…
from Amanda Gorman’s The Hill we Climb
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true.
That even as we grieved, we grew.
That even as we hurt, we hoped.
That even as we tired, we tried.
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious.
Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.
…
March 8 is the UN International Women’s Day First recognized as a global event in 1911, 110 years later women are still working tirelessly to recognize global achievements and build more equality into women’s lives. And it marks one year since we originally started this journey in the Netherlands. We are greeting Spring 2021 in Bosnia-Herzagovenia. As we make our way from Croatia, we feel a spirit of relief to get outdoors to feel the fresh air and embrace the sunshine. Around every corner we see the simple joys of greeting friends and sipping coffee or beer in every cafe and on the plazas. Storefronts are shining and doors are wide open but all too many are covered and closed, due to the impact of lockdowns. We love too see the home gardens, window boxes and parks freshly tilled and ready to blossom. After one year of the Covid-19 pandemic wreaking havoc around the world, it is barely under control but people have learned to live with a few new norms:
- Stores and museums with spacing and masked customers in a traffic flow
- Bus, tram and train rides with fully masked passengers
- Music events with single seats spaced for lonely viewing
- Church services with family clusters standing in the lawns and parking lots
- Greeting hosts and ticket takers wielding thermometer guns
- Zoom meetings, classes, consultations – virtually face to face
Wintering in Croatia has provided some new insights to Spring, as a history of survival. Fifty years ago, after years of social reform movements, the Croatian Spring uprisings pushed the country to cast aside the grip of Yugoslavia and Russia with a goal of freedom and democratic human rights. It took several years for the country to regain its independence and national identity and it is still rising from the struggles of secular and ethnic wars that tore up the region through the 1990s. From 1990-1995, I worked towards this future Eastern European Spring, It is very humbling to travel here now to see how this freedom has unfolded. As of 2019, Croatia’s tourism industry had grown to 20 Million visitors! The past year has seen a tragic collapse of tourism but optimism is in bloom this Spring in this land of survivors.
Many people around the world are struggling through years of “Spring” uprisings demanding democratic voting rights, equality and cultural security: Egypt, Iran, Iraq, India, Hong Kong, Myanmar, etc. There seems to be more unrest than peace these days. Everyone is also struggling to overcome the impact of Coronavirus and hopes to reopen their borders for economic survival. When we look at America from afar, we can’t help but wonder, “What is going on in the USA this Spring?”
overlooks a mass grave site from the 1990s ethnic conflicts
Amanda Gorman’s The Hill we Climb,
January 6, 2021
When day comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry. A sea we must wade.
We braved the belly of the beast.
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace, and the norms and notions of what “just” is isn’t always justice.
And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it.
Somehow we do it.
Somehow we weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.
We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president, only to find herself reciting for one.
And, yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect.
We are striving to forge our union with purpose.
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.
And so we lift our gaze, not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.
We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside.
We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another.
We seek harm to none and harmony for all.
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true.
That even as we grieved, we grew.
That even as we hurt, we hoped.
That even as we tired, we tried.
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious.
Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.
Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid.
If we’re to live up to our own time, then victory won’t lie in the blade, but in all the bridges we’ve made.
That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb, if only we dare.
It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit.
It’s the past we step into and how we repair it.
We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation, rather than share it.
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.
And this effort very nearly succeeded.
But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated.
In this truth, in this faith we trust, for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us.
This is the era of just redemption.
We feared at its inception.
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour.
But within it we found the power to author a new chapter, to offer hope and laughter to ourselves.
So, while once we asked, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe, now we assert, how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be: a country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free.
We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation, become the future.
Our blunders become their burdens.
But one thing is certain.
If we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright.
So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left.
Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.
We will rise from the golden hills of the West.
We will rise from the windswept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution.
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states.
We will rise from the sun-baked South.
We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover.
And every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country, our people diverse and beautiful, will emerge battered and beautiful.
When day comes, we step out of the shade of flame and unafraid.
The new dawn balloons as we free it.
For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.
Bicycle of the month
