I am setting off to traverse North America at a time when America’s contributions to advances in governance, education and science or to raising people out of poverty and eliminating prejudice is being truncated. It is a time when America’s promise to lead humanity into a more enlightened world-embracing perspective is being severed by snippets. Its light is dim in a world lit more by the illumination of weapons of war and flinty words than of the light of souls and of exchanges guided by respectful and loving qualities.
As I travel, I expect to find America a topic of concern both within and without its borders. We know we are all connected on this earth. What harms one part of its body resonates within another. There is a sadness to having our current illness.
Some years ago, when I was grieving the passing of my husband, I would turn lights on in rooms I knew I would enter later. The inviting light made me feel less alone as if someone was already there waiting for me. In this current world of darkness, I hope to find many spaces during my travels where regardless of political persuasion or world view, they are lit with the understanding of our common humanity and love for each other as individuals.
It is only in this celebration of our commonalities, can we reignite the promise of America or the hopes for the wellbeing of the world’s body of humanity.
