11/08/2024
Here's what I’ve been doing since election day: gathering (mostly online) with people who care about each other to give and receive the good words that are, as the poet says, bread for the soul.
“Good words” come in many forms. Sometimes they're words of pain, anger, and fear. Sometimes they're words of resistance and commitment to the struggle. What good words have in common is the simple fact that they come from the depths of the human heart—and when we speak them, they deepen the bond of trust that creates community.
Trust has been one of the big losers in this era of American politics—and trust is what we must restore if we are to reweave and transform the tattered fabric of our common life. So let’s begin close in, with people we know to be trustworthy. And let's keep expanding the circle to those who "stand in need" the way we do.
For the past three days, I’ve had a chance to do just that with groups ranging from 4 to 25 to 1,000. It's been healing and empowering for me.
Slowly, slowly, I’m finding ground beneath my feet again. Slowly, slowly, in the lives of my friends, colleagues, and strangers I’m seeing the bright stars V.P. Harris talked about in her concession speech—good people doing going work against stiff odds—stars that are best seen against the backdrop of a midnight sky.
David Whyte has it right: turn off the noise of what people call “the news.” Tune in to the news of the human heart where ground and guidance for the journey can always be found. Exercise the muscle called trust whenever and wherever we can—and then reach out in trust to one more and one more and one more.
No one is going to rescue us, so let's start rebuilding a community devoted to the common good from the inside out and from the ground up. We're all hungry, and we can feed each other.
[David Whyte’s books are at http://tiny.cc/0q7uzz. My 10 books are at http://tiny.cc/r3gtzz.]
