Skip to main content

A Glimpse Of Hope

‎


 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. 








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting Fresh

One of my favorite days in the Spring comes when this year’s list of Farmer’s Markets is released. That happened this week. New this year are markets in Old Ellicott City and the “Merriweather Market” which, according to the address, will be located here . I mistakenly thought at first glance that it was in the new-construction part of the Merriweather District. I find the name confusing considering its actual location. I’m going to guess that this market is an initiative of the Howard Hughes Corporation because the name seems chosen more for branding purposes than anything else.  Alas, the market in Maple Lawn is gone. The thread on the markets on the County Executive’s FB page will provide you with quite the education in who actually runs the Farmers Markets vs what people often think is going on. Short answer: they are not  chosen nor run by the county. Each market is an independent entity, sometimes started by community volunteers, other times supported by local businesses...
1 comment
Read more

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more