Okay… technically the one I’ll get to in a minute is tied with Grammy for my favorite word. And that, right there, lets you know it’s a really big deal!
It’s a Hebrew word which, transliterated into English, would sound like tzcar. It means remember. It also means to remind!
And, yes… it’s no doubt near the top of my consciousness because the time from sunset Monday to sunset Tuesday, this week, was Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Now, as you probably know, I like learning new things!
One of the things I’ve learned, just in the last few months, is that my 70th and 71st great grandfathers were a couple of Jewish guys named Hezekiah, who had some other complicated stuff in their names which seems to connect them to the House of David. (And, yes, the time was right. We’re talking dates commonly referred to as BCE.)
Then there’s the fact that my granddaughters have Jewish ancestors… considerably more recent than the Hezekiahs.
Now, when I mixed all of that into the simmering soup pot known as CNN, yesterday, I wound up with a whole lot of noticing and wondering bubbles!
You, of course, may be noticing and wondering other things. These are just mine…
There’s a whole lot of what’s mine is mine going on in this world. And a big batch of what’s yours is mine, too.
The power over team is getting a whole lot more air time than the power for folks.
The whole familiar = safe and different = danger bit is spreading like – well – a pandemic.
To be honest, I kept trying to turn it all off. I cried. I swore. I signed petitions.
And then, the ah-hah!
You see, I’d spent the morning at Physical Therapy, getting – if you’ll pardon the image – a whole lot of dry needles stuck in my hip.
Not fun. Not remotely comfortable. But, important, because I have things I want and that means doing some things differently along the way.
And, seasoning the pot, if you will, an old favorite quote from the Quaker tradition:
In order to learn, we must be willing to be changed!
I’m starting here: ALL the people are OUR people!!!
At least, in theory! In practice, it probably looks a whole lot like ALL the people who want to be OUR people, already are. Or, WE the people… if you prefer. Not race or nationality. Humanity!
Which isn’t too far from, Come unto me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Mt 11:28).
As far as I can tell, there have always been some folks who don’t want the world to be us… they want it to be us and them.
I get it! The vast majority of us grew up with the notion that we’re still here so the way we’ve always done it has to be the only way.
Karl Jung has a good explanation for the theory. It’s the practice that’s not working so well these days!
Which kind of implies that we’ve got to start right where we are!
Where I was, about 6:00 this morning, was curled in the bed, trying to sleep while Grandmother Moon was hanging on the wall, channeling C.J. Cregg!
Yep! The West Wing!
Season 2, episode 9. Galileo.
NASA looses contact with the landing craft mission to Mars. The President needs to talk to thousands of school kids.
Press Secretary, C.J. Cregg is all for going ahead with the televised classroom plan, even though they don’t know what happened to Galileo. Her reason went a lot like this…
A lot of those kids are afraid to raise their hands or go to the blackboard because they might not get it right. Let’s show them how the big kids do it. Let’s tell them we’re going to keep trying…
I’m with C.J. And I’ll go one step farther. What if it is our job to go to the blackboard, when it matters. Even when we’re not sure how it will all turn out?
What if our job, in this life, is to claim what’s in our medicine baskets and raise our hands… for my girls, growing up in this world, and for all the people who come with and after them???
ps… the painting is In the Beginning. The word in the limb of the tree of life is – you guessed it! – tzcar. To remember and remind!
pps… got a hand to raise? Need some help along the path? Let’s talk! The calendar elves will hook you up… 45 min. My gift. (Yep… me raising my hand!)
