Joy to despair . . . and back again
A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: “Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time.” When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, “The one I feed the most.”
Saturday, January 13, 2001
What a joyful morning! I’m with more than a thousand of my brothers and sisters at the Annual Prayer Breakfast commemorating the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The passion of the choir’s songs touches my heart. The stirring speeches by Mayor Leni Sitnick and NPR reporter Juan Williams move my soul. I am filled this morning in a way that the plate of eggs and biscuits could never come close to. In this moment my vision of true community lives.
Saturday, January 27
12:45 p.m. Just when I was getting sort of OK with seeing Bush’s name in print with “President” attached to it. I’m in my car listening to This American Life on WCQS. Reverend Richard Harris, a black minister from Florida is describing how he personally registered more than twelve hundred African-Americans to vote, only to witness many of them intimidated and turned away from the polls for spurious reasons on election day. Here is a man of God, questioning his spirituality because he wants to forgive local and state authorities, but is presently unable even to bring himself to stand for the national anthem at a college basketball game. (more…)
