There are real Christian Feminists in the world. (I am pretty sure that I don't qualify on a few technicalities). Anne Lamott is a real one. And a real author. And a funny person. (Again, things for which I am disqualified on a few technicalities).
Recently, my husband earned an $800 gift certificate to Penguin, a publishing company that still prints REAL books! It was like winning a mini-lottery. Kind of. Except it was his and he earned it and we really could have easily tripled the amount and still not been done ordering real books. Our shelves are now stuffed with lots of classic spy novels (like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), obscure and ancient writings on faith (think Thomas Aquinas), and Russian classics (like War & Peace). My husband kindly let me elbow some room for a little Toni Morrison and Japanese classics and such. He also scooped up a few recommendations from friends whose opinions we completely trust. A few Lamott books joined our new collection.
Having acquired a windfall of time waiting on airplanes (Look, quick! That's me mustering good attitude and correct perspective!) I read one. Now I have lots of food for thought, some great new quotes, and a new friend. I am assuming she felt the cosmic connection and I can call her a friend. Anne and I do not see eye-to-eye on every topic, but I find her opinion interesting and energizing, thoughtful and beautiful, and I am officially recommending Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith to you, readers. Yes, you Amanda. Tash - are you reading? Ami, Cathy, Beth - you will hear more about this on Monday night. So you might want to secretly stage a cancelled meeting if you don't want to hear about it.
In one chapter, Anne chronicles a story of conducting a service at a nursing home with her son and friend. She describes the scene: "the people here are shipwrecks, and sometimes there is not much left, but there is a thread in them that can be pulled and still vibrates."
I have done my own visiting in nursing homes, and I am going to be doing so again in a few weeks. I also work with people in poverty, and there this quote is applicable as well, in a different sense.
Then again, we are all in different states of shipwreck. Some of us haven't crashed yet. Some might be in the clean-up stages or the re-building stages. But we don't always see it that way. As happily cruising along sailors or sunbathers or perhaps captains, we may not be aware. When we see the actively shipwrecked, the ones in danger of losing hope and life, we don't always know what to do. Maybe we want to jump in and start helping, throwing life preservers or money or something. Maybe our hearts just break and we look away because we don't know what else to do. I've also spent a whole week at a training for my work and have had some time to reflect.
Sometimes, I think our best response is to recognize the thread of connection in our situations. The human condition applies to all of us. Lamott's response to the very old who were sick, unresponsive, frail, or not in their right minds: "I realize again and again that this is all you have to offer people most days, a touch, a moment's gladness. It has to do, and if often does."
You may think this sounds calloused and cold, but it beats the Savior complex so often present in non-profit work. It lends perspective when the the number of lost souls aimlessly bobbing about the sea seems to be multiplying, and more seem to be slipping beneath the surface.
I have been out of control of my traveling situation this past week, at the mercy of airlines. This kind of non-control keeps me aware of the house of cards that is my life; control is really a borrowed commodity of moments, dependent on so many fragile balancing acts to keep it at hand. Poverty, old age, mental illness, addiction, etc. are just more obvious shipwrecks, fallen card houses, and such. All we honestly have to offer is that acknowledgment of the Divine present in the human. "I see you, person of immeasurable value. I know you are here." Anything more we might have to give at any point in time is just another borrowed commodity.
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