Dear Friends,
As I sat and listened this week to the world around me, watched in silence, played in leaves turned green to gold, and then listened again to the beating heart of the Earth beneath my feet, I was moved to tears. As if my heart were breaking wide open, the experience of knowing that we are called to more than we are, that our charge in "binding up the brokenhearted" still leaves a hole too vast for our combined efforts to fill.
It is in these moments that I turn to the wisdom of the wisest among us, our children.
One of my former youth, Sophie Steiner, who lost her life to cancer her junior year of high school wrote this poem that I share with you now. You can read more about Be Loud! Sophie here:
Spirit is leading the way,
Rev. Jenny Shultz-Thomas
BUT YOU AND I ARE REALLY JUST THE SAME
I would get on a bus
A bus for Human Rights
So that every person
Can live with no
Abuse or violence
So that girls can
Live with no
Harm
That boys can
Share the wealth
So that every human
Is equal
And no one
Is at a loss
I would get on a bus
And travel
I will stand
On my own two feet
And I will support myself
If no one else does
I will get on a bus
For Human Rights
Hunger carves in a hole
In two opposite people
The people of power
Of gold and wealth
And the people of nothing
Nothing to live for
No food or water
People talk and talk
About changing
What are they going to change?
Travel and listen
Don’t sit and talk
I would get on a bus for
Human Rights
So that every human can
Live without a hole
Of hunger
I would get on a bus
For Human Rights because
The empty, dark hole
Needs to be filled with
Light, music and art
So that every word
Can be heard
And no one is ignored
And there is no empty hole
Everyone talks but no one
Does
Will you?
A bus for Human Rights
So that every person
Can live with no
Abuse or violence
So that girls can
Live with no
Harm
That boys can
Share the wealth
So that every human
Is equal
And no one
Is at a loss
I would get on a bus
And travel
I will stand
On my own two feet
And I will support myself
If no one else does
I will get on a bus
For Human Rights
Hunger carves in a hole
In two opposite people
The people of power
Of gold and wealth
And the people of nothing
Nothing to live for
No food or water
People talk and talk
About changing
What are they going to change?
Travel and listen
Don’t sit and talk
I would get on a bus for
Human Rights
So that every human can
Live without a hole
Of hunger
I would get on a bus
For Human Rights because
The empty, dark hole
Needs to be filled with
Light, music and art
So that every word
Can be heard
And no one is ignored
And there is no empty hole
Everyone talks but no one
Does
Will you?
~ Sophie Steiner
November 7, 2012