so far behind the others
in their neat little v, in their
competence of plans and wings, if
you didn’t listen you would think
it was a cry for help
or sympathy?
friends! friends!?
but it isn’t.
Silence of the turtle on its back in the street.
Silence of the polar bear pulling its wounded weight onto the ice.
Silence of the antelope with a broken leg.
Silence of the old dog asking for no further explanation.
How
was it I believed I was
God’s favorite creature? I,
who carry my feathery skeleton across the sky now, calling
out for all of us. I, who am doubt now, with a song.
~Laura Kasischke, “the call of the one duck flying south” from Space in Chains
We instinctively tend to limit for whom we exert ourselves.
We do it for people like us, and for people whom we like.
Jesus will have none of that.
By depicting a Samaritan helping a Jew,
Jesus could not have found a more forceful way to say
that anyone at all in need –
regardless of race, politics, class, and religion –
is your neighbor.
Not everyone is your brother or sister in faith,
but everyone is your neighbor,
and you must love your neighbor.
~Tim Keller from Generous Justice
I should know better than to think:
because millions of lives were lost, a war was fought and won against white supremacists only seventy years ago, stopping the annihilation of a group of people executed due to their faith
–that the hatred between people of varying cultural, ethnic and faith backgrounds would cease.
I should know better than to think:
because blood was shed from bodies black and white in a war fought and won only 150 years ago stopping the “right” to own other people as property
–that somehow the inequality, disagreement and disparity among the diverse peoples of this country would be resolved.
I should know better than to think:
human beings surely must learn from their own checkered, bloody and horrific history of bigotry, racism and bias
–yet by our self-imposed blindness to what has transpired before, we doom ourselves to repeat history over and over again.
I should know better than to think:
freedom of speech and freedom to assemble can be exercised peaceably and without arms
–yet rallies, demonstrations and marches become killing fields and motor vehicles used as deadly weapons.
I should know better than to think:
college campuses are laboratories for debate and discourse, dissecting the mistakes of the past, plotting a course for a hopeful, more inclusive and better future, learning and stretching through the discomfort when one’s beliefs are challenged and tested
–yet tolerance for differences has transformed into an academic intolerance for differing points of view.
I should know better than to think:
we the people, all colors, all faiths, all backgrounds, are in this together, united as we move forward through the storms of history, the turmoil of the present and the unknowns of the future
–yet there are still those who shout loudest, reinforce walls to create distance, purposely intimidate and hurt neighbors rather than offer them a helping hand.
We are a seriously wounded and anguished people,
each of us having tried flying solo,
believing we are in the right and somehow favored.
Instead we have faltered and fallen.
We now lie bleeding alongside the road, as did the Samaritan,
dependent on someone,
the “other”,
to reach out in compassion
knowing we bleed the same blood.
We who doubt,
must no longer doubt the truth of who and what we are.
We bleed together.
