Good

My Father-In Law died in December.  He was complicated and simple.  He had a rough go as a father at times as all do, and he was a loving family man.  He was whip smart and a great scientist.  He was dedicated and respected and he built a life of kindness and faith; a house of goodness and peace.

 It is worth noting and honoring a second good builder who died recently, President Jimmy Carter.  By the time President Carter died, the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project had helped way over 4500 families move into safe, affordable shelter in 14 countries.  They had worked side by side with over 100,000 volunteers.  They had quite literally built a world of hope into being.

Tomorrow is January 20, 2025.

All I can think about is:  How do I do good tomorrow?  How do I put loving energy out into the world that will combat even a molecule of hate (knowing that there will be so much pride and power-over and ignorance celebrated it will burn houses of hope and love to the ground like the LA fires have been doing for weeks)?

 The foundation for a new house of love had been set by Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.  But even Dr. King wouldn’t have been able to believe what he would have been seeing here in 2025.  He who saw hate and ignorance ruling and breaking bodies and spirits would have, I believe, thought that we would have moved a bit on the universe’s arc towards justice.

We should be ashamed.

And so, my longing to do good.

John Wesley said this:

 “Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”

These words were read at my FIL’s funeral yesterday.  They hold the key to building a life of compassionate change and I have been mulling them over -longing for them to show me the way to build good. 

 What I think, is that they help build the idea of a good that is multi-faceted and creative.  Good that looks different when lived by different people that points all of us to that arc of justice we hear a call to in King’s speech and song.

 Good happens in different ways, through different resources, around the world and as often as possible.  Good happens to a world of people each broken but differently.  And it plays the long game.  Good is a solid house, built to look different, in different places and different spaces.  But solid just the same.

 I am not naive.  It will take all of us to muster enough strength to build and, when torn down to the studs, build again.  It will take your passion for love and my passion for hope and the passion of others for community and for giving and for hard work and for deep welcome and for ally-ship, to raise walls immediately after they are torn down.  Over and over again. 

 It will take these houses to protect the rights of all.  To hide each other just long enough to keep ourselves safe and then write signs of protest together before we wrap scarves around our necks and place hats over our ears to step out and march against hate.

It will take courage. 

And I have to believe we have some.  There is no other alternative.

As for me, I will welcome the stranger.  I will march.  I will embrace the captive.  I will pray for eyes to see and for ears to hear but I will not wait around until the scales fall from eyes of hate or I sense the opening of ears of ignorance.  I will begin now to create a space of welcome and safety for any and all.  I will protect.  I will not shame, nor will I fear. 

I will build.

Tomorrow I will honor three men as I go about my day:  Wayne Wolsey, Jimmy Carter, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Each of them built a life of good. 

 I will pray that their good, combined with mine and yours, will strengthen my resolve for peace and close me to all the fear and hate that will try to seep into my walls disguised as an inauguration.

 I will build a good house with a good foundation and good walls.  I will set upon that good frame a good roof and fill that house with good love and good relationship.

 It will become a space of warmth and safety that will call others to build their own homes of safety.  And then, good home by good home, we will find, hopefully soon, that we have built a good world.

For good.