We have a beach front home that is on the Chesapeake Bay. The views of the sunset are astounding. One of the things that Vicki Squire and I love being that close to the water is that we can hear the crashing of the waves against our bulkhead. Of course, it depends on the tide for it fluctuates a great deal on the Bay. You can hear the wave just before it crashes as a crescendo of sound builds. It is like someone knocking on our front door. Then the sound of the water hitting the beach and bulkhead makes itself known as the visitors enter. It is very soothing and connects us to nature in a direct way. Waves have a way of drawing you in particularly when there is silence in the home. You find yourself listening to the rhythm of their coming and going.
There is a danger to just focus on the waves for you may forget something else that is essential. It was described best by Mitch Album in his book, Tuesday with Morrie.
“There was once a wave. Bobbing along in the ocean, having a grand old time. All was well and the wave was enjoying himself. He was just enjoying the wind and the ride until one day he noticed what was happening to others waves in front of him. They was crashing against the shore. ‘My God, this is terrible’, the wave said. ‘Look what’s going to happen to me!’ Then another wave came along who asked, ‘Why do you look so sad?’ The first wave says, ‘You don’t understand! We’ll all going to crash. All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn’t it terrible?’ The other wave’s response: ‘No, you don’t understand. You’re not a wave, you’re part of the ocean.”
You are not just a black man. You are not just a protester. You are part of a movement to bring social justice to all. You are not just a statistic. You are not just a lone number. You are part of humanity that is struggling and moving forward attempting to bring this Pandemic to an end.
The Black Lives Matter Movement and the Pandemic reflects that old axiom, “We will either rise as one or fall together.
I am afraid that our politicians in Washington have watched and listened to our challenges seeing themselves as isolated waves being part of partisan politics and have forgotten that their role requires them to be part of what is best for our nation as a whole, the ocean.
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