A Challenge to Be Good Humans

I thought that today I would be writing something sad or angry. Or resigned. Maybe a call to Resistance, or a Revolution of LOVE.  Perhaps this fits that last, but what it really is, is a story about being moved to my core. It’s about why I simply don’t feel the despair when I am at school, surrounded by the adults of the future.  We have some powerful anti-racist voices at our school, and I pray that we may have ears and hearts open to listen to their challenge to be good humans.

Today, chapel was a student-led celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.  As we sat down, they played John Legend’s “Glory,” with video on the screen. While the video ran, groups of students in twos and threes, arms around each other or walking companionably, walked up to the stage, and went backstage. Something in the gesture communicated such a sense of community, even before the chapel began in earnest, that I began to tear up.

The chapel itself was a group of students leading songs, performing songs, and reading excerpts from King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail Cell.” At the end, Jazleen had the whole school singing “Glory” with her. A couple groups of students in the crowd joined hands and made their way to the front of the auditorium in front of the stage. The crowd got bigger and bigger. They kept holding hands, and then they raised their hands together. I just stopped trying to wipe the tears. It was such a vision of what we can be. May we continue to strive always to be this version of our best and most open-hearted selves.

Gratitude List:
These young people–
1. Their wisdom and thoughtfulness
2. Their deep compassion and love
3. Their willingness to challenge injustice
4. Their determination and grit
5. The ways in which they will change our world for the better.

So much love. So, so very much love.