Peace: As Hell Freezes Over!

Have you been reading about the Great Lakes’ reactions to the cold snap? Although, actually — can you call it a cold snap, when it goes on and on and on? Lake Superior is 51% frozen. Lake Michigan is 34%, Lake Huron is 67%, and Lake Ontario is 26%. Lake Erie? It’s at 95% and climbing. All of these lakes are reaching historical percentages of ice. We’ll see if our 34˚ days do anything to melt the ice. If in fact, the wind stops blowing.

Then on Monday, the 9^th, the ice on Lake Michigan cracked. One huge crack right across the middle. Yeah, stay off the ice! Somehow, this made me think about that old adage, “when Hell freezes over.”

I’m not talking about this gorgeous Lake as Hell… Instead, I’m feeling as if we have encountered a situation that is responsive to the claim, “America will no longer be a democracy, when hell freezes over.” Uh, huh. Well, here we are. Now we can no longer pretend that we are not experiencing authoritarianism. Let’s acknowledge that this presidency feels as if it can act with impunity in terms of finance, in rule of law, in treatment of citizens and those who have sought refuge in the Land of the Free.

But here we are, the Crack! That’s us. That’s Minnesotans singing “Somebody’s hurting my neighbors, and it’s gone on far too long, and we won’t be silent anymore:”* — as they stand in front of neighbor’s houses, outside schools, as they deliver hot meals to those for whom it is unsafe to leave their home. Crack! That’s people’s understanding how dangerous this administration is to the well-being of the American People and our Guests. Crack! That’s Survivors, Newscasters, public, and finally, perhaps, the House and the Senate saying the Epstein Conspiracy is too despicable not to be exposed. Crack! Suddenly many more of us are standing up together singing for all our lives.

To make a wild leap from song to song, what happens when the legislative bough breaks? Down will come Evil, plotting and all. I don’t believe in hell. I do believe in Restitution and Reparation. These are actions of Peacemaking. The people who have been pretending that all is ok, will have to face the Truth. How is this going to happen? Historical Groups, such as the Sons of Liberty are rising up. Martin Luther King’s Legacy is being revived in the Poor People’s Campaign. Old singer/songwriters are re-emerging singing familiar songs of Peace. New songwriters are picking up the banner. I heard a great country song the other day. The public is walking the streets with signs and hearts crying out for Justice and Safety for our neighbors. We’re writing to our legislators, demanding they honor the wishes of the many not the few. Luckily for us, the hell-bent keep doubling down with the smoke and mirrors, nothing to see here. Crack! Crack! Crack!

As a Woman. As a Feminist. As a person who lives with the Sexual Assault I experienced. I am standing up. Speaking out. People want me not to mention Sexual Assault — not because they are protecting me, but rather because they don’t want to have to “imagine” it. Well. Let’s be clear the children in the Epstein files have had to do far more than imagine. The abuse that is recounted could be called unthinkable, except many male someones (and a few women) thought about it and rather than be repulsed, did it repeatedly. Over and over again.

As a chaplain, I work in an emergency room. I witness what arrives in the Trauma Bay. I’m there as support. I’m not the patient. I’m not part of the medical team that is having to use their skills to repair and heal these broken bodies. I am a person who offers comfort and stands steady in the horror. That’s my job. That’s my Work. That’s my Faith.

I also respond with images of Peace and Peacemaking. That is a deep part of my healing, to rest in Life’s Abundance. I’m also standing up in resistance to tyranny in the ways I am able.

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Hurrah for those who are standing up, lending their voices and actions. And for those jumping and widening the crack. If you are Black or Brown, Queer or Trans, you’re not wrong to be frightened about these gatherings. Do not join these protests without clear understandings from your community that you will be supported. I don’t know if I have the courage to step in front of people being harassed with a gun. I have stepped in front of others before but there were no guns. Now there are. It doesn’t make me comfortable. But it does make me determined. I, You, We are worth this. I, You, We’re the next Crack! United together, we can prevent this country from freezing over into hatred and violence. We can stop bending the knee to those who want complete dominance over We the People.

Make no mistake, our actions are breaking ice/ICE. And down will come Evil, plotting and all. I hope there’s redemption. I’ll even work for it. But I won’t allow a lack of it to keep me away from the work of Peacemaking. I won’t miss the opportunity to stand by you and for you. If I can be the Crack! that makes room for you and others, if you can be the Crack! that makes room for me and others, then those Cracks! are places of Peacemaking.

You know what? I’m going to draw a Tarot card and see whether I there’s advice to support our work. Well! Wisdom… Wisdom is always turning to learning from Innocence — and it’s taking our hard-won Wisdom with us. It’s asking us to honor the Wisdom of those who have been discriminated against forever and to learn from that. Let us balance our Wisdom with its application; the great value you place on it with the humility required for us to be Peacemakers. Hey you, wonderful people: I’ll see you on the sidewalks, where we are singing, singing for our lives and everyone else’s. Crack! Watch out for falling ice!

* Words from the incredible Yara Allen’s song written for the Poor People’s Campaign.