rethink

what a difference a week makes…

last saturday it was so warm the blinds had to be shuttered to keep cool. today, woken at around 6.30am by the forecasted heavy rain. not anticipated was the hail that came with it. it’s june 6th. and i’m wearing 3 pairs of socks right now as the only place i can pick up wifi, ’til my own broadband gets connected next week, is at my desk with the window open. so this is how we get to be so many shades of green: a rainy 48degrees in june.

this week has filled with much crafts, reframing and hanging artwork, altering and mending clothes. which for the most part has been calm and quiet.

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the end of a week comes and i’m not surprised to see i wasn’t the only one who thought the collection of it’s so personal testimonies on abortion would make a powerful and worthwhile book. i admire sullivan for his openness to share his own changing perspective in light of these stories, and the acknowledgement that he, “needs time to think and rethink”.

in ikon we have often talked about how the law is always trying to keep up with justice. for every rule…

we all hold postions in the abstract until such time as we either experience the reality or we open ourselves up to hearing the stories of those who have lived the reality.

i have changed this week as i too have been thinking and rethinking. these stories shook me to the core. i have found myself standing at the kitchen sink mopping dishes and suddenly weeping. but i don’t regret reading them, or allowing them to help change me.

if g-d is compassion, that which or whom suffers with, then g-d is everywhere in these stories. i have prayed many times this week, wondering where it might take me to.

maybe the apostle paul was onto something when he wrote,

so no matter who you are, if you pass judgement you have no excuse. it is yourself you condemn when you judge others, since you behave in the same way as those you are condemning.

– romans 2, v.1

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20 years on from Tiananman Square, i am reminded that the names of the majority of those who stand for peace will not be in history books…

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bricks healing bricks. i love this.

LB

the photo was put through tiltshiftmaker

beyond abstraction

i’ve spent much of the morning thinking through and writing some thoughts in the aftermath of the death of dr tiller.
for the second time in a month i had received contact from someone asking for my thoughts related to abortion. both openings for conversation came from people i care about, both far away, and whose perspectives in conversation are always not only welcome, but valued, for their substantive and typically compassionate intelligence. and yet, i am struck at how challenging it is when, at such distance, you can’t have such conversation in bodily presence, even with folks who know something of the measure of one’s heart.

for that very reason, i remain unsure if i am comfortable exploring my views here on the blog, despite having given a lot of committed thought to it of late, (along with the Ryan Report, which is no less troubling), such is the deep sensitivity of the issue. i cannot read your body language and you cannot read mine and we do not necessarily know one another’s story.

i am deeply conscious that when i go back to academia in the autumn this will be a curriculum issue for class discussion and probably one of the only feminist conversations i feel actively cautious about having to engage in – such is the need for that sensitivity, especially when one does not know the stories of those with whom one will be expected to debate.

but i will go so far as to say, i think these three offerings are worthy of our time and our consideration… i believe we need a lot more of this kind of nuanced and measured approach in the public square, where up to now there has been so much violent and hate-filled speech:

frank shaeffer on rachel maddow show
andrew sullivan on keith olbermann
and

regina spektor’s laughing with – which Pád independently sent me as i was writing my thoughts and, although nothing to do with the issue, it was some kind of artistic salve.

in the aftermath of dr tiller’s murder, i find myself once again praying for humility and wisdom – in my listening as well as in my speaking.

i have only once before (briefly) mentioned abortion in these pages. as i said then, it does not occur in a vacuum. and nor do our values or beliefs. or our lives.

LB