RBG and Now What?

Stunned. Sad. Scared. 

That's how I felt when I heard the news Friday evening about the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I didn't sleep well that night, waking up frequently feeling a bit unsteady about what the loss of this dignified, but fierce woman will mean for the future of this country. 

Nina Totenberg, the American legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio, called her "a force to be reckoned with," and oh, how grateful I am we had that force for as long as we did, but what now?

Somehow it didn't feel right to carry on with business as usual Saturday morning, but I know myself well enough to know that what I most need when I experience a flurry of messy feelings is to sit with those feelings. To listen to what those feelings tell me, especially about how to respond.

I started the day as I do most days--with time for devotion, prayer and meditation. I read this in Healing After Loss by Martha Whitmore Hickman. 

               We are not alone in the world. We are bound to 

               the rest of creation as cells in a body are bound 

               together.                                                        

                   And not only bound to the living, but bound to 

              the dead. We feel this to be true as well, though 

              we don't understand how. 

 

I thought about RBG's legacy--not only the way she lived her life and the vast influence she had on the Supreme Court, but the example she set for women and for men, too. That does not disappear because she has died. She is bound to the living forever more.

I know there are difficult days ahead. Shaky at best, and those of us who pray and work for a change in the administration know RBG's death at this time is a blow, but we can each be a "force to be reckoned with," too.

So what did I do with those messy feelings? 

Well, I do what I often do when I need to find energy and clarification for the next steps: I clean. I know that sounds silly, but it usually works for me. There is nothing like cleaning a bathroom or two to get back to basics. Getting down on my hands and knees to scrub floors is not just humbling, it reminds me that the next thing to do is whatever is in front of you. 

Two small things were in front of me: I sat at my lady's writing desk in the living room and I worked on another big stack of postcards reminding people to vote. And then I signed a petition from MoveOn.org about waiting till after the election to confirm a new Supreme Court Justice. Sign here! 

I am still stunned, sad, and even scared, but RBG didn't stop working for justice and equality, and neither should we.

Oh, and one more thing. I know that an antidote to not doing anything is to do something that brings pleasure--something that awakens the soul to beauty and enhances one's ability to live fully. For me on a beautiful fall Saturday that meant driving in the country and looking for pumpkins. 

I slept much better Saturday night. 

An Invitation

What do you do when you feel off balance or overwhelmed by feelings? I would love to know. 

Some Recommendations from the Past Week And a Reminder

*  Today, Tuesday, September 22 is National Voter Registration Day!

*   Meditations in Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations, especially the most recent days.  https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/2020/09/

*   Videos of spirituality writers on the topic "Faith, Hope, and Love During an Election" on the Writing for Your Life website. https://compassionatechristianity.org/faith-hope-and-love-during-an-election/ I have not listened to all of them yet, but so far especially liked the one by Brian McLaren.

*  My copies of Elizabeth Jarret Andrew's books Writing the Sacred Journey and Living Revision are well-worn. I consult them frequently. Her most recent blog post calls this time in our country is a time of "deep revision." https://mailchi.mp/f8ef357621d8/deep-dive-into-chaos?e=99c2514cbb

 

    

VOTE! Thursday's Reflection

I'm going to vote today.



I prefer walking up the block to Nativity Church, my polling location, to vote alongside my neighbors, but I will be out of town on election day and therefore, requested an absentee ballot.





I am grateful there is more than one way, one day to vote, and I intend to wear the red "I voted" sticker enclosed in the envelope with my ballot just as soon as I complete the process. I do wonder, however, why there is only one official voting day when we can gather in our polling locations. And why a Tuesday? What would happen if the polls were open Sunday through Tuesday, for example? And why isn't a national holiday declared to celebrate this sacred right of citizenship? 

And why is it more people do not exercise this right, especially when so many people in our country have to remain vigilant to maintain their right to vote and so many people are denied a right to vote? Recently on a Minnesota Public Radio program about young people and voting I heard a young man say he doesn't vote because there is no one good enough to deserve his vote. Well, heaven knows, there seem to be many politicians who do not deserve our vote, but who is Good Enough? No one is perfect, and I suspect that young man is not Good Enough either to deserve the many blessings he has received and benefits from. 

What does it mean to be Good Enough anyway? 

I will be in Alabama the day of the midterm elections on a weeklong civil rights tour, and I wonder how that will feel and what I will learn. 

In preparation for the tour I have read Taylor Branch's massive Parting the Waters, America in the King Years 1954-1963, volume one of three books about the King years, and was so moved by the struggles, the bloodshed, the threats, and the desperation to prevent people from voting, and by the struggles, the effort, the passion in the face of physical harm, even death to claim that right. 

And now, amazingly, in 2018 the fight to insure that all citizens are able to vote continues. How can that be? 

I am one of the privileged. I have never been asked to prove my worthiness to vote, to show I am smart enough or rich enough, or white enough to vote. All I needed to do was register to vote, and no one has attempted to prevent me from doing so. I suspect that is true for most of my readers.  

Please, exercise your ease of voting. 

Marianne Williamson prays, 

                       Please reveal to me, Lord, a way to stand
                       in my power, through love instead of fear,
                       and through peace instead of violence.

Voting is a way to stand in my power. 

Voting is the loving thing to do.

Voting is the peaceful thing to do.

Vote. 

An Invitation
Are you registered? Are you planning to vote? I would love to know.