One of my favorite memories from a recent trip to Puerto Rico was watching the sun set in Rincon. Rincon is a small town on the far western side of the island. There is a lighthouse and a public beach there. It is a place where surfers spend a lot of time. From a cliff high above the beach, you watch them ride the waves. As we watched the surfers late one afternoon, we also saw a whale breach far off in the Caribbean Sea.
As sunset draws near people gather to watch. We stood together along a wooden fence set up to keep people from falling down the steep, rocky bank to the shore. Shoulder to shoulder, kids and parents, lovers and elders stood watching as the red ball of light made its way into the sea. As the very last bit of pink went under the horizon everyone clapped and someone broke out in song. It was a moment of connection and deep gratitude. It was a moment to give thanks for that day.
Later while reflecting on that time, I thought of a quote from E.B. White, “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save the world or savor it. This makes it damn hard to plan my day.” There is the perpetual need for both saving and savoring. I needed to stand in the sand with so many strangers watching that sunset. There was such awe in that moment.
But I also know that as I stood there looking west Haiti was only 325 miles away. Haiti which now finds itself in deep turmoil. What can we do in this time? In this month of Ramadan, the sunset now means the breaking of fast for Muslims around the world, but how is this fast broken for people in Gaza who have no food?
How do we both savor and save in such a beautiful, broken world? Two friends and I talked about this over cups of tea last Thursday. We were thinking together about what it means to be of use as you age. Our inspiration for this conversation came from the Marge Piercy poem, “To Be of Use”. The poem begins,
“The people I love best
Jump into work head first
Without dallying in the shallows
And swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight . . . “
The work, the saving of the world changes as you get older, at least it has for me. After having a benign brain tumor which left me deaf in my left ear and impacted my balance, I knew it was time to retire from being a pastor. What was next? How was I to be of use?
For me answering this question meant becoming a paraprofessional at a local middle school. I needed the health insurance, but I also love being with kids, especially teenagers. It has been a good fit as the hours are way less then what I used to work, but I still feel of use as I help kids with science, reading and math. I can now tell you the difference between a dividend and a divisor and I know what homozygous means.
To be of use I have also looked to the lives of other women. Several of these women have birthdays on March 4th. I have always thought that these were perfect days for them as they have truly marched forth into the world. I give thanks for each of them: Pamela, a teacher, editor and writer, who organized a huge letter writing campaign during the pandemic so that all the frontline workers in our congregation got a monthly letter of thanks and encouragement. Therese, a chiropractor, chaplain and city council woman, who is not afraid of taking on the hard issues of our time. And finally, Mary, now gone but a therapist who challenged and changed our congregation and our city.
Mary learned to build things from her father. She built her own home and she was often found at church with a hammer or paint brush in her hand. She transformed our sanctuary by painting away the outdated turquoise to a more subdued beige. That paint though was the only thing about Mary that was subdued. She spent her life challenging patriarchy both through her work with women at the Human Development Center and as a founder of Duluth’s Building for Women.
When asked for a church newsletter article what change she would most like to see in the world, Mary responded, “I would like us to be more personal with one another, listen, be there – face-to-face, person-to-person.” Amen to that Mary. Maybe that is a way we can both savor and save.
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