Rain
on the Roof
“The
three great elemental sounds in nature are the sound of rain, the
sound of wind in a primeval wood, and the sound of outer ocean waves
on a beach.”
Henry
Beston
I'm
at Lake Martin this morning with my friends Ann, Ellen and Emmy. The
rain has been steady all night and now the day is dawning slate gray.
We will have a great day of fires in the fireplace, books and
conversation. In other words, a perfect day.
Sometimes
I ponder the 'whys' of the world. Why should I be here, sitting in a
padded window seat, listening to the sound of rain on a metal roof,
sipping my morning java in comfort and safety. Thousands of people
are in war zones, hungry, cold, living in slums and refugee camps,
and wondering whether they, or their children, will ever again be
safe and comfortable. I have no answers for such questions. I only
hope and pray that there will be a day in both our life-times when
they will be. I also hope that I never lose sight of their plight.
That I never take for granted my own good fortune.
I
recently saw the film, “Lincoln”, about our sixteenth president's
campaign for passage of the thirteenth amendment to the constitution.
He had already emancipated the slaves in the states of the
Confederacy, and now he sought to make slavery illegal in all the
states. It was not easy. There is one scene in which he is riding to
confer with his General, Ulysses S. Grant, just before the end of the
war. He rides through a Virginia battlefield that is quite literally
covered with dead bodies. We killed more than half-million of our own
children in that war—black and white, slave and free, blue and
gray. That is what is happening in Syria right now.
You
may think me morose, but I am not. I am simply acknowledging the
injustices of the world in which we live. We are not in any way
exempt from the ravages of war, even here in this cozy lake house in
Alex City, Alabama. My pastor's nephew just deployed to
Afghanistan—for his fourth tour of duty. Our sons and daughters
march off to war just like everyone else. We humans seem to think
this is normal—just the way things are. But we can do life
differently. We can, in this twenty-first century, have life without
war. We must do all that is in our power to help the world achieve
peace.
Perhaps
it is the role of people like me, people who are safe and
comfortable, who are sitting in a window seat, listening to rain on
the roof, to speak out for those who are not. Our job is to work for
peace and justice in whatever way we can.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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