For Whom the Mind Trolls

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Yesterday was one of those days on my Facebook page! The Trolls came calling!

Two of my posts, both political in nature but not accusatory in any real sense, attracted loads of attention from some truly ugly trolls as well as a host of angry supporters of Trump. They came in like fire ants, bearing ill will, hurling insults, using their little demeaning names and posting hate-filled memes at other respondents with no thought of anything but disruption. In more than one case, the troll actually said he was praying for the death of President Obama (who wasn’t even mentioned in my post) and another post consigned our gracious former Prez’s dead mother to membership in a not so well respected profession.

The comments struck me as  piteously unhinged and so very typical of people who have lost their grounding in humanity, hope and/or any kind of faith. Their lack of focused meaning and their vicious rants demonstrated a level of personal and mental dysfunction that has grown more prevalent in our society.  And even more sadly, it’s modeled and mirrored by our present administration and by many in our leadership base. They are the very models of that very same voided soulessness every day.

As much as it was a PITA, I felt fortunate that I was experiencing the onslaught while being here at the Carmelite Monastery in Baltimore, gratefully visiting this amazing group of women who have dedicated themselves to a life of spiritual enlightenment and selfless prayer. It clearly revealed the online antics to be the bizarre workings of ignorance and hate. Being here, with these focused friends also allowed me to center my thoughts and my energy more quickly. I often mention that I work hard to make sure that the ignorance of life and other people’s uncentered actions don’t alter my core. It can still be a struggle. But, that’s what happened! The days spent here have given my core a whole new strength. The conversations and thought provoking interactions with these incredible women have deepened my resolve to be part of the solution.

And, this coming weekend, the joy continues. I will be reconnecting  my Balsam Guys group for our annual men’s retreat. This will be the 15th year that I have been privileged to gather with as fine a group of men as one could assemble, to gain some wisdom and strength. We will once again engage each other in a weekend of non-stop deep sharing of life’s joys and concerns, with lots of laughing, eating, talking through issues, singing, sleeping and more eating. (Did I mention that we eat?) We GO there…. and we make sure that every one of us gets back!

Yesterday was what it was. But having focused friends allows me to center my thoughts and restore my energy more quickly. And the trolls? They come and they go! And yesterday I helped them go quickly by blocking 8 people. These were NOT friends of mine. And,I will not be carrying their energy any further than a push on the button that sent them into the ether of cyberspace.

But I will leave here today still believing that quote from Dr. M.L. King where he said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Love is hard when you’re dealing with people you don’t even like. But today I resolve, once again, to choose to put some love energy in the world, as a balance for whatever it is the trolls are doing. Cuz hate is too great a weight to bear. I’ve still got light in music and in life and another day in which to let it shine!

We still live in the shelter of each other. We need to act like it!

 

 

Come Take Your Seat on the Bus

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Greetings and Peace, Good People!

As many of you know, I have been part of the UU Living Legacy Project as Music Educator and a board member, for the last 6 years of so. My activity with LLP has provided me with some of the most incredible and heartrending challenges of my life. The experiences along the way have also birthed some of my most joyful moments as well, as I have been more intimately linked to the history and to the people who have made and, in some cases, are still making our movement for freedom justice powerful and possible. <www.UULivinglegacy.org>

In my role for LLP, I have helped to lead pilgrimages, as song leader and educator, to a bevy of civil rights sites in AL, MS and TN.  On those journeys, we travel together on a bus, stopping 5 or 6 places every day, to visit the museums, community centers, homes and other sites of the movement. Each day, we interact with residents, civil rights veterans and leaders in these communities, that were (and, in many cases, still are) vibrant agents of action in the cause of justice and freedom.

We often hear the stories that you don’t read in books or learn in school. And we sing, eat and share our own stories as we slowly come to know and appreciate the human side of this national narrative.

With my colleagues, I’ve helped plan and facilitate events like the “Marching in the Arc of Justice” conference, which brought together about 600 people from around the country and culminated with 70,000 of us walking together across the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, AL, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday.” In that and other outreach efforts, we work to connect both young and not so young to the truth of the past, the present and to plant the seeds of future endeavors of civil and human rights activity. It’s an amazing resource for hope and change.

I thank all of you who have followed these journeys by reading my trip posts and commenting on my photographic efforts to capture, here on Facebook and beyond, what is best seen, heard and felt in person. I have also shared many of these stories with audiences of every age and background in my concerts here and around the world.

It remains one of my deepest and most joyful blessings to be involved in this work. And yet, there is another side to this work, of which many of you are also aware. That would be my embrace of new relationships with my White cousins in the Wickham family. (the family that both owned and provides one half of my ancestry) This growing shared personal roots journey, over time, has enriched us all. I am so honored that my Wickham family lineage is now an integral part of my embrace of heritage and continues to fuel my mission in music and in life.

As we continue together to celebrate our ongoing conversation and relationship as slave/master descendants, we are discovering, anew, that injustice, history, enforced emotional distance and pain can be overcome. It has made the work that I do in schools, concert halls, festivals, centers of faith and with community organization even more fulfilling. As I open myself to further bridge-building work, I inherently find out more about myself and my own need for healing.

So now, as I take on new and exciting projects in the rest of 2017 and beyond, here is one of the next offerings on the horizon.

From Oct. 21st – 28th, a collaborative pilgrimage between the UU Living Legacy Project and an amazing group called “Coming to The Table”, will go forward and is open to the public. CTTT is an organization dedicated to providing leadership, resources and a supportive environment for all who wish to acknowledge and heal the wounds from racism rooted in the United States’ history of slavery.”

This journey could not be happening at a more critical time in America history! It’s an effort to come to terms with the frustration and the incredible longing for hope that I hear all across our land. It engages the desire that we can and must be a part of the change we seek. This is justice in action.

So, here’s the link that will help YOU can be a link. Check out the info…clear the space…get on the bus and take your place!

We’ll ride, sing, talk, laugh, cry and eat together and create new ways to turn the division and acrimony, so rampant nationwide, into something more useful and lasting. We must learn again, as those civil rights heroes would say, to “make a way outta no way!”  To know that there is no try… there is only DO and NOT DO.

Come get on the bus. I’m looking forward to singing with you.

2017 CTTT Racial Justice Pilgrimage – Living Legacy Project
www.uulivinglegacy.org/2017-cttt-civil-rights-pilgrimage.html