The news of Charlottesville, Virginia puts the lingering
thoughts of my retreat, from which I returned a week ago, into stark relief.
In a way.
On the other hand, my notes help provide a way to structure
my response to the hatred, the fear, the violence, that includes and goes far
beyond and far deeper than what made the news on the 12th of August
in one particular town in one specific state of a nation seen by many in the
world as sliding precipitously down the steeply pitched path to implosion.
The question that came back to me while listening and
watching the news…the armed militiamen, the KKK, those who joined their voices
to theirs and those who protested that presence with voice, chant, placard, and
as a group of clergy did, with a silent witness of peace…comes from a book that
accompanied my retreat—Becoming Wise by Krista Tippett.
In it, she recalls an interview she did with Jacqueline
Novogratz who posed the question—What are
you doing when you feel most beautiful? (Becoming
Wise p. 78) This was within the
context of a larger discussion on beauty which
included John O’Donohue’s musing beauty
isn’t all about niceness, loveliness.
Beauty is about more rounded substantial becoming. And when we cross a new threshold worthily,
what we do is we heal the patterns of repetition that were in us that had us
caught somewhere. So I think beauty in that sense is about an emerging
fullness, a greater sense of grace and elegance, a deeper sense of depth and
also a kind of homecoming…of your unfolding life. (Becoming Wise pp.
76-77)
Looking at the pictures, watching the video clips, reading
the articles, accounts, tweets, and formal responses, I found myself wanting to
ask the militia with their weapons and camouflage; wanting to ask the Klan and
other white supremacy groups; wanting to ask them all –THIS?? Could THIS possibly
be what you do when you feel most beautiful? Stand for hate; stand for
exclusion; stand for violence; Believe yourself better than; run a car into a
crowd and kill a woman? And to those
people who have offered a response—Did writing your words feel like a help toward healing
patterns of repetition?
Did the words seem to invoke or inspire a sense of depth, a call to
grace or elegance, or did they recognize and condemn the inciting longstanding blight
of racism?
Are our actions, our responses, the best we have to
offer? If that is what the world
witnessed on August 12th, the best and most beautiful we have to offer, God
help us.
If we can do better, God help us so that every aspect of our
being is oriented toward that fullness of dignity and character to which we are
all called.
We need to do better.
Calling one another to that means a building up of relationship;
it means letting go in freedom and walking toward in peace; it means standing
with; it means the difficult honor of love; it means solidarity.
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