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description= The shortest distance between two human points is the crooked line of aimless love. -- Terry Read;

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Text of the page (random words):
t thing jesus is reported to have said is do not be afraid one person s heroic messiah is another person s evil terrorist who must be humiliated and destroyed when forces of oppression and annihilation are on the loose some people collude some people flee and hide behind locked doors some people keep their heads down and try to pass some people usually those with the least to lose run headlong into danger testifying with their bodies or their words or their lives to the irrational notion that love is stronger than death as last night s election results began to coalesce my father called me from his bed in the rehab unit where he s recovering from a heart attack and emergency double bypass surgery his first words were so where are you moving my immediate reply surprised me not so much with its content but with its ferocity given how defeated and despondent i felt i m not going anywhere i m staying and i m fighting as i talked with each of my parents last night as we shared our laments and anger i felt a deep and renewed appreciation for how that response to stay and fight for what i believe and whom i belove is something i learned from them even as i feel so sorry for their having to endure this latest election i feel infinitely blessed that they are both still alive to remind me how to survive this election with love by love for love yes some of us are grieving while others are celebrating some of us are dying while others are being born some of us are feeling liberated while others are being incarcerated tortured even murdered for who we are this is how life is this is how life has always been our task has always been this figure out what you want your life to stand for and live it as fearlessly and courageously as possible take your inspirations where you can find them and build on them learn how to love both ferociously and tenderly and then use that love to change what you can in yourselves and in the world after last night many of my friends are wondering what we tell our children whether they are adults or not yet born or somewhere in between this is what i m telling mine and i aim to live long enough for them to tell me their version of this when i need to hear it come to think of it they already have share this email a link to a friend opens in new window email share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x share on reddit opens in new window reddit print opens in new window print like loading 8 comments posted in life in general we got next posted on june 26 2015 4 comments this week this life i can t believe what i ve seen and heard this week really it s as though every cell of my body is simultaneously ecstatic and exhausted on sunday night at an interfaith prayer service to honor the charleston nine at the historic charles ame church in roxbury the attorney general of my state maura healey gave a rousing sermon in which she said this today we talk of mourning the hurt we feel of healing and coming together and that is right but that is not enough that will not do we have work to do in basketball we say i got next when you want to challenge someone tonight i got next you got next our government s got next each and every one of us has got next we must challenge ourselves and our leaders every day every day every person must make this their own to see the world through the other s eyes to live the world through the other s experiences the other s circumstances two days ago the governor of alabama robert bentley ordered all the confederate flags removed from the grounds state capitol in one of his statements about the situation he said this i said we re going to remove them and i did bentley said i m the first governor that has removed a confederate flag this morning the supreme court of the united states issued a 5 4 ruling making marriage equality the law of the land the concluding paragraph of the decision written by justice anthony kennedy said this no union is more profound than marriage for it embodies the highest ideals of love fidelity devotion sacrifice and family in forming a marital union two people become something greater than once they were as some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death it would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage their plea is that they do respect it respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness excluded from one of civilization s oldest institutions they ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law the constitution grants them that right the judgment of the court of appeals for the sixth circuit is reversed it is so ordered today my marriage to pw is legal in every one of the united states of america today i listened to my president praise this decision with a challenge when he said this those who have come so far on their journey to equality have a responsibility to reach back and help others join them as the news spread on the equal marriage decision political people in opposition to it began their predictable chorus of outrage and rebellion i felt compelled to write a post on facebook in which i said this can you hear it the reactions of people insistent on not obeying this new law of the land equal marriage echo the refusals to adhere to the 14th amendment when it first became the law of the land in 1868 protecting newly free persons who had been enslaved are you listening are you paying attention to what you hear queer people and allies do not limit your joy today but know this our freedom is inextricably linked to freedom for all society s disenfranchised we can not be rest or be satisfied until all are free in short we need to work our asses off to end white supremacy and the myriad forms of racism it generates from the benign to the murderous it will be difficult it will require our hearts to break open it will require each of us to be willing to sit with and hold the justifiable outrage and despair of people we do not know and who do not look or think like us love one another live for each other as i was typing that our president began to sing amazing grace at the funeral for the rev clementa pinckney one of the charleston nine cut down in the middle of a wednesday night bible study by a white supremacist hearing president obama lead thousands of mourners in that song gave me such a strong memory of my friend and mentor the late john shepherd who died of aids on october 7 1993 in washington dc he was 48 i remember a passionate speech john gave during a worship committee meeting on the subject of the hymn amazing grace john said he would not play it unless the words that saved a wretch like me were changed to that saved and set me free in his speech john said this all my life i ve been told i m a wretch or if not told that then treated like one so while i love this hymn and i believe in grace i will not be labeled as a wretch any more and i don t want anyone to take that label on let s focus not on who we are before grace arrives but on what grace does it sets us free ever since that day in 1991 i have always sung the line that way thank you john for teaching me to focus on freedom may we honor the millions who died enslaved or free to bring us to this place of a new kind of freedom may we all find the strength the wisdom the grace and the courage to go out of our way to bring freedom to those are not yet free if you know what freedom tastes like don t you want it for everyone else we got next people we got next share this email a link to a friend opens in new window email share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x share on reddit opens in new window reddit print opens in new window print like loading 4 comments posted in life in general tagged amazing grace charleston equal marriage freedom john shepherd marriage marriage equality maura healey president barack obama racism the algebra of life posted on june 7 2015 9 comments only an infrequent blogger such as i would have ears so tinny as to pose a mathematical riddle on a sunday today s algebraic challenge when does 62 24 show your work the answer is june 7 today is a mixed bag in our house in the algebra of life each june 7 marks another year of marriage for my parents while also marking another year that pw s dad has been dead today is my parents 62nd wedding anniversary pw s dad died 24 years ago today isn t that so like life one person can be experiencing a transcendent moment of awe while the person right next to her can be staggering through the endless rocky unpredictable terrain of grief even stranger is when the same person is living in both landscapes i never met pw s dad but i ve heard enough stories to wish i had met him and not a week goes by that i don t ask him in case he s hanging around within earshot did you see that did you hear that she s stunning isn t she my parents on their wedding day in 1953 as for my parents well in their 62 years of marriage i m pretty sure they ve reinvented the institution of marriage at least a handful of times probably more i ve never understood why people are afraid of marriage being reinvented it seems to me that every couple who enters into this covenant will reinvent it shape it in their own way learning how to love each other as they come to paraphrase kristin diable s true devotion my parents on pw s and my wedding day in 2004 i don t know the particulars that have gone into my parents reinvention i know some of the components that loom large admiration humor stubbornness and forgiveness when pw and i were watching the belmont stakes yesterday we were both struck by how newly minted triple crown winner american pharoah finished the race after a mile and a half it seemed like he was still accelerating that s what my parents 62 year marriage looks like to me today as though their union has more forward momentum than ever before i also happen to know that their church congregation gave them a standing ovation today so there s something else they have in common with the thunderous thoroughbred for some reason this poem comes to mind on this bittersweet anniversary it s from mary oliver s 2014 collection of poems entitled blue horses which pw gave me last christmas rumi for coleman barks when rumi went into the tavern i followed i heard a lot of crazy talk and a lot of wise talk but the roses wouldn t grow in my hair when rumi left the tavern i followed i don t mean just to peek at such a famous fellow indeed he was rather ridiculous with his long beard and his dusty feet but i heard less of the crazy talk and a lot more of the wise talk and i was hopeful enough to keep listening until the day i found myself transformed into an entire garden of roses which brings us to another math problem when does 62 24 infinity live your work share this email a link to a friend opens in new window email share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x share on reddit opens in new window reddit print opens in new window print like loading 9 comments posted in life in general tagged american pharoah anniversaries equal marriage grief kristin diable marriage marriage equality mary oliver parents rumi lent to us posted on february 18 2015 4 comments i ve emerged from the endless task of snow shoveling we ve had more than 96 inches of snow so far this winter to find that lent starts today these church seasons remind me of the hide and seek call ready or not here i come as usual i am not ready and i rarely know what to do with lent so i went back and read this sermon i gave three years ago on ash wednesday it seems as good a place to start as any the crooked line several weeks ago pw invited me to preach at the noon ash wednesday service at emmanuel my first thought which i kept to myself was yikes there s no way i can be ponderous enough to write and then give an ash wednesday sermon so of course what i said out loud was okay every time i worked on my remarks in the days leading up to today i kept hearing the voice of a man i interviewed recently for a letter i wrote for work so here s what i ended up with well here we are perched at the beginning of the 40 day journey of lent you know legend has it that explorers used to write there be dragons or they d draw dragons onto areas of maps to represent uncharted territory i ll confess that the view of lent from ash wednesday often feels to me like looking at a view original post 1 399 more words share this email a link to a friend opens in new window email share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x share on reddit opens in new window reddit print opens in new window print like loading 4 comments posted in life in general update from prison prayer as pep rally posted on december 23 2014 6 comments update pw had a clarification to the first bullet of holiday advice near the end of this post 3 47 pm eastern time 12 23 14 the two months at the end of the year are the most emotionally charged among the women who are incarcerated at the jail where we do our card making project every monday night this is as reliable as the tide and has been for each of the 17 years that pw has been leading this program this year these past few weeks have featured a loud woman who seemed almost boastful about her proclivity for stealing one night she crowed about having stolen an ornament off the christmas tree during chapel because i m outta here on wednesday and i liked the ornament and i wanted to give it to my mom the guard who accompanied us that night said you re outta here wednesday see you on thursday we haven t seen her since that night yet several silent weeping women painstakingly making cards for their infant children a table full of ebullient women who sang rudolph the red nosed reindeer loudly complete with shout outs rudolph the red nosed reindeer reindeer had a very shiny nose like a light bulb and if you ever saw it saw it you would even say it glows like a flash light all of the other reindeer reindeer used to laugh and call him names like pinocchio they never let poor rudolph rudolph join in any reindeer games like monopoly then one foggy christmas eve santa came to say rudolph with your nose so bright won t you guide my sleigh tonight then how the reindeer loved him loved him as they shouted out with glee with glee rudolph the red nosed reindeer reindeer you ll go down in history like george washington last night there were five women one of whom was chomping at the bit to get started i have a lot to do and i don t have a lot of time come on let s go we hadn t even gathered for our opening circle and her energy was spiraling out of control pw responded by leading our usual opening prayer as though we were a football team huddling in the locker room for a rousing pep talk before taking the field there we were five volu...