What can I do?

That's the question we are asking ourselves these days. Without a leader to lead, it is on us to figure out next steps. Sometimes looking back at others' stories sheds light. The Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible rings true today although it was written in the fourth or fifth century. The somewhat Shakespearean plot goes like this:

A powerful Persian King XERXES threw a lavish party for his broligarchy. His wife VASHTI had her own gal-pals gathered in her chambers when she was summoned by her husband to perform for the men. She refused! He banished her from the Kingdom for shaming him. His bro's convinced him to write an edict to go out to all wives that henceforth they must honor their husbands. The search then begins for a new Queen. The harem is the first place to look.

A young Jewish woman lives outside the gates with her Uncle MORDECAI who knows that HADASSAH would be a great fit because of her extraordinary charm and beauty and wit, but she is Jewish and therefore not acceptable. He wants her life to be better than what he is able to provide, so he renames her ESTHER.

Esther is accepted into the harem. After countless hours pampering herself in order to be presented to the King, at long last she is summoned to meet her potential spouse. Xerxes is smitten by Esther's beauty AND her intelligence. The two have a lavish wedding while Mordecai waits outside the gates because he is not allowed to enter. Esther stays in touch with her uncle by messenger. (texting) She tells him everything that is going on inside the Kingdom. One day, he overhears two insiders plotting a coup. Mordecai sends word to Esther, who in the knick of time averts the King's murder by spilling the beans.

Meanwhile, Mordecai has a confrontation with the King's chief of staff, HAMAM, who admonishes the Jew for not bowing down to him. (Saying, "You should be more grateful", or something like that . . .). Hamam decides to convince his boss that all Jewish people should pay for such irreverance. Hence, Xerses signs AND seals with his gold initialed ring (X) a proclamation that all Jews will be murdered on the 13th of the month. No exceptions. Everyone must go.

Mortified Mordecai sends Esther an urgent message to tell the King to stop the coming genocide of HER people! Esther says she cannot go before her husband, the King, without being summoned lest she herself be murdered. As if that's not enough, she would have to tell him the truth about her Jewish identity. Uncle M advises her to suck it up. He asks her the big question: Have you considered that "You have been brought to the Kingdom for such a time as this"?

A few plot twists follow including the King discovering that his own life had been spared from an attempted coup by Mordecai. Esther decides to invite her husband to a banquet rather than wait for him to ask her. She butters up his chief of staff knowing she will have to get passed him if she is to convince her husband to rescind the proclamation which the official seal of the ring prohibits even a King from doing because it is against the law. . . and no one is above the law!

At the banquet the wine flows and Esther summons her courage to tell Xerses that she is of Jewish descent and that he has ordered all her people to be killed in a few days. The King begins to see the big picture, including that he has been duped by his boastful, arrogant chief of staff. First, he orders Hamam to be hung in the village square. Then, he sends out a new proclamation to save the Jewish people from mass murder, and instead grants permission to have their would-be murderers avenged!

Queen Esther

On the very day this happens, Esther establishes the Jewish festival known as Purim to celebrate the Jewish people's survival while Xerses elevates Modecai to chief of staff.*

Perhaps the question for each of us to consider is the one put to Esther: "How do you know that you have not been brought [here] for such a time as this"?

*https://enterthebible.org/courses/esther/lessons/summary-of-esther

"Everything felt right with the world . . .

for a short time this afternoon", said a good friend following a concert of the Florida Chamber Music Project*. While the comment and the concert warmed my heart, I couldn't help wondering if this is our new norm? Being suspended momentarily from life's dailyness is always welcome, yet, this is something else. This is the moment when we realize "we are not in Kansas anymore". I will not label it a wake-up call, nor an existential crisis, though it is both, this is more than that. Much more. When the music in our ears and the sunshine on our faces begins to feel like a short moment when everything is right with the world, what does that say about all the other moments? Are we already swimming in sentiments of the "good ol' days" when we enjoyed an afternoon outing, then easily got on with everything else even as the music lingered in our minds? If so, this is a marker between what was and what is now.

When something begins to feel nostalgic it is because it has already been lost. Some things are already beginning to seem like a distant memory the way a dream recedes in the waking moment. Everything that was easy is getting harder; everything that was already hard is getting harder.

Remember when it used to be easy to buy a dozen eggs, scramble 'em up for breakfast, and call it a day? Today, bare store shelves and soaring prices make "over-easy" seem hard-boiled. It is not a stretch to imagine other shortages of this or that until pretty soon we forget about the price of eggs because we will have forgotten about eggs altogether. This is the way it goes when easy things become harder. We begin to ask ourselves, "Remember when we used to _______________?" In isolated places like Cuba, this is the norm. In March 2024, one year ago, protests began over food shortages as the country experienced the worst living crisis since the early 1990's. When I visited Havanna with a group of American artists in 2015, ten years ago, those store shelves were already bare. I waited on the sidewalk with the locals each with a voucher, or the"other" currency distinguishable from the coins given to tourists, only to enter the dusty concrete store where there was barely a thing to buy. Nada!

The island is just 90 miles south of Miami and a world apart. It may seem like a leap to think we might find ourselves repressed and oppressed by a government that cares little or not at all about its peoples' basic needs. I want to be proven wrong on this. I really do. However, as the already hard things become harder from finding a place to live to finding the truth in the news, to finding the news itself, or finding the books we want to read, finding what is right with the world becomes increasingly hard and ever more significant. Those moments when for a short time everything seems right with the world is one way of holding onto hope.

The U.S. Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman, in a recent interview** holds such hope in her words even as her book has been banned in public schools in Florida. Wise beyond her years, she asks why any one person should get to say what is best for the rest of us? That is the question that needs to be answered now, not on some future day, and not when we look back with nostalgia for what we have lost.

https://contentmanager.med.uvm.edu/docs/the_hill_we_climb/vccyf-documents/the_hill_we_climb.pdf?sfvrsn=44a33335_2

*https://flchambermusic.org/

***https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR-yervhhBc

Both/And

The Moon shot was taken in Washington State by photographer David Salisbury.*

We are living in a dichotomy of Awe and Wonder and Shock and Awe from Washington state to Washington, D.C. These are not flip sides of the same coin, but are as different as a majestic moon and a steely rat.

President's Day Protester's sign at a rally opposing what is happening in Washington D.C.

The Both/And of these two worlds will never be of a piece, but both will continue to co-exist whether or not we notice. There is a choice to be made by each of us in the way that we accept or reject one world or the other. Will we choose one over the other? Or, a little more of one than the other? Or, neither one? It is ours to decide.

So, let's imagine that each day there is at least one opportunity to see the sunrise or sunset and that watching this happen before our very eyes is worthwhile. Our amazing eyes can see millions of miles so as to notice a sparkling jewel like Venus suspended in the darkness. We just have to look up! How different things might look if Awe and Wonder framed the day rather than an endless cycle of stories intended to Shock and Awe for the sake of it.

When a sense of pure awe pervades all that we perceive, we are reminded of the Wonder that has always been and always will be, and that we ourselves are dust in the wind.

*According to the Pagan Grimoire, the Snow Moon “shines brightly during a time when winter still grips the earth but signs of spring are just around the corner. The Snow Moon represents transformation, hope and renewal, making it a powerful time for self-reflection and setting intentions for growth as you move into the next season.”