True confession… my head feels, in this moment, like someone has taken my neatly sorted plastic boxes of quilt scraps and dumped them in the road and run over them a few times!
All the bits which made sense among their color or pattern or designer friends are now in chaos.
And yes, I’ve been watching the news.
We’re going to call that context for the story I want to share…
Fair warning… a bit of time travel will be involved!
In July of this year I was in France. Not just in the contemporary nation of acres of blooming sunflowers and fabulous food and art, but in the places where my ancestors stood in the Middle Ages. In the places where some of them lost their lives for their spiritual beliefs.
In January of 1989 I was in Hungary with a group of students from Columbia Theological Seminary. I passed through customs into – and out of – a communist country. I sat in worship with women on one side of the sanctuary and men on the other. Church was permitted. Christian Education was not.
I visited a Jewish Rabbinical Seminary – the only one in Eastern Europe to survive World War II – where students removed their shoes before entering the library… a place which had not been permitted to acquire any new writings since before the war began.
There was a lot of conversation on that journey about the Protestant Reformation.
The simplistic explanation for that time in history would be the break of Lutherans and Calvinists from the Roman Catholic Church.
I’ve recently learned that The Reformation was considerably more complicated than I once understood. And I had relatives involved in that, too. Many of them European women with enough resources to be able to read and write and support the education of girls.
Lately, l’ve taken to watching Madam Secretary on Netflix. For the uninitiated, Secretary of State, Elizabeth McCord, is married to a religious ethics scholar named Henry. In one episode, Henry explains that the Reformation happened because of the printing press… because scripture could be printed in the language of real people who could then read for themselves instead of only hearing what priests chose to share, in Latin.
Which brings us back to the news. Here’s what I heard…
The battles over the Department of Justice, and the national budget, and election fraud, and having enough personnel to run the military, and civil rights, and the education our children will receive all boils down to who gets to decide who gets to decide.
And, in my opinion, in this place at this time, the answer still needs to be we, the people.
Which, clearly, isn’t easy.
It means that we, the people need to show up. Even when it’s hard.
And, yes, I took a break today for painting and energy healing!
Then, I went back to the thing I call Filters, and my process for getting it out into the world.
It’s coming! Soon!!! (The videos are done…)
And, it’s my best way of being the printing press in the face of all the AI stuff in our world.
For now, though… one more story from Hungary. A group of us were speaking with a young Hungarian seminary student. He told us that he and his friends were raised with the need to wake up every morning and find out who was in charge and where they lived.
I was horrified, then.
I’m way too close to relating, now.
If you’re still reading, I’ll bet you already get it, but please, please, please… ask the hard questions. Get involved. And check your voter registration! Your voice matters… now more than ever before in your life.
And, yes…
I have 2 granddaughters trying very hard to grow up in this world!
The Rev Dr Susan L Boardman, Gnostic Judeo-Christian Mystic Medicine Woman, walking the Way of Love (aka: The Fiercely Compassionate Rebel Grandmother, For Rent!)
ps… the special pre-sale offer for the Filters journey is still available, but not for much longer! Get all the goodies at a considerable savings by acting now. Just click here!
pps… the photo at the top is underlayers of a painting which became known as SuperPowers and you could have leggings like this! (Really!!!) Wearable Art! And, if you see more pairs you’d like, use the special code at checkout… Buy 2 – Save $8
I teach English online, globally, to second language learners. That means I have students in China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Italy, Norway, the UK, Columbia, Brazil and my country, the US. I teach adults, usually college-educated or university students, who speak English very well but need someone to speak with. I have learned that people who live in conservative countries suffer and if that conservative government attaches itself to a religion the suffering of the people increases. People tell me daily that they do not have freedom of speech or freedom of the press or freedom to do much of anything. People tell me how afraid they are. They tell me that their employers have quietly told them to leave their country. I listen to the agony of not wanting to leave their country, families and children, but not knowing what else to do. I wish the people of my country, the US, heard what I hear and realize that we are the hope of many peoples, that many would give all they have including their life to get their children to this country. I pray that we somehow find the wisdom and the courage to hear truth, become aware of those who would destroy what we have, and do what is needed to keep and expand what we have.
Thanks, Barbara, for speaking out. I, too, pray that we hear and act for the greater good!