoying and you just want everyone to be nice, please know that people are literally fighting for their lives and safety. You might not see it, but that’s what privilege does.
Guilty as charged. :-(
Dear family, I would like this on my tombstone: "She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted." pic.twitter.com/EOdbtoyAkv
— Bethany (@buffyro) February 9, 2017
High praise, indeed. :-)
I have been going through my older quote posts and either adding or updating images, then dribbling them out to my friends on Facebook. Here are a few of the recent ones.
Here are links to the original posts:
Any faith that admires truth, that strives to know God, must be brave enough to accommodate the universe.
“Palmer Joss” in the novel Contact by Carl Sagan
A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.
Martin Luther King Jr.
