Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones
...and words, unspoken, hurt
“Here the whole world (stars, water, air,
And field, and forest, as they were
Reflected in a single mind)
Like cast off clothes was left behind
In ashes, yet with hopes that she,
Re-born from holy poverty,
In lenten lands, hereafter may
Resume them on her Easter Day.”
- C. S. Lewis - for his beloved Joy at her memorial
Words.
May we all be “re-born from Holy poverty” before we take our last breath.
While I try and seek all the joy I can behold, in these precious days that God has given me, with gratitude, thankful..
..there is so so much pain and suffering to bear.
Pain which closes in as wars rage on, another young soul takes their life, “sudden deaths” rise, and “movements” in the name of civility spread the manure of hatred and hostility, blanketing my soul with labored sadness.
I write about a dog as the touch of his outreached paw reminded me of love unconditional. Quiet, unrestrained love.
For powerful presidents, guiding our youth, withholding all that is decent and kind, speaking paradoxical edicts, in monotone voices… this… is akin to sticks and stones.
We are deeply broken by what is not said.
Martin Luther King was able to say it beautifully in part of a sermon he gave at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, on or near July 4 of 1965:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by God, Creator, with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
He went onto say:
“This is a dream. It’s a great dream.
The first saying we notice in this dream is an amazing universalism. It doesn’t say, ‘some men’; it says ‘all men.’ It doesn’t say ‘all white men’; it says ‘all men,’ which includes black men. It does not say ‘all Gentiles’; it says ‘all men,’ which includes Jews. It doesn’t say ‘all Protestants’; it says ‘all men,’ which includes Catholics. It doesn’t even say ‘all theists and believers’; it says ‘all men,’ which includes humanists and agnostics.”
- MLK
By men, we know he meant “mankind.”
It’s Hanukkah.
“For you Israel are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession” - Deuteronomy 7:6
This Hanukkah, this season of Light bearing hope, may we collectively weep for, and share in, the burden of pain. For His people. For mankind.
Martin Luther King goes onto say:
“Never before in the history of the world has a sociopolitical document expressed in such profound, eloquent and unequivocal language the dignity and the worth of human personality. The American dream reminds us—and we should think about it anew on this Independence Day—that every man is an heir of the legacy of dignity and worth.” - MLK
Denounce evil.
Say their names.
Share the burden of Israel’s pain in your heart.
Understand the self-evidence of brokenness.
Words unspoken are ashen to dignity and worth.
Don’t let the history that is repeating itself, repeat.
“Do not be envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them. For their heart devises violence, and their lips speak of trouble-making.” - Proverbs 24:1-2
I will not rest my appeals to our God Almighty, in the name of their mothers, until they all come home.
NOW.