Author: barrywynn

Nah, I’m Good

While I hear that generally he’s as popular as ever with the faithful, I’m relieved to hear that many of the people who voted for the current Chief Executive are “coming around” now that they are actually experiencing actual harm from his policies.

However, I find little motivation to “join with” or “welcome” them. Not out of spite or any desire for “revenge” (as I heard one progressive writer blithely put it).

Who am I to judge? I’ve got my own shortcomings to answer for.

Rather, I was never “in community” with these folks, especially the truly MAGA faithful, to begin with. Personally, I often find myself on the outside looking in no matter what space I find myself in. Beside the fact that I’m currently “living Black” in an overwhelmingly white, conservative community, I generally don’t trust the logic of crowds, I ask too many questions, and frankly, I live in my own head a lot. So I’m always a bit detached. Awkward really.

I have to be on guard against the temptation toward snobbery because of it. Awkwardness can often lead to elitism if left unattended.

Regardless, I feel no kinship with, or any desire for same, with any current or former supporters of the current Chief Executive. I certainly am willing to work in tandem with the like minded against a common threat and to support vulnerable communities (no matter the political bent).

But let’s leave it at that. Perhaps an unnecessary distinction but it’s one I require. And there is precedent: https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/the-first-rainbow-coalition/

The Revolution Will Not Only Not Be Televised… It Will Never End

Black citizens know that American democracy is not a destination. Rather, it is a constant struggle. Point of fact, America has never been a democratic state. At our inception, women and non-landowning men could not vote and though slavery is never mentioned in the Constitution, it was provisioned for in the Three Fifth’s Compromise and the Second Amendment to name a couple of examples.

To paraphrase Sherrilyn Ifill, America only approached democracy in 1965 with the passage of the Voting Rights Act that finally provided government protection for the voting rights of Black citizens, less than 4 years after I was born. Unfortunately, the Roberts Court has all but unravelled it.

Wednesday night, my daughter and I watched a Livestream from the University of Michigan that featured Ta-Nehisi Coates and Dr. Angela Davis where Dr. Davis surprised everyone in attendance in stating that she was actually “optimistic” about America’s prospects. Sure we’re in grave danger. But historically speaking we are moving in the right direction. She likened it to the “3 steps forward, 2 back” analogy. We’re obviously in a “2 back” phase, but to her mind we are making progress, else the party in power would not be taking such extreme measures.

She also reminded everyone that we need to see ourselves from a historical perspective. That we are a part of history rather than living separate from it. I wrote down a quote without attribution and I cannot remember whether Coates or Dr. Davis actually said it but it struck me like a bolt of lightning:

“You are here because people who could not see you fought for you.”

I’m fond of saying that “I know where I am.” I cannot afford the delusions of traditional American propaganda or patriotism. But I also have to remember that the survival of my people is not an accident. That those who went before me had even less reason to believe that America would make a place for them, yet they fought for me.

I can do no less for those who I cannot see.

It’s Not “Fragility”, It’s Just Cruelty

On February 21st, 1862 Nathaniel Gordon became the only American slave trader to executed by the government for engaging in chattel slavery. He was unrepentant to the end. Declaring that he’d done nothing wrong which is what it is given where he was, and frankly, where we still are.

But this part right here, though:

“… saying he would rather die alone than suffer the humiliation of being publicly executed. He said he’d “suffered the agony of a dozen deaths.””

Look, I’m on record with my opposition to capital punishment, for any crime, without reservation. But he’s tied up in knots over his “humiliation”? Never once considering his personal responsibility for the misery he’d profited from?

It makes me think of the white parents who dither over the “embarrassment” their children might face over learning the history of chattel slavery, never once thinking of the legacy that Black children have to live with.

Some have labeled this “fragility.” Let’s call a thing a thing.

It’s just cruelty.

When you value your emotional comfort over the humanity of your fellow human beings, you have a serious problem.

“Early the morning before the execution, Gordon unsuccessfully attempted suicide with strychnine poison.[23] Three doctors worked four hours to keep him alive by pumping his stomach, catheterizing him, and force-feeding him brandy and whiskey. After regaining consciousness, he cried out “I’ve cheated you! I’ve cheated you!” Gordon then begged the doctors assist his suicide, saying he would rather die alone than suffer the humiliation of being publicly executed. He said he’d “suffered the agony of a dozen deaths.”[23][24][25] He was sufficiently revived to be fit enough for execution.”

Full entry here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Gordon

Compared To What…

When I was in college 100 years ago I learned that while there were objective measures of art, for instance, line, color usage, brush strokes, harmonic progression, etc, art is best judged on how effective it is rather than if “I like it” or even “get it.”

That effective art resonates. That it speaks to the layers of the human condition.

Furthermore, we bring our own perspectives to art and that our perspectives change over time. For example, when I was growing up, my dad wore the groove out of “Compared To What” by Les McCann & Ed Harris. It did not move me back then. Probably scared me a little. But now, with 6 decades behind me, it’s my “Hallelujah Chorus.”

What Lamar left us with Sunday night was art. There were layers upon layers.

WELCOME!

While I get that the results of the last election lay bare the fascist, racist, oppressive tendencies and preferences of American society for a lot of people, (takes deep breath) this has been apparent to a LOT of us for a very long time. For generations to be precise.

So what many people see as “the end of American Democracy” is just “Tuesday” for us. Which is not to say that we are not collectively in dire straits, but “we been tryna tell y’all” for a minute now and have been largely ignored, or worse, we’ve been expected to “rescue America.”

And we have; as Sherrilyn Ifill so eloquently noted on 60 Minutes (Google it), America can only really lay claim to calling itself a democracy since the mid-60’s, largely due to the Civil Rights Movement only to lurch back into the welcoming arms of white supremacy once the dust settled.

Only to find that white supremacy does not even protect all white people.

To say it another way: Welcome To The Hood, Y’all.

Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk.

*sigh*

So… are y’all watching this thing tonight? My daughter thinks we should and I know my wife would want me to watch and frankly, I know I should watch if for no other reason that it’s an historic event. This is the first time that a black woman has represented a major party for the office of the executive in my country (ignoring for a moment that other countries have had female leadership for decades).

But she’s forced to share a stage with a tragic joke of a human being and an existential threat to democracy who really has no place sharing the stage with her in a sane world.

But politics has been reduced to a pageant sport in our current timeline and he’s fed into the fears of a lot of people afraid of “being replaced” and they are so scared of losing their place in our caste system that he actually has a real chance of winning.

Even though I’ll likely watch, I’m tired of covering this same old ground where we (you know, “the blacks” and “the gays” and the “illegals” and such) try to convince a large segment our fellows that we really have no interest in doing to them what has been done to us. Rather, we’d just be satisfied with being left alone in spite of the fact that the party in opposition has convinced them that we’ve somehow “taken” something that is inherently “theirs”

And frankly, I’m just tired of hearing his voice.

Snippet

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” – Ephesian 3:20

There is a section in the 20th verse of the 3rd chapter of Ephesians where the writer references the power of God “that is at work within us”.

I find that verse intimidating because much of the time I don’t feel very “powerful.” In engineering school I learned that power is “the capacity to do work”; the equation being power = work/time. Do a little algebra and we find that work = power/time which implies that a large amount of work can be generated by a powerful motor over a short period of time or by a small motor over a long period of time.

Therein in lies my problem: time.

I used to believe that my issue with this scripture is laziness (and I am lazy) but that’s not the root of it. Rather it’s the worry that I won’t have the time to complete the work I have before me. Which is wholly ridiculous when you think about it. We’re all time limited. We’re all on the clock and it’s going to run out for us all at one point or another.

Earlier this week, a college friend died of a burst aneurysm. He was around my age, late 50’s/early 60’s. Right now, one of my mother’s oldest friends is making her transition after just having turned 101 on the 11th. I’m sure they both would rather be here. I know that they made the best of their time based on the testimonials of friends and family and my own personal experience with them.

There is another scripture that says “Teach us to number our days, that we might incline our hearts to wisdom.” – Psalm 90:12 – which, loosely translated, says (to me, anyway) that rather than fretting over death, we should keep it ever before us as a reminder to stay on task. Or as one of my great-uncles used to say, “I intend to wear out, not rust out.”

Or finally, as Toni Morrison said, “We are already born, we are going to die, so you have to do something interesting, that you respect in between.”

Trad Wives Spat On Ruby Bridges

I rarely watch The State of The Union Address. I didn’t even like pep rallies in high school. But I hear Joe Byron did a good job being “forceful” and “energetic” last night. Which is good, I guess. I’ll vote for him regardless, because the presumptive challenger is unacceptable.

I’m really tired of playing this game: choosing between two old white guys who pee in our glasses swearing it’s chardonnay. But “democracy is on the line” and all that.

Meanwhile, I hear that the GOP rebuttal was given by the junior senator from Alabama, one Katie Britt, in what all the smart people are telling me is the GOP’s strategic shift to the “Traditional Wife (Trad Wife) Movement.”

I have thoughts on the “Traditional Wife” movement.

None of them are good.

Or particularly kind.

Trad Wives spat on Ruby Bridges as she tried to go to school.

In “The Good Old Days”, Trad Wives could only cater to the whims of their husbands because of the labor of non-White women (whose children were not allowed in their schools) taking care of their homes, and often, their children.

At the heart of the Trad Wife movement is misogyny and White Supremacy and a caste system that will eventually exploit the demographic it claims to “protect”. It’s the same warmed over BS from White Citizens Councils and The Drug War(s), namely: “We will protect you from the scary black/brown/Muslim/queer people. Never mind that ‘purity’ is an illusion.”

We could be mining asteroids.

Or curing cancer.

Or learning innovative new ways to feed people.

Yet I fear we’re going to have another “debate” on whether a woman’s place is in the home. A debate that never included women of color or poor white women in the first place.

God Is A Woman

2 Kings 4:25-30. Key verse:  30 “And the mother child said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her.”

1 Corinthians 13:4-7. Key verse: 5 ”[Love] Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not, her own.”

This Lenten season, like all Lenten seasons, we occupy our hearts and minds with preparation. In anticipation of the Passion Story, of Jesus’ death on Calvary and his ultimate victory on Easter morn we immerse ourselves in the rituals of fasting and denial, in special services like Ash Wednesday and Maundy Thursday. We focus on the events of the savior’s life leading up to his betrayal. His triumphant ride into Jerusalem, his purging the temple of moneychangers, his moment of despair in Gethsemane.

And beside the fact that Easter truly is the biggest day on the Christian calendar – sorry Christmas – and that it’s the culmination of The Messiah’s life’s work on earth, and it’s THE WHOLE FOCUS of Christianity, I must ask, what’s the point here?

Not to trivialize what is obviously the single most important event of our faith, but what is the point beyond death and resurrection?

Asked differently what is the motivation behind God fulfilling his covenant with Abraham (and ultimately Adam)? And what drives Christ to volunteer for the job?

We all know the very easy and obvious answer is found in John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” It’s the modern equivalent of shorthand for the basic tenet of the Christian faith, Salvation through Jesus Christ, through Jesus’ blood. And why? Because he loves us.

Love. Love is the key here. Love is that motivation. Love is the source from where the Messiah’s actions spring. Love is the pinnacle. “Faith hope and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.”

There is no higher ideal of a Christian’s life.  Scriptural references abound:

Love is sacrifice. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

Love is all encompassing. “For God so loved the world.” Referencing John 3:16 again. No one gets left out.

Love makes glad, it uplifts.  Luke 6:35 says, “But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.”

Love redeems.  Isaiah 38:17 reads: “Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind my back.”

The above are fine examples of love carried into the world, of love in action. But what of its essence? What is the nature of love?

Our New Testament scripture is more enlightening in detailing what love is not. Reading from the New International Version, while love is patient and kind for sure, it also does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, is not rude, is not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil. And going back to the King James version, Love “seeketh not her own good.”

“Her”?

I find it interesting that the only time a human characteristic is ascribed to love, it is given in the feminine. It could be merely a term of art. Poetic license if you will.

But consider the point at which Paul chooses to refer to love as “her,” in the middle section of verse 5 where we learn that love “…Seeketh not her own…” In every other reference to love in the 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians Paul uses the third person possessive.  It could be noted that in other interpretations of this scripture, love is left in the 3rd person. I choose to favor the King James version for the purposes of this presentation.

In this one characteristic of love, at least in the King James version, love is feminine. Love seeks not her own way, or if you’ll allow me, her own good. Well if not her own good, then whose? I believe the answer is illustrated in the Shunammite woman from our Old Testament lesson.  For her kindness to the Prophet Elisha God blessed her and her much older husband with a son.  The Shunammite woman told Elisha that she needed no boon for her kindness but was glad of the blessing. One day while in the field with his father, the boy took ill. He was carried back to his mother where he died in her lap. As our reading states she immediately went to find Elisha, and upon meeting him declared that she would not leave him until he went home with her. Eventually Elisha prayed over the boy and God restored him to life.

There are two junctures in this story where the Shunammite woman displays selflessness or seeks not her own good.  The first in which she prepares a room in her home for Elisha for his use when he travels nearby. She refuses to take reward when Elisha offers it. The second in which she travels to find Elisha after her son has died. Elisha’s reputation as a man of God – as The Man of God – is well known. Scripture says that he had a double portion of the spirit of his mentor Elijah who with but a word, stopped the rain from coming for a number of years.

Our text does not say so but one can infer that the Shunammite woman took quite a risk in confronting The Man of God. She fairly rebukes him when she finds him. “I didn’t want this child Elisha,” she seems to say, “but you had to go ahead and meddle, and now he’s dead. What are you going to do about it, Elisha?” You can almost hear her say.

In both instances the Shunammite woman was not seeking her own good, but attending to the welfare of others, even at the risk of her own life.

This then, it can be said, is the essence, the nature of love; selfless giving, even unto death. We often say that God is love. And Paul refers to love as “her.” And I’ve just offered to you that at its core, love is feminine.

I submit to you then this day then that God is a woman.

Now we believe that God is a spirit, or at least beyond the gender concerns of mortality. So I’m being a bit facetious in my supposition. However in practically every reference to God in scripture – and anywhere else for that matter – he is described in the masculine. So I think it’s fair to argue for a feminine interpretation, at least, in talking about the love of God.

Consider again the Shunammite woman. Scripture says that she was wealthy, a woman of means. She wanted for nothing. She was self-sufficient. It’s fair to assume that she had plenty of responsibility with the considerable holdings she shared with her husband and she had her own plans to carry out. Yet she set it all aside, first for the needs of Elisha and finally in putting herself at risk for the life of her son.  She was willing to extend herself for the needs of someone other than herself where she certainly didn’t have to.

In similar fashion God is self-sufficient, the uncaused first cause. She wants for nothing. She has considerable holdings. She has Her own plans and responsibilities. Yet She sets them aside for even the least of Her children. Children who wander into Her house needing shelter, needing support, needing comfort. God gives Her all for Her children. Even at the sacrifice of Her own son. Despite the fact that She doesn’t have to.

Consider beloved that God does not need us. Is not required or obligated to come to our rescue when it is we who have transgressed against God.

Time and again, isn’t this the mark of a woman, of a mother’s love? Wiping ungrateful noses, catering to the needs of often thoughtless children, asking for nothing in return. This is not the love that branches from eros, from “I love you because you love me,” that feel good love that we hear constantly on the radio. This is agape love. Selfless love. The love of a mother. The love of God.

We often proclaim that God is love. We say that we want to be more like God as embodied in Christ Jesus. Then perhaps we could benefit from the example of Godly women in our lives.

An Ecclesiastical Frame of Mind

“The sun rises and the sun sets,
    and hurries back to where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south
    and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
    ever returning on its course.
7 All streams flow into the sea,
    yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
    there they return again.
8 All things are wearisome,
    more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
    nor the ear its fill of hearing.” Ecclesiastes 1:5-8

Having yet to catch my breath from the current year, I can hardly look forward to a new one. But isn’t that kind of the point? Life moves on whether we’re ready for what comes or not, whether we want what it brings or not.

And I’m learning that “wanting” anything in terms of the outcomes of my living to be a pointless exercise. It’s akin to a leaf in a hurricane expecting to “get somewhere”, just tossed about aimlessly, spinning about comically with no defined path.

Better to adopt the pose of the surfer. Wait on the next wave and ride it for as long as I can. Enjoy it for as long as I can knowing that I will fall – often awkwardly and foolishly – until the last wave comes.

And knowing that I won’t be ready to stop.