WordSisters

Category: Change

  • Living in a Parallel Universe

    Usually we avoid politics in this blog, but today I feel I must speak.

    I woke up to life in a country I didn’t recognize. One in which half of the citizens view what our country needs and how to achieve it very differently than I do. Guided by liberal news media and pundits, I expected Hillary to win. I am shocked and saddened that she lost. Apparently I’ve been living in a parallel universe—I thought most of the country shared my values.

    Although I’m worried about our country’s future, I believe Trump supporters were just as worried. We all love our country, but we differ in our assessment of what our biggest problems are and what the solutions should be. I am profoundly disappointed, but I will continue to fight to create the world I want to see.

    As Hillary says, “Fighting for what’s right is worth it. It’s always worth it.”

  • Fall Meditation

    Every year fall delights me. Nondescript shrubs and trees surprise me with their dazzling colors. The cool air and shorter days are visceral reminders that we are not simply brains attached to keyboards and phones, but human animals subject to the rhythms of nature. Being part of a cycle that has been going on every year for eons restores my perspective. I hope these photos refresh you, too.

    The pleasing artistry of primary colors—coreopsis, salvia, and burning bush

    fall-flowers

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The exuberance of neighborhood Halloween decorations

    blowup-goblin

     

     

    graveyard

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The surprise of seeing three construction workers on a seven-story building across from the hospital cafeteria

    construction

    The peaceful beauty of a golden tree arching over Minnehaha Creek

    creek-and-golden-tree

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Winter will be here soon enough, but for now, I’m immersing myself in everything this fall offers.

  • A Change Is Gonna Come

    In 1967, when there were race riots in Detroit and Toledo, my hometown, I was 12. Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated in 1968. Chicago policemen clubbed protesters who chanted, “The whole world is watching” at the Democratic National convention in 1968.

    civil rights protest

    In 1970, when Ohio National Guardsmen killed four students and injured nine others on the Kent State University campus, I was 15. Vietnam War protests took place across the country. Students took over college campus buildings. Protesters stormed government buildings. Thousands marched in the streets.

    Kent & Jackson State

    The civil rights movement and war protests shook our country. The old ways—from entrenched institutions like segregation to how political parties worked, and what we wanted from authorities like police—were under siege and crumbling. As a teenager, I felt the turbulence. Anything could happen. Was happening. Although I was against segregation and the Vietnam War, the violence associated with ending those ills scared me.

    However, I sensed the dawning of a new era and was hopeful that real change, as well as peace and justice, were possible.

    Black protests

    Today, I have the same sense. Once again our country, and indeed, the Western world (Great Britain’s Brexit and the European union’s struggles with immigration and identity) is at a crossroads.

    refugees

    No matter what, change is gonna come. 10 years from now, our country is going to be different.

    Decades have passed since I was a teenager who was bewildered by events and worried about our future. Today, I still worry about where our country is headed, and I don’t know what the coming changes will look like, but I’m hopeful.

    I believe that people of good faith will work to end systemic racism.

    I believe Americans will return to our core values: we’re a nation of immigrants who are committed to religious freedom.

    I’m hopeful that despite our differences, we can redirect our political leaders so they once again work for all of us.

    If you feel discouraged and hopeless about the possibility of change, click to this video set to Sam Cooke’s civil rights anthem “A Change Is Gonna Come” to be reminded of how many unbelievably hard changes have taken place since the late 1960’s.

    None of the coming changes will be easy and they will certainly be imperfect. Nonetheless, I believe that Americans’ good sense and love of justice will prevail.

    “I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will.”