Epiphany X: It's up to us

Good Thursday morning, good pilgrims of The Epiphany Season. The cold weather - 15 degrees this morning - is rather shocking to the system. Thank God we are blessed to have this wee cozy cottage. Our warmest thoughts and deepest prayers are with our siblings in California who have lost their homes or sustained terrible damage to them, and especially those who have lost the lives of their loved ones.

For many of us, the world feels increasingly out of control. Even with the good news of the cease-fire in Israel-Palestine, the next thirty days are very fragile. So many things could happen - might happen - to cause the whole thing to come crumbling down.

President Biden's farewell speech last night was a work of political brilliance. He did not waste time on self-accolades but simply, briefly highlighted the major accomplishments of his administration.

He said the word: Oligarchy. Said it. Right in front of God and the whole country - indeed, the international stage. He blew the trumpet in Zion, to sanctify a fast and gather a solemn assembly to stay together and stand fast in the democratic principles that founded this great nation.

The Statue of Liberty, he reminded us, was masterfully designed to sway a little when the storms rage. And, he cautioned, so must we.

I could hear Motormouth Maybelle somewhere in my head saying, "Well, love is a gift, a lot of people don't remember that. So, you two better brace yourselves for a whole lotta ugly comin' at you from a neverending parade of stupid."

"It's up to you," he said.

The smooth transition of power is not going to be from one administration to another, but from one former POTUS to the American people.

It's up to us.

We live in a representative democracy. The key to a successful democracy is a highly participatory citizenry. You know what that means: We are going to have to start showing up. We are going to have to start speaking out. And, if you've already been doing that, you've got to start inspiring others to do the same.

Each one, teach one. That was one of the slogans of the Civil Rights Movement. Now is the time to bring that back.

Most importantly, we are going to have to be radical. By that I mean, orthodox. By which I mean "back to our roots."

We are going to have to be intentionally kind to each other.

That feels an impossible vocation in a political culture and climate where cruelty is the point.

No, it doesn't mean that we lie down and let people walk all over us - not unless it is part of an act of peaceful protest.

No, it does not mean that we smile while acts of cruelty are being done in our name. It means that we do not honor cruelty and stupidity by engaging with it. Smile and walk away. And then, work in small groups to agitate, to be subversive, to prevent the emerging social paradigm of cruelty from the place of dominance it is insistent on claiming.

President Biden modeled the calm, kind but strong, insistent, and persistent demeanor we are all going to need to adapt if we are going to get through the next two years before we can take back at least one branch of government.

My mantra these days is "Be kind. Be kind. Be kind." I have to say that, over and over, because honestly? That's not my first impulse. However, it's as MLK Jr said, ""Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that."

And, the second is like unto it, from the words of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar at the All India Depressed Classes conference in 1942 in India: "Educate. Agitate. Organize."

My daily prayer includes these words from MLK, Jr's letter from the Birmingham Jail. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

It's up to us, now. Let's stay focused and do this. We got a whole lotta ugly that's going to come at us from a neverending parade of stupid. Like the Lady with the Lamp in the harbor, we're going to have to learn to sway in the upcoming storm.

We can do this. Together.

I hope something good happens to you today.

Bom dia.