A Glimpse Of Hope

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Concord, Concord is here, Concord is here / Our days to bless / And this our land, our land to endue / With plenty, peace and happiness. / Concord, Concord and Time, Concord and Time / Each needeth each: / The ripest fruit hangs where / Not one, not one, but only two, only two can reach.

Choral Dance Number 2, Gloriana 

Benjamin Britten

As I began to think about Thanksgiving this morning, the sounds of this piece stirred in my memory.

Concord, Concord is here, Concord is here

Our days to bless

It brought to mind lovely images of American autumn landscapes, plentiful harvest, families gathered around a food-laden Thanksgiving table. Generic American feel-good Thanksgiving where everything is fine and nothing is complicated.

What is concord? Dictionary.com defines it as:

Agreement or harmony between people or groups

Concord is precisely what is not here.  The oppostive of concord is discord. That is where we are in America today.

But we yearn for concord. For a soothing sense of harmony in our lives. But not all of us. Some of our friends and neighbors are waking up on this morning and every morning yearning for justice. There’s a reason for that, and it goes back to the first appearance of Europeans in North America. 

I cannot celebrate Thanksgiving anymore without facing the truth of that. 

Here is my thanksgiving this year. Here is my glimpse of hope. Two things have happened over the last week that have nourished my soul. The first is from a parent at Oakland Mills High School:

A wonderful thank you to all from OMHS;

THANK YOU!!!  We are pleased to say that due to the generous donations of our fellow community members, and surrounding schools, we are bursting at the seams with donations for the OM food pantry! At this time we are unable to house any additional donations. We will send out future communication when our pantry is low and needs re-stocking. We cannot thank you enough for the incredible support, it has been so humbling seeing our entire community come together to support this endeavor. Your donations prove that we truly are strongest together!

The second is from newly-elected State’s Attorney Richard Gibson’s remarks this week on Elevate Maryland. He talks about our responsibility to make the way open, clear the path for others to be able to fully come into their own and manifest the gifts that are within them. (Listen for yourself.)

So, some of us are hungry for concord. Some of us thirst for justice. If I have any message at all to share today it is this:

The ripest fruit hangs where / Not one, not one, but only two, only two can reach.

Keep reaching.