26 December 2016
Goochland, Virginia
Monthly Archives: December 2016
I wait
“Spying is waiting.”John le Carré
The Russia House
Apparently I am a spy. Once again, I wait.
Of course no one is paying me to spy, the waiting goes unsubsidized. That makes sense because I am not a good spy. I do not wait well.
Maybe le Carré was wrong. Or maybe he should have said, “to live is to wait. We spend much of life waiting. We play “waiting games in the waiting room” as Al Stewart puts it.
Whether I am spying or living, I wait.
I wait.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Cleveland Heights
Purple planter, not flowers: Richmod
20 December 2016
Richmond, Virginia
General area of Union Presbyterian Seminary
Walking with Eric
Filed under Photo
Purple flowers: Richmond 1
20 December 2016
Richmond, Virginia
General area of Union Presbyterian Seminary
Walking with Eric
It comes this night
It comes this night.
Faintly,
ever so faintly,
it comes.
Above the roar
of anger and hatred,
Above the howl
of prejudice and bigotry,
Above the maelstrom
of systems and structures,
Above the crash
of violence and war,
Above the groan
of doubt and despair,
Above the dis-ease
of heartache and heartbreak
Above the tumult
of turmoil and trouble
Above the clamor
of struggle and strife
Above it all,
despite it all
because of it all,
It comes.
Faintly,
ever so faintly,
it comes.
A baby’s cry,
proclaiming
life and
love and
justice and
peace and
hope,
this night
and all nights.
24 December 2016
Goochland, Virginia
Filed under Advent, Poem, Uncategorized
I do not want his death
This is guest post by the Rev. Dr. Margaret Aymer Oget, associate professor at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Thank you Margaret for your words and witness and for allowing them to be shared here.
I know this is not popular, but I don’t want them to execute Dylann Roof.
First, it perpetuates the culture of violence and legitimates the utterly illegitimate system of state-sponsored execution. He becomes the monster who proves the rule.
Second, it treats him as though he is some extraordinary exception that can be rooted out, like a noxious weed, rather than a young adult radicalized by white racist Christianist terrorists intent at creating a race war. Cf. Girard: the Scapegoat
Third, it means he never has to grow up, face what he did, and explain it to himself and to us, aloud. He can die a martyr and never once look in the eyes of the children whose parents he killed, the parents whose children he killed, the parishioners whose pastor he killed, or the legislators whose colleague he killed.
No, I do not want his death. I want those who radicalized him — on trial — for murder. I want their ring dismantled. I want the connections between that ring and the larger structures of systemic racism to become so plain that every and any one can read it.
Filed under Antiracism, Capital Punishment, Current Events, Death Penalty
Along the Graybeard Trail 