Dear Friends,
Sometimes, my days just don’t go as planned. That is true for some of my weeks as well. I know I am not the only one. Today was one of those days. And it’s always unsettling to me because I mistake my wishes and my plans for reality. And so I did the work I had to do today, rather than the work I had planned.
COVID-19 has driven this mistaken thinking home for all of us. No one planned this. Few of us planned for such a circumstance. National leaders still have their heads in the sand, pressuring local leaders to ignore good sense and scientifically-informed guidelines. Predictions tell us that there will be a surge in infections. Some of us know we don’t know for sure what will happen, and we error on the side of “returning to normal.” Some of know we don’t know for sure what will happen, and we error on the side of planning for cautious and measured action.
No one planned that Mr. George Floyd would be murdered by police in full view of multiple citizens with camera phones in hand. No one knew the death of this one man would set off a national reckoning with the systemic oppression embedded in all of our American institutions. But many people planned for the moment such a reckoning would come, and they are working on dismantling these systems of oppression so that justice might roll down on all of us.
And we still do not know what will happen. That constant uncertainty of living, that unknowable future ever unfolding before us. May we plan for the future that will be the fulfillment of our values, a future imagined through the lens of science and truth, through the lens of fairness and justice. And from our imaginations, may our hands and feet follow. From the planted seeds, may we cultivate the good and ensure a harvest when all of us is free of oppression and life is equitable for us all. I pray you imagine and you work for this good future, today and every day, as you remember that you are loved, you are worthy, your welcome, and you are needed. May you feel it so, and may it be so.
Blessings, Rev. Rita