“Joy can spring like a flower even from the cliffs of despair” wrote author and aviator Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
Is it possible?
Can joy ever spring from the cliffs of despair, which many are feeling since the election in the United States?
I remember feeling a sense of despair swelling within me as I heard the responses by government officials to gun control questions from journalists after military-style guns were used in the massacres in schools; at concerts; in synagogues, temples and churches; at sports events; in malls: “It’s too early – we don’t have all the facts” (when it’s a fact that military-style guns were used in many of the massacres) and “Now is not the time” (and wanted to shout “If not now, when?”).
It is known that when the U.S. Constitution was signed, the weapon referred to was a rifle that could shoot 1-2 rounds per minute. The gun used in most of recent massacres (A-15 style firearm) fires 45 rounds per minute! Interesting aside: Australia changed its laws in 1996 and since then, when that country enacted strict gun laws, there hasn’t been one mass shooting. Not one!
At that time, I stepped out of my comfort zone in this blog and named evil: the evil of the lack of strict, enforceable gun laws … the evil of politicians who did nothing to protect human beings, but rather increased their investment portfolios by buying stock in the manufacture of military-style guns and mumbling phrases about they didn’t want to lose their guns. That wasn’t what was being asked of them – just that military-style guns were not licensed for regular civilian use.
Today I name evil again because as evil affected and claimed lives then, evil continues to run havoc over lives now, since the election of DJT and JDV to the Presidency and Vice Presidency of the United States.
Two days after the election results were announced, signs appeared at college campuses that read “Women are Property!” and boys and young men in several states harassed girls and young women with frightening shouts of “Your body. My choice!” Evil! So why, with all of what is happening this week, does this Soulistry Reflection speak of flowers?
Flowers have long been understood as one of the most recognized signs of love. So today, as I did years ago after the school massacre in Portland Florida, I’ll make and then send these fabric flowers to friends in the US who are trying to find joy that could “spring like a flower even from the depths of despair” and because I want to stand up for love – not evil. The fabric flowers will be a visible sign of that love … a visible sign of prayer … a visible sign for courage and support … a reminder that there are people who stand with them, support them, love them.
Can “joy spring like a flower even from the depths of despair”? It can. But for that to happen, evil must be named.
Some Christians claim that what is happening is “God’s will.” I ask “what kind of God would sanction evil?” Not the man, Jesus. Just as Jesus confronted and named evil, long ago, evil must be named today.
Something to think about: when the letters: E V I L are reversed, they become L I V E.
Evil must be named, confronted and challenged so change can happen and all can l i v e.
When evil is named, confronted and challenged, then “joy (will) spring like a flower even from the depths of despair.”
So may it be. So may it be.
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As with all “Soulistry” reflections, you are welcome and invited to share this with others and comment.
© June Maffin
https://www.soulistry.com/blog
https://www.facebook.com/groups/soulistry
https://soulistryjune.bsky.social
You are a light amid darkness, June. Thanks so much for this post.
Thank you for your kind comment, Pamela.
From your lips to God’s ear!
May it be so, Bobbie. 🙂 Thanks for your comment.
Ah, had read this before I sent my nature response, I might have said something much different. I do see a connection between the beauty of nature and the good in the world. Evil? How do we deal with it? How do we live with it? It is difficult and I don’t know the answer. What I do know is that I must, for my own soul, be kind, thoughtful, giving — and, yes, resilient. I have to believe that the light will shine, that good will win out else why keep on in this precious life of ours? DJT and JBD are NOT the loving and kind men I know in my life. It hurts to know that there are young men in our society who think of women as chattel, as property. Judy Small wrote a song about the 14 women murdered in Quebec — MY country, the country I was born in — because they were women enrolled in what was seen by that very disturbed man as a man’s profession. Will that happen again now? Praise god, NO.