Arlene Goldbard posted a new message for Rosh HaShanah on her blog. Here’s an excerpt that rings true for me:
I know someone who has been saying that the world offends him. He means that our society seems off-course, with unworthy people exercising social power while many who desire a more just and merciful world despair of affecting things. Like many of us, he works in what they call the helping professions. He sees people with willing hearts and abundant gifts who have acquired the habit of dialing themselves down, accommodating themselves to a diminished world. They stop expressing the fullness of their dreams, bringing their creative power to bear on their communities, or asking people to meet them in a higher and deeper place, because they no longer believe these things are possible. Then they have a lot of trouble loving the shrunken or distorted self that is the residue of their disappointment.”
To me, the deepest value of spiritual community is the way it can support us in remembering who we really are, in drawing on our highest and most remarkable selves to regain our power to heal ourselves and the world.”
Last night we lit flares in memory of Cope’s father. Seven of us watched the amazing light shift and sputter and change colors. We talked about Plato’s ideas of color, Harry’s love of life, and I thought of Laurie Long too.