As we celebrate this season of holiday blessings, gratitude, and cheer, I want to share a story with you. For several months now I have been thinking about the distressing circumstances in which we find ourselves in the world today. I have been contemplating our situation and, ever hopeful, looking for understanding and reasons for encouragement. Notwithstanding the constant barrage of media and the fear mongers, I am encouraged! As I was leaving the gym last week, my attention was drawn to a woman standing with her back to me, in conversation with another. I did not know her, indeed … [Read more...]
Nonviolent Action and Incarnational Spirituality
As we observe the fiftieth anniversary (on August 28th) of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and Martin Luther King’s transcendent “I Have a Dream” speech, I am reminded of the quiet power and effectiveness of nonviolent collaborative community effort directed towards achieving common goals. Nonviolent action achieves its objectives without using violence, but rather through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, and other means. The modern form of non-violent resistance was most notably practiced by Mahatma Gandhi, and subsequently followed … [Read more...]
Score: Darkness 2, Light 1,000,000
I am a Bostonian. We have had a tough week here. We suffered a violent act of darkness as two young men attacked us, killing 3, critically injuring and maiming scores of others, and attempting to shake our individual and communal senses of security and trust. They failed. Resoundingly. And so, even in the midst of this crisis, we have had a great week here. Everything that is the best in us, in humanity, is on full display: love, compassion, fearlessness in the face of danger, generosity, strength, selflessness, kindness, commitment to community, protection of others, clarity, … [Read more...]
We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For
As we arrive at this time of endings and new beginnings, I have been in deep contemplation, seeking to understand what is going on in the world around us, and wondering about our human station, as we mourn twenty young children, and six of their teachers, from Newtown, Connecticut. Blessings upon them, their parents, their teachers, families and friends, and all of us. They have served well, reminding us in unbearable sacrifice of themselves, of the truth and what matters, and moving us to take action now and do what we need to do, to be our best selves, in the fullness of the best that is … [Read more...]