Collective Conscience

In times like these, when the whole world is focused on one particular event, we hear the voices of wise ones, if we listen. They speak to us of our collective conscience. Their words are reminders to us all to listen to the voice of our conscience before adding our voice to the universal call on either side of the event that captivates our attention. These messengers, prophets of the world, have said it so well, that I will share their words rather than contribute my own to the impossible situation unfolding before everyone’s eyes:

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” Dr. Martin Luther King

”It takes no special talent to see what’s ugly, numbing, depressing, and death-dealing in our world. But staying aware of what’s good, true, and beautiful requires us to open our eyes, minds, and hearts, and keep them open." Parker Palmer

“The future depends on what we do in the present.” Mahatma Gandhi

"“...morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.” Rabbi Abraham Heschel

"“Let there be justice for all.Let there be peace for all.Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all. President Nelson Mandela

"We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children." President Jimmy Carter

There's no difference between one's killing and making decisions that will send others to kill.

It's exactly the same thing, or even worse.” Prime Minister Golda Meir (the one and only woman prime minister of Israel)

We condemn the killing of any civilian whether Palestinian or Israeli." Queen Rania (of Jordan)

"Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me." Sung in 1973 by my graduating class just like these students in 2023.

https://youtu.be/bgL1v8FZaNM?feature=shared

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"All Shall Be Well" . . .

Hard words to swallow nowadays. They were first spoken 650 years ago during the Black Death plague when day and night a little bell could be heard in the village streets indicating a priest was on the way to deliver last rites to another dying family member, or neighbor, or friend. Times were bleak. Food was scarce. There was nowhere to run. Yet, one small voice saying “All shall be well” was heard while so-called heretics were being burned and dumped in the river not far from where that woman was saying: “All shall be well.” The One Hundred Years’ War between England and France was part of daily life in the small seaport village. Two self-proclaimed popes were vying for power over the church and all the people from the baker to the candlestick maker. “All Shall Be Well. . .” Really?

The still small voice got through, somehow, in spite of it all and we recall these words six centuries later. Who was the woman? Was she a Pollyanna? Was she crazy? Was she oblivious to the suffering? No. Julian of Norwich had had a near death experience at the age of thirty. She was given those last rites by a priest while her mother stood by her deathbed waiting to close her eyes. That's as close as it gets! She lived from the age of fifty in a small room, an anchorage, attached to the church of St. Julian in Norwich, England. Her name Julian is taken from the church itself. She was one of about 300 Anchoresses in the Middle Ages. She is the one and only that we remember today. Why is that? Her message was antithetical to all that was happening around her. She spoke “truth to power” before it was fashionable. She cut through the all powerful male hierarchy with those words: “All Shall Be Well” while preachers of the day instilled fear and imposed punishment. She was the quintessential “insider-outsider.” Julian, aka Mother Julian, Lady Julian, is not one of the saints (I guess we know why) but she is commemorated yearly at the anchorage where she lived and died and spoke those hopeful words that have outlived her. She was the first woman to have a book published (posthumously) in the English language.

Twice now, I have gone to the anchorage in Norwich, UK. I plan to return for her feast day in May 2024. If you are interested in making a pilgrimage with me to Julian’s anchorage, please read on. If not, you may be interested to know more about Julian of Norwich and her message of hope and I recommend her to you with a much needed message for our time. https://julianofnorwich.org/

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Pilgrimage to the Anchorage of Fourteenth Century Mystic Julian of Norwich, UK

a UNESCO City of Literature.

May 7 - 14, 2024

The pilgrimage will coincide with Julian’s feast days. The keynote speaker during the week-long celebration will be former Archbishop of Canterbury, Reverend Rowan Williams and will take place at the nearby, magnificent Norwich Cathedral.

The week will offer Julian readings and discussions with Norwich Friends of Julian and your group leader, author and pilgrim, Marie Laure. We will make a trip to the British Library to see the manuscripts that were the basis of the first book to be published in English by any woman:Revelations of Divine Love.

We will stay next door to the anchorage at the newly refurbished, All Hallows Guest House.https://www.allhallowsnorwich.co.uk/

All the details of the pilgrimage will be discussed during three preliminary meetings:

“ART OF PILGRIMAGE” series on Thursdays, November 9, 16, 30 from 2-4 pm in person or Friday mornings 10 - 12 via Zoom. All pilgrims will begin meeting monthly in January, 2024 in preparation for the May pilgrimage. Get in touch to sign up for the series: marielaureauthor@gmail.com. There is a $30 fee for the series.

Solidarity . . . Silence . . . Sometimes Both.

Last night I saw a photo of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin lit up with the Israeli Flag: blue wavy lights with the Star of David superimposed on the massive marble monument. This was also the case in Paris on the Eiffel Tower, and in New York City on the Empire State Building. These icons of freedom were calling out an attack on Israel by its long-time enemy in a show of solidarity. I also saw last night a film with scenes of that same Gate in Berlin surrounded by Nazis with Hitler making one of those insidious hate speeches against its Jewish, German citizens. The scene was one of crowds cheering on that dictator with arms outstretched as the Nazi flags waved underneath and around the Gate. We might be tempted to think what a difference six decades has made, and it would be true, to a point.

The Gate was caught in between the Berlin Wall when it was built to stop Berliners from defecting to West Germany. Nobody could pass through those portals for the next forty years without permission. Many tried to circumvent the guards at their own peril. When at long last that Wall fell, taking with it all the remaining Humpty Dummies, once again the whole world was welcome to walk through its gates. In 2023, it is a tourist mecca of the highest order. I went there my first day in Berlin.

Flanked on both sides by Embassy Row with all the countries’ flags atop each building, it is an impressive site. Closer to the Gate on one side is the small tourist information office, and across the famed Under de Linden Boulevard is the even smaller “Room of Silence.” A blond German woman who looked to be my age, sat behind a desk giving out brochures and answering questions regarding this lesser known attraction. She said she thought it was important work, though she was not paid. The room has been supported by women volunteers since it was opened before the Wall was removed. Many women have been the patrons of this silent place within a politically charged location between East and West Germany. Were they concerned with their own safety during that infamous dictator’s call to arms against those who disagreed?

There is no religious ideology behind this small, neutral space open to everyone greeted with the word “Silence” at the entry in different languages. Within the room are chairs in a circle and the word “Peace” written in many languages on a collage created by Berlin students on the theme of tolerance. The only decoration is a tapestry with the theme “Light penetrating darkness.” The model for the room was the meditation room that UN Secretary General, Dag Hammarskjold, had set up in the United Nations building in New York City in 1957, which still exists today. The woman told me as I signed my name to the guest book, that I was one of around 70,000 visitors this year alone. She smiled a gentle, peaceful smile.

The Room of Silence* has two simple goals: “To offer all the opportunity to stop and sit in silence for a while, either to relax or to take in this historic place with its gloomy, but also hopeful memories; and the second is a symbolic goal: The Room of Silence should be a constant invitation to fraternity and tolerance among people, between nationalities and world views.” The tiny room seems to be meeting its mighty goals and the visual image cast on the Gate just outside that room in solidarity with Jewish people made its point: The Star of David instead of that yellow star sewn like a badge onto its citizens’ clothes marking them as the enemy. All good. Right? Why then, do I feel haunted by another powerful message I have recently heard: “When dictatorship is a fact, revolution is a duty.”

Any and all scenes from the Nazi era should haunt us. That hatred has been simmering ever since. There are too many examples to list, but Charlottesville here in the US a few years ago comes to mind immediately. None of those mongering hatred against Jewish people that night with Nazi flags and torches have gone away; most have likely not had a change of heart, and will without a doubt, rise up again. Let’s not pretend otherwise, otherwise we will one day come face to face with the inevitability of citizens pitted against citizens in a revolution. It would require nothing less to right such wrongs.

I admire those who stand in solidarity in silence because silence speaks volumes. Silence is a powerful and potent way to silence an adversary. Try it next time you find yourself in an argument with the likes of Comcast, or At&t, the big bullies of our day-to-day. Silence on the other end of the phone pushes a different button. It sometimes brings a turn in the conversation away from “Sorry, we cannot rectify your complaint,” to “We value you as a customer and do not want to lose you . . .” Silence can move the heart toward recognizing value in someone seen as one’s nemesis. Silence can stop an angry burn of hatred growing within one’s heart. Silence can stop the noise inside one’s mind. Silence can make its own point, as with the Israeli flag silently shown across the Brandenburg Gate in solidarity with a former perceived foe. All good. Right? I can’t help wondering, how does silence work against the “wanna-be dictator” whose violent, angry hatred foments the worst ideologies? Gandhi, MLK, Jesus knew the answer might mean, could mean, would mean their own death at the hands of one of those who hated the message more than the messenger. The stakes are that high for anyone of us who wants to stand in solidarity and in silence against any dictator, wanna-be or otherwise. What is the alternative? Since 1994, the Room of Silence has offered a “constant invitation” to . . . “tolerance among people . . .” Sounds so simple, like silence itself. Right?

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the Room of Silence in the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

Raum der Stille im Brandenburger Torhttp://www.raum-der-stille-im-brandenburger-tor.de › ...