Month: January 2025

There are times when the words I seek are so much less than words that already exist. Today was one of those days. I stumbled upon this poem by Maya Angelou and kept thinking about how to incorporate it into one of my blogs. Somehow attempting to overlay my ideas with her brilliance seemed to be a desecration, so herewith is the poem alone for you to ponder. I hope it enriches your day the way it did for me.

“Continue” a poem by Maya Angelou

My wish for you

Is that you continue

Continue

To be who and how you are

To astonish a mean world

With your acts of kindness

Continue

To allow humor to lighten the burden

Of your tender hear

Continue

In a society dark with cruelty

To let the people hear the grandeur

Of God in the peals of your laughter

Continue

To let your eloquence

Elevate the people to heights

They had only imagined

Continue

To remind the people that

Each is as good as the other

And that no one is beneath

Nor above you

Continue

To remember your own young years

And look with favor upon the lost

And the least and the lonely

Continue

To put the mantle of your protection

Around the bodies of

The young and defenseless

Continue

To take the hand of the despised

And diseased and walk proudly with them

In the high street

Some might see you and

Be encouraged to do likewise

Continue

To plant a public kiss of concern

On the cheek of the sick

And the aged and infirm

And count that as a

Natural action to be expected

Continue

To let gratitude be the pillow

Upon which you kneel to

Say your nightly prayer

And let faith be the bridge

You build to overcome evil

And welcome good

Continue

To ignore no vision

Which comes to enlarge your range

And increase your spirit

Continue

To dare to love deeply

And risk everything

For the good thing

Continue

To float

Happily in the sea of infinite substance

Which set aside riches for you

Before you had a name

Continue

And by doing so

You and your work

Will be able to continue

As we begin a new year I often think back on my life which now numbers more decades than I ever imagined. I do not engage in “what ifs” because all in all I have enjoyed my journey. As with anyone my biography has had its ups and downs, struggles and victories. There have been times so wonderful that I found myself wishing that time might be made to stand still. Other moments were so difficult that I wanted to escape from them as soon as possible. All in all mine has been a series of events much like those that most human beings encounter. I have learned that small pleasures are the most valuable and that people are mostly good. I have found myself finding strengths that I never knew I had. 

While my life is mostly good I have seen that others have been challenged with immeasurable suffering. I think of how horrific it must be for people who have been shunned by society and treated without the kind of respect and kindness that should be the due of everyone, not just those who are the same as I am. As a child I saw Black people sitting at the back of buses and being humiliated by segregation. My mother told me of the prejudices hurled against immigrants like herself. From my mother I also realized how isolated and despised and misunderstood those afflicted with mental illness so often are. I came to know members of the LGBTQ community and learned about the tragedies of hatred that they endure even to this very day. I comforted women who had been abused by brutal men. 

Somehow I have been thinking about one of my mother’s repeated quotes discussing “man’s inhumanity to man.” Historically we humans have a dark track record of being cruel and sometimes even deadly in our relationships with one another. We humans even managed to put a good and gentle man to death on a cross for no legitimate reason other than misunderstanding his message of love. 

At this time of year I look at the Christmas cards that I received from friends and family members. There always seems to be one that stands out more than the others. In the long ago in the year of my youngest daughter’s birth one of my dearest friends gave me a greeting that simply said, “Love was born at Christmastime.” 

I was so taken by that message that I framed the card and kept it on a wall in my home until it became yellowed with age. Somehow the essence of the Christmas story and the life of Jesus was synthesized in those five words. It all seemed so simple to me. The reason for the season is that we learned from that baby born to Mary and Joseph how we are supposed to love. The words of Jesus, the adult, were so very clear when he told us to love our neighbors just as we love ourselves. A whole religion called Christianity grew up around his message and example and yet we have forgotten or maybe ignored the heart of what he told us to do. 

Slaveholders read the Bible. People who hung Black men from trees read the Bible. Some who abuse each other read the Bible. Men who put Jews in concentration camps read the Bible. Even today the Bible is being used as a weapon to hurt others. It’s an age old hypocrisy of humans to use religion as an excuse for hate or greed or power. 

I recall a time when many people walked around with shirts and lanyards emblazoned with the letters and question mark WWJD? Of course they asked, “What would Jesus do?” and they were a kind of reminder to us to consider how this great teacher would expect us to behave in any situation. Somehow I don’t recall any account of his life including fire and brimstone rages about people. What I do recall is his willingness to perform miracles in defiance of silly rules prohibiting such things on certain days of the week. I remember him touching people with leprosy when others ostracized them for being unclean. I think of the time that he praised the Samaritan who was considered to be an outsider in his community. I know of his love of Mary Magdalene who was thought to be a fallen woman. Over and over again he demonstrated his unfettered love and concern for people who were generally ostracized and hated. 

I think if Jesus were to return today he would be saddened with some of the interpretations of his message. We’ve muddled the simplicity of what he told us to do with exception after exception. We drive immigrants seeking refuge from our midst then go to church proclaiming our piety. We judge people even as we know that Jesus chided us for judging lest we also be judged. We spew hatred for people that we do not understand and pretend that our intentions are grounded in the rules of religion, forgetting that there is one basic rule that will allow us to always do the right thing. 

If we truly love one another we will not steal or harm or spread lies about each other. We will honor everyone just as Jesus told us to do. We will not cheat or scheme or neglect each other. Jesus took complicated rules and boiled them down to a few words that said all that we need to do and he told us exactly how we all should strive to be. If we truly want to praise God and live properly in this season of celebration we will take a deep breath and offer kindness in all things. We don’t have to understand someone to love him or her. I feel certain that is what Jesus wanted us to know. In the final analysis it’s all about love.  

Some folks are pretty good at seeing things coming.

It’s a new year and I am doing my best to concentrate on the hopefulness of a new start. I’ve been anxious about the future of our nation for many many months as I have witnessed Donald Trump and his followers rewrite the history of what I witnessed happening on January 6, 2021. I have been on a roller coaster ride of hope and despair for months, even years in realizing that Trump was not going away, was not going to receive justice for his many crimes. Somehow everything that I believed about the goodness and fairness of the United States of America kept unravelling before my very eyes until the reality that Donald Trump was narrowly being sent back to the White House crushed my very soul. 

I have spent the past weeks hoping to make sense of the fact that a selfish hateful man was elected by a narrow margin of voters who somehow believe that he is the panacea that our nation needs in this time of division and uncertainty. I did my best to be kind and understanding to those who voted for this despicable man. I understand that inflation has made the cost of simply living from day to day quite difficult. I have seen my grocery bills grow to an almost unbelievable high. Shopping for the Christmas festivities was more stressful than ever. I realized that many Americans with fewer resources than I have must indeed be worried about just getting by. The economy has always been a major factor in the decisions that individuals make when they vote. 

Nonetheless it seemed to me that Trump’s chronic hatefulness and meandering bombast would be judged negatively by a majority of people. Surely, I thought, the American electorate would be turned off by such a blithering and bitter fool who mostly seemed intent on seeking revenge rather than building alliances and moving forward together after the long frightening years of the pandemic and wars in so many parts of the world. 

One of my daughters was not as certain as I was that Americans would be as turned off by the ugliness. She kept warning me that Trump had channeled people’s deepest fears and that even in his most incoherent moments he had convinced them that he was the strongman that they needed to set our ship aright. She tried to anchor my optimism in the realities of what she saw happening. 

Of course I was shocked when the votes had been counted and it was clear that Trump was going to be president again. Still, I felt that surely he would be more humble because his victory was won by such a narrow margin. I hoped that he would see that we desperately need a leader who works for everyone, not just one third of the population. I grieved in a kind of stoic silence and prayed that everything would be okay. I thought I had until January 20, 2025 to worry about what will unfold. I did not expect the fireworks to be sent into the sky before he even took office and yet here we are and I realize that my daughter was masterful in seeing what is coming.

It has been bad enough hearing about the atrocious cabinet nominations that Trump has made. Even worse is his plan to use two unelected billionaires to gut our federal agencies. His daily promises for revenge against his perceived enemies has been unnerving and the unwillingness of the media to stand up to his bullying has left me in a state of panic. Still, I did my best to cling to positive thoughts and actions. 

I decorated my home for Christmas. I sent out my Christmas cards and greetings. I planned festivities with friends and family. I read a chapter of Luke from the Bible each day. I prayed and looked for the silver lining in the news. I clung to the idea that Trump was not going to be nearly as bad as I had imagined. I listened to people who are calmer than I am who reassured me that things would settle down and the next four years would be much like any others. Then came the audacity of Elon Muck demanding that Congress abandon an appropriations bill that they had agreed to sign after much compromise. When many of them backed down and seemed willing to allow the government to shut down on the eve of Christmas I felt broken. When Trump vowed at the same moment in time to try Liz Cheney for the crime of investigating him after January 6, 2020, I felt as though he had personally punched me and knocked me to the ground. When ABC folded so quickly after Trump threatened to sue them for defamation when in fact only the truth had been uttered I felt the weight of despair crush me. Then I took a deep breath and resolved not to lie on the ground whimpering. I knew then that the only way that we will get through the horror of what is surely to come is if we resist all efforts to destroy our beautiful democracy. 

I thought of those men that we now call our Founding Fathers risking their very lives to revolt against a monarchy. I remembered Abraham Lincoln standing firm in keeping our nation together. I thought of Franklin Delano Roosevelt guiding us through an horrific war against evil despots. I remembered the men who have been presidents during my lifetime and while none of them were perfect, they all tried to be the best versions of themselves. Even the one who left the White House in shame did so with a sense of doing what was right for the people. 

Our future feels grim and ugly if indeed Trump continues with his goals of vindictiveness and selfish lust for power. He is dealing with people’s lives without a sense of compassion. He is threatening changes that may well be disastrous. I see that now more clearly than ever and understand that pretending otherwise will only make the situation worse. We Americans must protect our Constitution and our laws and the essence of our democracy. It’s up to us to call out those who would destroy them for their own selfish purposes. Looking the other way would be terribly wrong. We must be vigilant in protecting each other, most especially when we are celebrating the birth of a new year. My only resolution this year will be to do whatever it takes to protect my country and its people.