A Turning of the World
“Dear Black America — We are many things, aren’t we? We are hair. God yes, we are hair. And song. And memory. We are a language so deep it has no need for words. And we are words that feint, dart, and wheel like birds. Like James Brown, we feel good. Like Fannie Lou Hamer, we are sick and tired. We are fearsome. We are fire. Like God, we are that we are.”
These words from the poem, Dear Black America, by Tracy K. Smith are the opening words of a very provocative interview with Krista Tippett in her podcast On Being on May 27, 2021. In this year and a half of the pandemic, which as a side effect brought forward the depth of systemic racism and the depth of human alienation from our other-than-human world, Smith called together a group of 20 poets of colour to reflect out loud on the meaning and the impact of a barrage of reminders of the racial inequities of the world in which we live.
Also in the interview was poet Michael Kieber-Diggs who offered a piece of his writing about the experience of the last year and a half.
“It wasn’t that I wanted to let go and sink. It was that it was hard to keep my head above water and carry my stone at the same time. I wanted a place to rest. Okay? I wanted to float, just for a little while.”
The podcast offers a fresh and searing look at the impact of racism in the day to day lives of people of colour. Simply taking his dog for a walk evokes multiple feelings for Kieber-Diggs. What is most amazing is that there remains for them in the midst of it all a capacity for hope. Maybe it is connected to the belief that there is a revolution going on outside, and hopefully inside -
…one that may actually see a turning of the world.
Sister Margo Ritchie, csj
Living in the In-Between Time
When I was asked to consider writing a blog from my own experience of living in this ‘in-between time’ I searched the dictionary for the definition of time and discovered words that reflected some of my lived experience during these past months.
TIME: the right moment; duration in which all things happen; precise instant that something happens.
Of course, the daily challenge has been to stop, in the moment, to see what I am learning about the ‘in-between time’ and living that moment as best as I can.
Moments come each day in our lives such as taking time to greet the cashier at the drug store rather than silently waiting to be checked out, or going over to the Community Centre on Thursdays when day-old bread is available for the residents to pick up and chatting about the weather or how their day is going, or standing on the front porch and chatting with Muriel as she walks her dog Murphy and we chat about all the plants that are coming to life. It seems that time is about presence and being present!
We often hear and use phrases about time: time off; time to work; time for holidays; time to go; time for ourselves and there are many more that can be added to this short list. This time of COVID, we have often heard that “we will never return to the way things were – there is something new happening – personally, and collectively – and this in-between time is re-shaping us, our neighborhoods, and the planet.
I was struck recently when I re-read lines from the Poem – The Dash (by Linda Ellis, 1996), and I have selected a few lines to share.
I read of a man who stood to speak
at the funeral of a friend
he referred to the dates on the tombstone
from the beginning to the end.
He noted that first came the date of birth.
Then he said what mattered most of all was the dash between the years.
For that dash represents all the time that was spent alive on earth…
What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our dash.
If we could just slow down enough to consider what is true and real
And always try to understand the way other people feel.
And love the people in our lives like we have never loved before.
If we treat each other with respect and more often wear a smile.
Remembering that this special dash might only last a little while.
Would you be proud of the things they say about how you spent your dash?
What has been your journey living the Dash during these months of COVID?
-Sister Ann MacDonald, csj
We Feel a Largeness Coming On
About three years ago, Commissioner - the Honourable Justice Murray Sinclair, former senator and co-author of the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Report spoke to a packed crowd of us at King’s College Conference Centre in London, Ontario.
After a brief introduction to the talk on reconciliation, he invited all of us to take out our cell phones. I thought initially he was going to ask us to put them on mute. Not so. He asked us to scroll through and find a favorite picture of our child or niece, nephew, or grandchild. He did the same and landed on a picture of his 5-year-old granddaughter. It made him smile. There was a pause in the audience. “Now, he said, I want you to delete the picture.” As you can imagine, no one deleted anything. In a very poignant and stark way, we all got the point. This was the experience of so many indigenous parents whose children “were disappeared” in a variety of ways to the residential school system. Deleted.
None of us knew in that conference hall over three years ago that we would be reading in the newspaper in Canada on May 27, 2021, that 215 bodies of indigenous children were found buried in the yard of a residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia. Some were as young as three years old. Deleted.
In a conversation with friends the day after the revelation, one of the details that left us saddened and almost without words was the photo of a pair of small handcuffs created specifically for a child’s hands. While it was unspoken, the thought of intentionally handcuffing a small child somehow seemed to capture the cruelty and racism of this part of the Canadian story---past and present. Deleted.
During this year-and-a-half of the global pandemic; during this year-and-a-half of continued unmasking of systemic racism in the US and in Canada; during this year-and-a-half of ongoing angst about climate change, there is one question that rises to the surface.
As we carry grief and shock, what is the new story we will commit to creating personally and communally as a country?
Sister Margo Ritchie, Congregational Leader, csj
A Statement from the Federation of Sisters of St. Joseph of Canada
How are we connected to the Kamloops tragedy?
It is heart-wrenching to learn of the remains of 215 children found at the former Kamloops residential school. Yes, the Truth and Reconciliation report told us about these missing children but to hear about a mass grave of children in Canada, and to know there are likely more such graves, as yet undiscovered, is deeply disturbing.
Given that this residential school was a Catholic-run institution, it is important to turn to the statements released by the Kamloops Bishop and the Vancouver Archbishop. Bishop Nguyen of Kamloops joined his voice with others who are “heartbroken and horrified” and expressed his deepest sympathy to Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc. He also offered assurance of personal support, prayers and accompaniment.” The statement from Archbishop Miller wrote about the “ongoing need to bring to light every tragic situation that occurred in residential schools run by the Church.”
Such statements matter. Still, the moment requires more.
Steps of St. Peter’s Basilica, London, ON | May 31, 2021 (Photo: Mark Wright)
It is not enough to see this tragedy simply as an event from the past. Catholics, in particular, are challenged to acknowledge how we, today, are connected to these deaths. How have we internalized the colonial assumptions and attitudes that have shaped our social, cultural, economic, and political systems? Where have racist assumptions become rooted in our subconscious? What are we doing to decolonize our minds and hearts?
“the moment requires more”
Here’s one action that might move us forward as a Church.
We, the Federation of Sisters of St. Joseph of Canada, commit to urging the local bishops in the dioceses in which we live and work, to join with all Canadian bishops to request that Pope Francis visit Canada and offer a formal apology to the Indigenous peoples of this land, as has been requested by many Indigenous groups. Will you join us?
Sister Sue Wilson, CSJ | Office for Systemic Justice | Federation of Sisters of St. Joseph of Canada
For more information, please read the press release from the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc.
Photos: Mark Wright