In this season of giving thanks, I am grateful for the actual and aspiring Wrinkled Radicals I know! Some of you shared my October blog with staff, family, and friends. I can visualize us all sitting around a Thanksgiving table practicing radical Grace, each with a food-insecure guest.
I am reading Darren Walker’s new book, The Idea of America: Reflections on Inequality, Democracy, and The Values We Share. Darren is retiring as President of the Ford Foundation at the end of the year and will join the Board of the Obama Foundation in January. His book includes a sermon he gave at the Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York City on October 23, 2022. He commended the congregants for their social justice work. He began, “When your neighbors are hungry, you feed them with shelf-stable ‘grace-to-go’ meals…” Is that why we say Grace before meals?
When I passed my doctor in the hallway recently, he congratulated me on reaching the three-quarter-century mark. When I explained that I’m now an avowed Wrinkled Radical, we both had a good laugh after a very long day.
That night, I thought of all the inspiring people I’ve met over the years, including Lara Love Hardin. I had just finished reading her memoir, The Many Lives of Mama Love. Lara was the Co-CEO of Idea Architects when I met her. She worked with Doug Abrams on The Book of Joy with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dali Lama. She has her own literary agency now, True Literary. She is a former heroin addict and served time in jail. Lara healed herself, with help, by helping others. She is a 2019 winner of a Christopher Award for her work affirming the highest values of the human spirit. She knows Grace.
We all need help healing now. I see a lot of people reaching out to others, giving and receiving help as needed in big and small ways, thinking globally and acting locally. I am grateful for all the people who are helping me savor seventy-five and for the opportunity to help others, even when the most I can do in the moment is listen generously and connect good people doing worthy work.
I wonder if it’s true that the veil between the spiritual and physical worlds is thinnest between Halloween and Winter Solstice? For me, it’s a time of rich reflection—a time to give thanks for what was, what is, and what could be in a world inspired by love.
May Grace be at your Thanksgiving table.