Archive for June, 2010

A few years ago I was trying to get some rest on a flight home after a speaking engagement.  There were a few babies on the plane (including on my row).  One child started to cry and soon they were all wailing.  As I looked around I noticed each of the three babies was of a different race or ethnicity.  I began to write the following.

When babies cry they share a common language.  There is no cultural distinction in a baby’s cry. An African child sounds just like an Asian.  An Asian baby cries like the Latino child. An American baby sounds just like the rest.  In a common language they say, “feed me”, “change me”, “pick me up” or “I need a nap”. When one cries the others cry with them.

Maybe they cry because they came into this world from a common source as undefiled pure gifts of love.  Perhaps they cry because they fear that one day their language will change and they will be taught to judge and fear one another due to the color of their skin, or class distinctions, or because they have two mommies or two daddies instead of one of each.  Maybe they know they will be taught to hate rather than to love.

In these times of natural disasters, economic volatility, unemployment, foreclosures, the ecological disasters in the Gulf, and global warming there are so many circumstances that can bring us to tears.  Could it be that we are being called back to our original common language? When we all start to cry perhaps we will realize that at the core we all have the same needs just like those babies on the plane. We just forgot our commonality due to the socially constructed distinctions of race, class, age, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and various other divisions.

Maybe if we can try to remember the love and commonality we came into this world with we would be moved to care and work toward the common good before destruction leads us all back to our common language of tears.

On the cover of the Atlanta Journal Constitution this morning there was a picture of an oil soaked pelican.  It looked helpless and confused as it held up oil drenched wings that could no longer fly.  I cried as I imagined all of the other life forms that are being killed or sickened by the catastrophic ecological disaster taking place in the gulf.  Human beings were created to take care of the earth, not to exploit or destroy.  All of us are responsible for the planet regardless of race, class, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ability, or any of the other socially constructed walls.  We all breathe the same air.

It is time to make our political, economic, and social decisions from a perspective that considers life in all of its forms.  In our work for justice among all of humanity we must also remember our responsibility to all species.   Pelicans cannot vote, but we can.  Turtles cannot demand policies that protect the environment that is our responsibility.  Beaches and marshes cannot stop the damage that has been done, but we can commit to support the organizations that are trying to help.  We are a part of this great system we call Creation.  That pelican is connected to all of us.