conundrums
I had a wonderful and inspiring experience this afternoon. I was invited to offer the benediction for the Moral Monday rally in my home town. The organizers reckon there were 2500-3000 people there and it did look like a big crowd in the large open space in front of the city hall and the county building.
Here’s a bit of backstory. I attended the first Mountain Moral Monday rally a couple of years ago and was disturbed at how Christian it all was. I understood the work was compelling but the thought of a large religious group telling the government what to do rubbed against my love of the First Amendment. I went to that rally with a pitchfork and the day after the event, there was a small photo of me and a quote from me in the local daily paper, pitchfork and all.
My friend and colleague Leslie Boyd has been serving on various committees for these events and she suggested that I do the benediction. The president of the local NAACP chapter–who is a woman I respect and like very much–agreed to let me.
Today I was scheduled to be the last speaker, to go directly after Rev. William Barber, who is the leader for the movement. He was dynamic as always and I was beginning to feel doubts about going after him. How do you follow an act like that? I needn’t have worried. He got to the end of his remarks and mentioned that a preacher was ready to step forward and bless the group. The people around me pushed me forward to stand at the podium and Rev. Barber stepped to one side. When I finished speaking, he grabbed my hand, as did the clergyperson on my right and we all began to sway back and forth, singing We Shall Overcome.
We stood like that for a good long time, swaying and singing, squinting into the lowering sun.
We stood shoulder to shoulder before the buildings that house the machines of city and county government. There were dozens of clergy people ranging the stage, singing, holding hands, believing that the power of the vote is the most potent power in America politics. That, and the power of love.
Anyway, here’s the benediction:
It shows how much we love and work for justice that I stand here on this stage today to bless us all as we go forward.
May the Unknowable Workings of the Universe protect you as you go forth today. May the solid earth uphold you, the winds of change inspire you, the fire of inspiration ignite within you and the waters of life nourish you. Go forth in strength and light under this autumn sky. Greet the days ahead of us and the work to which we are called with joy and gladness from this day onward. Walk in pride and wisdom and love, bringing blessings to yourself, your kin and all you meet, behaving in such a way that our Ancestors will look upon us, their Descendants, with pride. Walk in beauty, in grace from this place knowing we stand together, woven into a strong basket called community. For we are all part of the deep and ancient force that flows through all things. Blessed be, sisters and brothers. Blessed be.
I’m feeling proud to have been part of it and grateful that Leslie and Carmen trusted me to do it.
It was a good day to be a Wiccan priestess on the buckle of the Bible belt.
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