“Fragile” was recorded by Sting September 11, 2001 at his villa in Italy and released in the live CD “All This Time.”
Culture. Is. Power.
“Fragile” was recorded by Sting September 11, 2001 at his villa in Italy and released in the live CD “All This Time.”
I will not watch television, listen to the radio or engage in any media voyeurism for the 10th anniversary of September 11. Instead, I plan to come together with real live people coming together. It’s not just an occasion to remember, but to set a path forward from here. Here are some upcoming events in Washington, DC. You’re welcome to post additional events in the comments section.
Friday, September 9
For more information, go to this link – http://www.dc-cgel.org
9/11 UNITY WALK – Begins 1:30 PM
An interfaith experience to build bridges of respect and understanding. More information and registration available at http://911unitywalk.org/
We have no symbolic life, and we are all badly in need of the symbolic life. Only the symbolic life can express the need of the soul – the daily need of the soul, mind you! And because people have no such thing, they can never step out of this mill – this awful, banal, grinding life in which they are “nothing but.” . . . Everything is banal; everything is “nothing but,” and that is the reason why people are neurotic. They are simply sick of the whole thing, sick of that banal life, and therefore they want sensation. They even want a war; they all want a war; they are all glad when there is a war; they say, “Thank heaven, now something is going to happen – something bigger than ourselves!”
— Carl Jung
For those of us living in the capital city of the United States, it has been a week of great things: an unexpected earthquake, the opening of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the national mall, and now Hurricane Irene which caused the cancellation of events for the dedication of the MLK, Jr. Memorial but is yet to play out its true nature in our area. One can tell by the lines in the groceries stores that we’re pretty much indoors through most of the weekend.
I was one of those sideline critics of the King memorial re how best to use millions of dollars raised impressively quickly from many sources, monies that could build foundations, improve schools, health programs and all that King envisioned for the beloved community. I was even a critic of the choice of artist (not made in the U.S.A.) and what appeared to be a “Walmart” effort to create a legacy for donors. Once the memorial was in place, it was time to deal with the physical reality. The power of the King memorial as symbol. How could I forget my Carl Jung and ignore the human hunger for signs and symbols? For many that came Tuesday on the day of the earthquake. It shook the biggest, baddest, most fearless human begins to their core. The idea of not knowing, of not being in charge or control of your own or anyone else’s being and destiny may have been the most unsettling. The scientific answers meshed with the metaphysical ones.
It appears we are all “symbol-tons.”
On the National Mall, the Washington Monument which was completed in 1884 and is one of the city’s most defining landmark symbols, suffered substantial cracks near the very top of the obelisk structure. The Washington National Cathedral (The Cathedral of St. Paul and St. Peter) suffered substantial damage to its English Gothic revival landmark. Much of the stonework was carved by hand starting in 1907 and finally competed in 1990. Millions of dollars in private donations will have to be raised to make repairs. For now, both landmarks are closed to the public.
But the MLK, Jr. memorial (the new kid on the block), a project initiated by Dr. King’s fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, still stands tall, not a crack, no shifting, no leaning. After all, no Alpha man lowers his head to the ground. I’ve warmed up to the monument and the sculptor who realized the design, Lei Yixin, who has suffered through the criticism of persons louder than myself. To be honest, how many sculptors do we have in the U.S. who can carve into hard rock or another Mount Rushmore? How many opportunities are there to do so? Lei has had a lot of practice including carving statues of Mao Zedong in his native China. Personally I had no problem with his resume. Anyone who’s created propaganda art including Leonardo da Vinci and all the artists for the National Mall memorials knows it’s all about immortalizing humans into symbols.
The Reverend Pat Robertson is a symbol-ton. For him the crack in the Washington Monument signaled the 2nd coming. “It seems to me the Washington Monument is a symbol of America’s power. It has been the symbol of our great nation. We look at the symbol and we say ‘this is one nation under God.’ Now there’s a crack in it … Is that a sign from the Lord? … You judge. It seems to me symbolic.”
Funny, the symbol of power cracks. The symbol of non-violence and peace stands tall and strong.
Tonight the MLK, Jr. memorial must weather the literal storm. If nothing else, I respect and am intrigued by the symbolism of the memorial in the wake of Hurricane Irene. I can’t help but think of the words of one of Dr. King’s favorite gospel songs, “Precious Lord,” in Mahalia Jackson voice — “Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light.” (Mahalia Jackson sang “Precious Lord” at Dr. King’s funeral in 1968.) What is our relationship with metaphor?
Hopefully, the memorial will be for the Alphas, donors, and all who contributed $$$ to its realization a symbol of an accomplishment that will inspire them and others to put those energies into the vision for humanity Dr. King saw from the mountain top.
The speeches, sermons and lectures of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are being broadcast today on WPFW (Pacifica Radio).
Strength to Love may be one of King’s most important works. I picked it up at the recommendation of a guy browsing, like me, in a Borders bookstore. I was looking in the religious section at the Buddhist shelves, then moving on to King’s work. This guy pulled Strength to Love from the shelf and told me Strength to Love was one of the most important books he’d ever read.
I encourage you to read the “I Have a Dream Speech” in its entirety.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
Rev. Rob Hardies, senior minister of All Souls Church, Unitarian in Washington, DC (my member church), sent this letter from Hiroshima via our church’s e-blast list. In 1947 Rev. A. Powell Davies, then senior minister of All Souls, was so moved by the devastation and impact of the atomic bomb dropped on the city 65 years ago today, that he mobilized children from the church to reach out to school children in Hiroshima by sending them crayons, paints and other school supplies. Rob tells the story in the letter.
For years these drawings have been displayed on the walls of the church. Perhaps this year, I am more aware of their significance. Rob and a delegation are returning these drawings back to the children (not so young now). Rob’s letter is copied below.
Peace…let’s mean it.
———————–
August 6, 2010
Hiroshima, Japan
Dear All Souls Members and Friends,
Today marks the 65th anniversary of the United States’ bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima, an event that killed over 100,000 people, reduced the city to rubble, and inaugurated the atomic age. For the first time, we possessed the awesome power to destroy both our species and the Earth that we call home.
I, along with five All Souls members, have the honor of being in Hiroshima to commemorate this terrible event and to celebrate a seed of hope that was planted in its aftermath: the small but significant exchange of gifts of peace between the children of All Souls Church and Hiroshima’s Honkawa Elementary School.
Many of you know the story. Inspired by a call to action from All Souls’ minister, the Rev. A. Powell Davies, the children of All Souls in 1947 collected half a ton of school supplies-crayons, paint, and paper-to send to the children of Honkawa school. In appreciation, the Japanese children sent back beautiful drawings of Japanese life slowly returning to normal in the wake of the devastation.
In a moving ceremony last Saturday these drawings-recently restored-were reunited for the first time with the children (now in their 70s and 80s) who created them. They are now on exhibit at the Honkawa School Peace Museum and in the last week alone have garnered thousands of visitors and significant attention from the Japanese press. We are accompanied in Japan by filmmaker Bryan Reichhardt who is completing a documentary about the drawings and the relationship between All Souls Church and Honkawa School.
This has been a rich and moving week for our delegation. In addition to meeting with the hibakusha who created the drawings (hibakusha is the name given to survivors of the atomic bomb), we were warmly received by the current students and faculty of Honkawa school and other schools to whom All Souls sent supplies, we worshipped with our friends at the Japanese Buddhist sect Rissho Kosei-kai (longtime partners of Unitarians in international peacemaking), and at a memorial service last night for the Honkawa schoolchildren who died in the bombing, we were honored to be the only non-Japanese invited to lay flowers at the shrine to the dead.
I am reminded during this trip that relationships place upon us responsibilities. We have a duty to be morally accountable to the relationships we’ve entered into. I believe our relationship with the people of Hiroshima places a responsibility on us to continue to share the story of these drawings and to work for a world that is no longer threatened by the specter of nuclear annihilation. We are called to be peacemakers.
Our small group looks forward to returning to Washington to share with you the stories and images from our trip and to explore ways that, together, we can take up the responsibilities of this important international relationship. Personally, I look forward to returning to the pulpit on August 22 and celebrating Homecoming Sunday with all of you on September 12. And I wish you both love and peace on this important anniversary.
In faith,
ROB