Half dark, half light… and that half-time show

I don’t watch football. I didn’t even know which teams played last night. But the first thing I did this morning was watch the half-time show with tears in my eyes and a chill running down my spine. What resilience and power! What style and joy!

These days I am riding a wave of generosity, trying to keep my balance as its tremendous energy rolls through me. Openings in my life caught me by surprise; once again, caught in a constricted place, I forgot the expansion that follows.

The other day I was walking through a redwood forest with a wise friend, sharing our joys and challenges. I wished to push away the darkness in my life. But perhaps, my friend said, your deepest pain is bound to your greatest gifts.

I sense powerful truth in her words.

My stretching heart aches to hold the whole truth of American racism: the unspeakable brutality toward African-Americans, their unparalleled contributions to culture. To feel more alive I turn to Malcom, Martin, James, Nina, Kendrick. Again and again, piercing truth and earth-shaking vitality puncture the numbness of denial. How incalculably indebted we are to those we oppress. How much their fierce beauty teaches us as we turn to face our demons.

And Eminem took a knee! What would it look like for me to take a knee in my life? How and where might I display more unity for racial justice?