|
I’ve been worrying all week about what I could possibly write in a newsletter following the Tuesday election. Say nothing at all, sticking to business as usual? Speak from my heart about how I feel? What would Miss Gloria do, as she’s the wisest person I know? I believe she would speak from the heart as the only authentic way forward, while listening to the feelings of her friends and neighbors as well.
So, in the plainest words, I’m shocked and grieving for our country. At the same time, I know some of you are greatly relieved, possibly even excited. How can we possibly bridge such a gap?
Our ministers in Connecticut acknowledged the difficulty of these times, with a quote from Abraham Lincoln: “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have.”
And here’s a quote from Toni Morrison, via my sister, Susan Cerulean: "This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal."
If neither of those speak to you, Miss Gloria herself suggested that AA Milne’s Winnie the Pooh had the best idea of all, when Pooh and Piglet went looking for Eeyore:
Eeyore looked at them in surprise. ‘What are you doing?’
‘We’re sitting here with you,’ said Pooh, ‘because we are your friends. And true friends don’t care if someone is feeling Sad, or Alone, or Not Much Fun To Be Around At All. True friends are there for you anyway. And so here we are.’
‘Oh,’ said Eeyore. ‘Oh.’
And the three of them sat there in silence, and while Pooh and Piglet said nothing at all; somehow, almost imperceptibly, Eeyore started to feel a very tiny little bit better.
|
