Fascinating responses to yesterday’s blog. Commenting on FB, friends went into much more depth and detail than I had regarding the possibilities had Lincoln not been assassinated. Those of us old enough to remember childhood in the 50s remember a life still impacted by the blight of reconstruction.
One story reminded me of a time when I was about 10 or 11. We were at the beach in South Carolina and the woman who owned the cottage where we stayed knew our family who stayed every year and so had come over one night to visit. Somehow the conversation turned to integration - it was in the 50s. She told about her grandmother taking her every Saturday to the steps of the court house in their South Carolina town and telling her the awful stories of reconstruction. Even at age 11, I knew there was no way that woman would Ever be able to move beyond those stories to see people of a different race as in any way similar to herself. I realized that the war that I had thought was history - old and ancient history - was as present in her life as if it was happening in that moment. I am grateful that my young soul knew something wasn’t right.
Peter Gomes in “The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus” says: If God loves all that he has made -- and he has made everyone, not just ourselves, in his own image -- then the commandment to love God means that we must love all whom God has made, even those different from ourselves, and disagreeable to us. Powerful and difficult words to hear and live by ~ and there it is. So regardless of where we are, we must start here in this moment to be and do better and not be defined by the past and what may or may not have happened then. ~ with blessings
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