2024.12.08 ADVENT—War AND Peace? Lyn G. Brakeman, Spiritual Lemons, blog post

I confess that I feel afraid of some of the recent, and perhaps inevitable, developments in this country.  Yes, it does seem to me that traditional logic—the more wars we make the more peace we will get—is painfully flawed. 

Here is Doris "Dorie" Miller,  a U.S. Navy sailor who was the first Black recipient of the Navy Cross and a nominee for the Medal of Honor. 

As a mess attendant second class in the United States Navy, Miller helped carry wounded sailors to safety during the attack on Pearl Harbor. For his heroic behavior he died.  But did things really change?  And now there was a martyr to praise, our consciences relieved— until the next conflict arrises.

   

I remember a time in my own life when I felt all alone and helpless. The parish church offered quiet days for people to sit or kneel in silence to pray. I sat there for a while. Then I kneeled, stared up at the crucified Jesus, and cried. My tears startled me. I brushed them away, looking around to make sure no one saw me. I just sat there thinking Jesus must have been a total idiot to fall into this trap. What was he trying to prove? 

What are we proving today with all our wars? Do wars make heroes? Just so we can weep and worship one more martyr? Are we soothed by our tears? Well, yes— until the next conflict arises.  My tears turned out to be about fear and hard personal choices. 

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Is that what our country faces today, trapped in a twisted paradox: the more war we make the less trustworthy the peace that follows? I mean school kids are afraid to go to school. “What if a gun happens to me today?” Having a license to carry a gun is as common as having a drivers license. Violence is reported every single day on the News. The next slogan I expect to see is “GUNS FOR PEACE” !  

When in history has WAR solved territorial disputes or political disagreements?  WWI was known as the “war to end all wars.” Did it?  WWII did, you will say. NOPE! On and on! 

Wars don’t make peace. But I can—and so can you.  

2024.09.29 FOUNDATIONS, Lyn G. Brakeman, Spiritual Lemons, blog post

“Foundations” refers to many things, one of which is a woman’s undergarments. Below is how I see the “foundations” of this United States of America—with a place for ALL of us AND those who desire to join us legally, respectfully, and with pride.  My piece below was recently  published in online journal, Persimmon Tree. It publishes works of women OVER 60 only.     Love that foundational requirement!   

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This is the first United States presidential election in which I, a Democrat, will be voting intentionally against the Republican candidate!  I will also be voting for Kamala Harris, not simply because I’m a Democrat, but because I think her plans are closer to my values about socio-economic justice for all people, and especially for the reproductive rights of women, including, and specifically, making decisions about their own bodies.

 

States are biased by the politics of their geography. Some decisions require broader consideration. We need federal legislation to ensure women’s legal rights, specifically a woman’s right to choose abortion with medical assistance as appropriate for her health and her circumstances.  I appreciate Kamala Harris’s openness and honesty about her views—not simply because she is a woman herself, but because she respects and honors the pain of exclusion any human being of any gender, political party, geography, religion, race or ethnicity feels when robbed of personal freedom for any reason. Any reason.

 

I know all the pain of such decisions. I once sat with a young woman who took seriously her own right to life and freedom. We wept together, because this is a matter of personal wellbeing of mind, body, and soul. Either way one decides there is profound grief, and need for kind and compassionate guidance from an unbiased guide.

 

It is neither sin nor crime to choose one’s own good—as an individual or as a nation. 

NEITHER WAR NOR VIOLENCE solveS or resolveS OR evolveS   ANYTHING OR ANYONE.  

2023.11.12 Light Stretches, Lyn G. Brakeman, Spiritual Lemons, blog post, 11/12/23

BEHOLD the American Purple Gallinule of Florida Everglades Park! This crazy lady stretches and reaches everywhere at once. Can we?  

I know that the parable of the “bridesmaids” and their “lamps” is to be an analogy for the arrival of the Heavenly Kingdom to earth, ushered in by the light carried by these girls. Some girls were ready and some were in disarray. It’s a lesson in preparedness. 

First, in the ancient world there were NO oil lamps. Also there were NO “bridesmaids,” and NO messianic “bridegroom” ever arrived to “save” the cosmos in chaos, governed by WARS, VIOLENCE, CONQUEST, AND SUBMISSION. 

Why do we pray, “Thy Kingdom Come”—over and over?  Our kingdom has not come! Neither has God’s—by the looks of it. 

The left-behind girls in this biblical parable were not prepared. There is some advice about readiness and preparedness in this story, yet who is ever “ready” for Divinity? And the God of all faith never leaves anyone behind! Not even a Gallinule!  

So let’s rethink our ways a bit. Most of us want a peaceful world. We all in our hearts want Love—of God, self and neighbor—to work, to enliven and enlighten. Everyone has slightly different recipes, rules, but how REALLY do we make a kingdom a “kindom”?

One way is for each of us to stop (all the running around), sit down (rest) and shut up (create silence).This is one way to acknowledge there is a larger, deeper Presence available to us all and in our midst.

Now begin to engage in conversations, especially with those with whom you disagree politically or religiously. Listen to yourself and to these others closely. Do this more and more. I know a story, told by a Christian thinker, Brian McLaren, of four young women friends with radically different religions, points of view, ethnicities, class, and political persuasions. They were, like the girls in the parable, each trying to figure out the best way to remain friends and bear light and peace into their war-torn world. They had to STRETCH—each and all.

"These four women did something too rare: they sat with their complexity, shared, and heard honest and vulnerable feelings. They listened across difference to express their own humanity and affirm the humanity of one another." 

Light stretches, right?