The Beautiful
My Dear
People,
A wise priest once said to me, "Wallace, always go in the
direction of the difficult."
When I ran into Pierce the other day, he was
headed to Tuscany.
I reminded him of what he had said to me years ago, as
a newly-minted priest, and we had a good laugh.
Truth is, we can't
survive on a diet of the difficult. I'm sitting in the sun as I write this, in
fact, looking out over the James and the Hollywood Rapids, with a light breeze
blowing by.
We need beauty and joy and laughter a much as anything. We
need refreshment. With that in mind, I had planned on writing today about
something less difficult and more beautiful, that is, until the Attorney General
crashed my happy party!
So then, and to be quite serious for a moment,
please read here about the AG's
letter of this week, and please read here about a rally
taking place at noon at VCU. While regrettably I may not be able to attend
the rally, I hope you will consider attending, in the name of, a la our
Baptismal Covenant, seeking and serving Christ in all persons and respecting the
dignity of every human being.
Now then, on with the
beautiful:
Last night I finished reading Mary Oliver's "Our World," about her
life with her late partner "M.," who died just a few years ago. It is beautiful,
indeed.
Oliver closes the exquisite collection of photographs (by M.) and
poetry and prose (by Oliver) with a tender poem entitled "The Whistler." The
poet describes how, after thirty years of living together, "All of a sudden she
began to whistle." It was whistling as "from the throat of a wild and cheerful
bird." "At first I wondered, who was in the house, what stranger?" "Finally I
said, 'Is that you? Is that you whistling?'"
It was. And then came
"cadence after cadence."
"I know her so well, I think. I thought. Elbow
and ankle. Mood and desire. Anguish and frolic. Anger too. And the devotions.
And for all that, do we even begin to know each other? Who is this I've been
living with for thirty years?"
"This clear, dark, lovely
whistler?"
+
And if that is true of a lover, of a loved one, how true must that be of God?
It is the
eternal journey into Love. Where there are no bounds. Where we never
arrive.
Beautiful.
Beautiful, indeed.
Thanks be to
God,
your brother in
Christ,
Wallace+
