Saturday, June 10, 2017

Good-bye, Good Luck, and Godspeed


All of our praise rises to the One who is strong enough to make you strong, exactly as preached in Jesus Christ, precisely as revealed in the mystery kept secret for so long but now an open book through the prophetic Scriptures. All the nations of the world can now know the truth and be brought into obedient belief, carrying out the orders of God, who got all this started, down to the very last letter. All our praise is focused through Jesus on this incomparably wise God! Yes! - Romans 16:25-27 (The Message)

       “Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.”  J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
       “Remember me and smile, for it's better to forget than to remember me and cry.”  Dr. Seuss
       “Good bye may seem forever. Farewell is like the end, but in my heart is the memory and there you will always be.”  Walt Disney Company
       “Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-earth. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.”  J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
       “A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP”  Leonard Nimoy
       “It's the emptiest and yet the fullest of all human messages: 'Good-bye.”   Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Bluebeard
       “And then they bid their final goodbye which marked the end of their story. And beginning of two new stories.” 
 
Crestless Wave
       “I Salute to our journey's end.”  Jerhia
       “It's important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse.”  Yann Martel, Life of Pi
       “Even as I hold you, I am letting you go.”  Alice Walker
       “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying Goodbye so hard.” – Winnie the Pooh

So many years, so many thoughts, so many brain droppings, some good words, some bad words, some words that just hung there. This Musing thing has been quite a ride. I don’t really know how to say goodbye in some way that speaks to the depth and intensity I feel about the years we have spent together. Most of you don’t comment. Most of you never see me and we never communicate. In a lot of ways this has been a one-way relationship and yet it hasn’t been. Occasionally someone will comment, will see me someplace and speak to me, will share how one of these touched them or came at just the right time or in some way was meaningful. That’s one of the reasons I have done them. But the main reason is quite selfish, I wanted to wrestle with me, my thoughts and feelings and reactions and short-comings but felt that I could not, nay should not do it alone. I needed a community to listen and to be there. I didn’t need advice or well-wishes I needed to know someone was there, that they cared and that I was being heard. It is a lot like prayer, not many responses but I feel a whole lot different when I am done.

So, thank you. Thank you for reading these Musings. Thank you for caring about me. Thank you for letting them touch you in some way. Thank you for being a community of love and support for me. Thank you for the comments you have shared with me. If I have touched your life in some way that made a difference, I am pleased. If I have been a voice speaking from the wilderness that has assisted you in your journey, it was the Spirit at work in both of us. If you have deleted these with a shrug of your shoulder, thanks for letting me get it out.

I will be starting something new. I will have an entirely different job and therefore perspective beginning in July. I am not sure where the Spirit will lead me but I know I will need to share with a community and you will be welcome to find me and join in. So, until we meet again, goodbye and God bless!


God, thanks for this ride and those who took it with me. Amen.

Friday, June 2, 2017

The Best and the Worst on Display


 "Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.” Matthew 12:33 (NRSV)

Last week the best and worst of humanity was on display. A racist bigot traumatizes a couple of teenage girls on a MAX train…three people come to their aid…two die from the bigot’s violence…one victim says, “Tell everyone on this train I love them” … a bystander steals one of the dying victims backpack…a man grabs some cloth and tries to stem the bleeding in one victim. The best and worst of humanity in a single tragic event.

I cannot imagine how the best in humanity came to the fore in such a terrible and dangerous situation just like I cannot imagine how someone could take advantage of the situation for their own greedy gains. I cannot imagine how someone justifies hatred and violence against others just like I cannot imagine people rushing in to help. That’s really not accurate, I can imagine it all and that is both a blessing and a curse.

 I try to be hopeful. I have said before I am a pessimistic optimist or an optimist pessimist, not sure which describes me best and I may vacillate between the two. I want to believe that when a terrible situation arises people will respond with the best parts of their humanity. I have seen it and heard about it happening over and over and over again. This gives me hope. This makes me feel that no matter what, humankind can find a way forward that is right and good and just. That we can evolve out of our baser instincts and into a more enlightened state of being. Those who stepped forward to confront bigotry and racism and assist victims on that MAX train are shining examples of this.

But time and time and time again I see the worst of humanity on display. Random acts of vandalism, racist rants, homophobic, Islamophobic, misogynistic rhetoric and actions directed at so many powerless people (usually by white males). Scenes like the one that played out on the MAX train. When this happens, I worry that humanity is slipping ever closer to a point of no return where our society will crash in on itself and we will revert to cave dwelling.

But just when I feel that all hope is lost I remember what Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” I remember that if I take the long view I see that human culture has progressed in our evolution toward a common humanity, toward a more just and fair world. There have been many fits and starts. Often it seems that after great progress we slip back a bit. Sociologists will tell you that this is a natural reaction. When great change and progress are made there are some who get so afraid of that which is evolving that they react in nationalistic, tribal ways hoping to stop the arc, knowing deep within that they can’t.

So, I look upon the events on that MAX train and other things happening around our country – pulling out of the Paris Accords, fake news accusations, travel bands, inappropriate sharing of sensitive information… and I see desperation. I see mostly white men trying to stem the flood of change and progress for humanity that seems to be redefining reality in ways that frightens them. They are trying to halt the arc of the moral universe and will not be able to succeed because there is only one direction it can go, forward toward a transformed humanity and a transformed world.

It is sad that we must suffer through such tragic events as the one on that MAX train. It is horrible that Rick Best and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche had to die and Micah Fletcher had to suffer such terrible wounds. It is unconscionable that the President of the United States waited three days to condemn such actions. It is heartbreaking to realize that people think the things that hateful man thinks who would do what he did on that train. But we cannot let events like this, no matter how tragic, blur our vision of what is slowly, painfully emerging as we walk the moral arc to justice and peace for all.

Hang in there you loving, peaceful, accepting, humble, righteous people. You are faithful partners of God and Christ and your efforts – our efforts, prayers, and support are helping bend the arc. The world is being transformed even if we cannot always perceive it.

God, listen to my heart. Hear my anguish. Hear my concern. Hear my plea for strength. Hear my weak prayer for those I claim as enemy. Hear my commitment to love and justice and peace. Amen.