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Room for Fences |
You may know that Jackie Robinson was the first African-American
to play major league baseball. In his first season with the
Brooklyn Dodgers, Robinson faced hostility nearly everywhere he
traveled because of his race. Pitchers threw fast balls at his
head. Runners spiked him on the bases. Brutal epithets were
written on cards and shouted by players in the opposing dugouts.
Even the home crowds in Brooklyn saw him as an object of
reproach.
During one game in Boston, the taunts and racial slurs seemed to
reach a peak. To make matters worse, Robinson committed an error
and stood at second base humiliated while fans hurled insults at
him. Another Dodger, a Southern white man by the name of "Pee
Wee" Reese, called time-out. He walked over to Robinson and, with
the crowds looking on, put his arm around his friend's shoulder.
The fans grew quiet. Robinson later said that arm around his
shoulder saved his career. Later, Jackie Robinson went on to
become one of baseball's all-time greats.
An arm around his shoulder made the difference. It said to the
crowd and anyone who cared to notice, "We are one."
Though we have made headway, race still divides us. As do
religion and politics and ideologies. And, though we are learning
better how to "put our arms" around people who are different, our
global community is not yet unified.
I like a poem by Dr. Jim Walkenbach, titled "Freedom."
Freedom,
Soaring,
Unshackled,
Untethered,
Not bound by beliefs to an earthly domain.
Rising high on the updrafting currents of knowledge,
The spiritual being remembers its Source.
Cast aside are the forms that anchor the earthling,
That cause judgment and fear and anger and death.
To think that one's color, one's nation, one's religion,
Are reasons for hatred, belies who we are.
All souls are the same as the water in vessels
Not defined by containers, but each part of the Sea...
Whether your vessel's a bucket, crystal vase, or a chalice,
The water's the same, if you look with eyes that can see.
Let the energy of Love be the Sun to your water.
Let it lift it like vapor once again to be free.
Let it rise and co-mingle with all water vapor
Uniting as one and reforming the Sea.
I believe Father Taylor got it right: "There is just enough room
in the world for all the people in it, but there is no room for
the fences which separate them."
-- Steve Goodier |
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