New here, found you in the comments of another Substack pointing people your way if they are looking for ways to be active in community in our current political climate. The story your poem told made me cry with hope. I live in a very small South Georgia town and daily I swim in a sea of people with ideologies that differ vastly from my own. I lose hope in humankind so easily lately. But my dad, my brother, my uncle, they are all this man in the coveralls and camo. It’s nice to be reminded by a stranger of their multidimensionality, their humanity. Thank you.
The movie "Conclave" shifted my perspective right after the election to one of deeper understanding of the "others" while continuing to hold onto my values and principles. I was able to offer compassion and love even to the key person totally unable to hear my words or let in self-love much less compassion for anyone else. Left me sad but less fearful and less broken. There's empowerment in bringing light into darkness. Thank you for your part in this. Betty Kellow
Good Morning Carrie, as always I always gain something from reading your thoughts. Your flat tire story reminded me of my own flat tire experiences and how the human good nature comes through in the most unlikely times. Thankyou!
Carrie, thank you for sharing your visions of sanctuary and good. Thank you for providing a kind voice and wise lyrics to help us find a quiet harbor to shield us from a worrisome storm. Your music is powerful and helpful.
Where You Been is one of my old favorites of yours Carrie! I was raised in the deep south in pretty conservative company. I grew up believing in the death penalty. I was taught and believed that "if you weren't doing anything wrong you wouldn't get in trouble." When I went to college, somehow, I ended up at a presentation where several people who had been given the death penalty and at some point had been proven innocent told their stories. Those personal stories blew my world open. I walked out of that room that night a completely different person. It changed my belief about the death penalty but it also started me on the journey of questioning everything I had thought I knew.
After reading “She’s Come Undone “ I was incredulous to find out that author Wally Lamb was a man. He was so understanding of and empathetic with his female protagonist. I haven’t felt this surprise with female authors and male characters. It made me more hopeful for understanding between people’s.
I grew up in Alabama in the 1960s, had relatives in Birmingham, Selma, & Montgomery. I didn’t know a civil rights movement was going on. I was shielded from it. I also didn’t know where black kids went to school or church or bought groceries. When I was a seminarian I was taught about justice, including racial justice. And George Wallace was elected governor of Alabama again. I commented to a fellow Alabamian that I couldn’t believe the people of Alabama elected him again. She responded, “No, it was the black people.” In that moment I heard her & I heard what I’d been surrounded by all my life: Black people were separate from “the people of Alabama.” It was an epiphany for me & changed my awareness of the insidious nature of racism forever. African Americans will likely say, “Well duh!” All I can say is, as a member of the majority culture, HEARING it in real time changed me. The story I’d been handed about race was false. There was another story, a truer one. Which also meant there may be truer stories about other topics waiting on me to HEAR them.
Tried to rank Quaker testimonies and discovered without full individual equality we would continue social division and never achieve sustainable peace or justice. Yet, we would never have social equality without individual love and forgiveness. Could we be open and accepting with conservatives as individuals to mutually listen and explore our differing views?
For example, many of our neighbors are uncomfortable with more immigration. Clearly, the long run solution is to expand love so we can welcome more without backlash, traditionally when immigrants are >13% of US population, but far lower in most other nations. Meanwhile, refugees need help now and our border is closing, so is there anything else we can still do to help? Could we and other rich nations provide funding to help poor safe nations welcome refugees? Could we teach love here and abroad to expand future capacity to aid our neighbor's needs? Could we achieve both short-term and long-term wins for refugees, poor nations, and rich nations?
Can we prevent problems by using economics to help us negotiate disagreements with other nations rather than escalate endless wars causing more refugees? Could we share executive power with multiple parties like the Swiss? Could the UN ever share power equally if we cannot in the US?
Could our governments ever share power equally if our churches cannot? Could we share love and forgiveness to prevent division and endless wars to achieve sustainable peace and justice?
As I sit today in a period of rest for my weary soul, I have little of substance to add to the conversation. Except to say, I am deeply grateful for this gathered community. I’m glad you are all here.
Since the end of my 38 year career w/American Airlines was my scheduled trip on September 11, 2001; I gained a truly different perspective on what a last day on the job looks like from an uncommon perspective.
Thank you Carrie for being a dynamic and talented story carrier in our shared world.
Well, I hate to admit it, but your explanation of "Where Have You Been" explained a lot to me! I am a very literal person and do not really seek the meaning in other things. That song is one of many that I played over and over again while driving or just listening and never, ever realized it was about Jesus. I would like to claim that it is because I am Jewish, but I must admit that it is because I don't look for the meanings below the surface of things I read or hear. The only time that happens for me is when I find my self channeling messages from Spirit when I am completely aware that it is not me speaking/writing. At 72 years of age - closing in on 73 before too long - I don't think I will beat myself up for this but accept that this is who I am and have always been. Being an introvert (with a capital I), may explain this since I am way more focused on the internal than the external, but then, maybe not. Well, if something about that shifts then I will welcome it, but somehow I think this is who I am. Come to think of it, this acceptance is different - an earlier version of me would be beating myself up for being so oblique. Or is it obtuse? In Loving and Light for a better story for our future and a widening of perspective moving forward in the times ahead, Namaste!
One of my favorite Biblical scholars in the Lutheran tradition is the Rev. Dr. Mark Alan Powell. He has done work on cultural perspectives on Biblical stories. In the US he says people hear the story of the Prodigal Son and see it as the story of individuals - a father and two brothers and their behavior. In the USSR - the people will tell you that it is about what happens when there is a famine. In Africa the people will tell you it is about the immigrant living in a foreign land. All three are true, but hearing the perspectives of others offers depth and opens our eyes to new approaches or as you put it expands our vision.
While this may sound off the wall, the book The Stand by Stephen King is a wonderful telling of good vs evil and the spirits that guide both after an escaped virus from a lab (sound familiar?) in the United States. It tells the story of how both good and evil people naturally convene together in their own camps and restart the whole good vs evil process all over again. This book is not about monsters but certainly is about spirits and the oldest of mankind's sins. Highly recommended in these days. ✌️💛🎶
I was a senior in high school during the nation's bicentennial year 1976. I was fascinated by the history of the Revolution, but I did not yet know how little I knew of the Revolution's complexities and nuances.
During that period a number of historical fiction novels were re-published and sold to a public that was eager to know more about the revolutionary era. One of those books particularly caught my attention: Rabble In Arms, by Kenneth Roberts. The book's plot was centered around the life and contributions to the war made by Benedict Arnold, and it told a story that I had never heard before. Namely, that the Revolution would likely not have succeeded without some extraordinarily brave actions taken by Arnold during the war's early stages.
I was astonished. I had never heard of anything about Benedict Arnold except that he had betrayed his country. He did that, of course, but his history was far more complicated than anything I had been led to believe. This book was a life-changer for me, not merely because of its excellent portrayal of history, but for how it forced me to confront the complexities of the real world--and the people that inhabit it.
I had not thought of your song Where You Been in a while, thank you for the reminder. It reminded me of two other songs re-imagining part of Christ's story: Kris Kristofferon's Jesus Was a Capricorn and Tish Hinojosa's Building Number 9.
One song that expanded my perspective (and I heard him sing it again recently) is Dirk Powell's I Ain't Playing Pretty Polly Anymore, in which he recounts his own journey to deciding not to play (the many all too familiar) trad ballads where women are murdered or otherwise abused by powerful men. He points to another sort of story to uplift instead in the song, too.
New here, found you in the comments of another Substack pointing people your way if they are looking for ways to be active in community in our current political climate. The story your poem told made me cry with hope. I live in a very small South Georgia town and daily I swim in a sea of people with ideologies that differ vastly from my own. I lose hope in humankind so easily lately. But my dad, my brother, my uncle, they are all this man in the coveralls and camo. It’s nice to be reminded by a stranger of their multidimensionality, their humanity. Thank you.
The movie "Conclave" shifted my perspective right after the election to one of deeper understanding of the "others" while continuing to hold onto my values and principles. I was able to offer compassion and love even to the key person totally unable to hear my words or let in self-love much less compassion for anyone else. Left me sad but less fearful and less broken. There's empowerment in bringing light into darkness. Thank you for your part in this. Betty Kellow
Good Morning Carrie, as always I always gain something from reading your thoughts. Your flat tire story reminded me of my own flat tire experiences and how the human good nature comes through in the most unlikely times. Thankyou!
Carrie, thank you for sharing your visions of sanctuary and good. Thank you for providing a kind voice and wise lyrics to help us find a quiet harbor to shield us from a worrisome storm. Your music is powerful and helpful.
Carrie,
Your poetry, music, stories remind me there is goodness out there. Thank you 🙏
Where You Been is one of my old favorites of yours Carrie! I was raised in the deep south in pretty conservative company. I grew up believing in the death penalty. I was taught and believed that "if you weren't doing anything wrong you wouldn't get in trouble." When I went to college, somehow, I ended up at a presentation where several people who had been given the death penalty and at some point had been proven innocent told their stories. Those personal stories blew my world open. I walked out of that room that night a completely different person. It changed my belief about the death penalty but it also started me on the journey of questioning everything I had thought I knew.
After reading “She’s Come Undone “ I was incredulous to find out that author Wally Lamb was a man. He was so understanding of and empathetic with his female protagonist. I haven’t felt this surprise with female authors and male characters. It made me more hopeful for understanding between people’s.
I grew up in Alabama in the 1960s, had relatives in Birmingham, Selma, & Montgomery. I didn’t know a civil rights movement was going on. I was shielded from it. I also didn’t know where black kids went to school or church or bought groceries. When I was a seminarian I was taught about justice, including racial justice. And George Wallace was elected governor of Alabama again. I commented to a fellow Alabamian that I couldn’t believe the people of Alabama elected him again. She responded, “No, it was the black people.” In that moment I heard her & I heard what I’d been surrounded by all my life: Black people were separate from “the people of Alabama.” It was an epiphany for me & changed my awareness of the insidious nature of racism forever. African Americans will likely say, “Well duh!” All I can say is, as a member of the majority culture, HEARING it in real time changed me. The story I’d been handed about race was false. There was another story, a truer one. Which also meant there may be truer stories about other topics waiting on me to HEAR them.
Tried to rank Quaker testimonies and discovered without full individual equality we would continue social division and never achieve sustainable peace or justice. Yet, we would never have social equality without individual love and forgiveness. Could we be open and accepting with conservatives as individuals to mutually listen and explore our differing views?
For example, many of our neighbors are uncomfortable with more immigration. Clearly, the long run solution is to expand love so we can welcome more without backlash, traditionally when immigrants are >13% of US population, but far lower in most other nations. Meanwhile, refugees need help now and our border is closing, so is there anything else we can still do to help? Could we and other rich nations provide funding to help poor safe nations welcome refugees? Could we teach love here and abroad to expand future capacity to aid our neighbor's needs? Could we achieve both short-term and long-term wins for refugees, poor nations, and rich nations?
Can we prevent problems by using economics to help us negotiate disagreements with other nations rather than escalate endless wars causing more refugees? Could we share executive power with multiple parties like the Swiss? Could the UN ever share power equally if we cannot in the US?
Could our governments ever share power equally if our churches cannot? Could we share love and forgiveness to prevent division and endless wars to achieve sustainable peace and justice?
As I sit today in a period of rest for my weary soul, I have little of substance to add to the conversation. Except to say, I am deeply grateful for this gathered community. I’m glad you are all here.
I am with you Jeff. Just feel weary but so happy for this community.
Thank you, Robin. That means a lot!
Since the end of my 38 year career w/American Airlines was my scheduled trip on September 11, 2001; I gained a truly different perspective on what a last day on the job looks like from an uncommon perspective.
Thank you Carrie for being a dynamic and talented story carrier in our shared world.
Well, I hate to admit it, but your explanation of "Where Have You Been" explained a lot to me! I am a very literal person and do not really seek the meaning in other things. That song is one of many that I played over and over again while driving or just listening and never, ever realized it was about Jesus. I would like to claim that it is because I am Jewish, but I must admit that it is because I don't look for the meanings below the surface of things I read or hear. The only time that happens for me is when I find my self channeling messages from Spirit when I am completely aware that it is not me speaking/writing. At 72 years of age - closing in on 73 before too long - I don't think I will beat myself up for this but accept that this is who I am and have always been. Being an introvert (with a capital I), may explain this since I am way more focused on the internal than the external, but then, maybe not. Well, if something about that shifts then I will welcome it, but somehow I think this is who I am. Come to think of it, this acceptance is different - an earlier version of me would be beating myself up for being so oblique. Or is it obtuse? In Loving and Light for a better story for our future and a widening of perspective moving forward in the times ahead, Namaste!
One of my favorite Biblical scholars in the Lutheran tradition is the Rev. Dr. Mark Alan Powell. He has done work on cultural perspectives on Biblical stories. In the US he says people hear the story of the Prodigal Son and see it as the story of individuals - a father and two brothers and their behavior. In the USSR - the people will tell you that it is about what happens when there is a famine. In Africa the people will tell you it is about the immigrant living in a foreign land. All three are true, but hearing the perspectives of others offers depth and opens our eyes to new approaches or as you put it expands our vision.
While this may sound off the wall, the book The Stand by Stephen King is a wonderful telling of good vs evil and the spirits that guide both after an escaped virus from a lab (sound familiar?) in the United States. It tells the story of how both good and evil people naturally convene together in their own camps and restart the whole good vs evil process all over again. This book is not about monsters but certainly is about spirits and the oldest of mankind's sins. Highly recommended in these days. ✌️💛🎶
Carrie,
I was a senior in high school during the nation's bicentennial year 1976. I was fascinated by the history of the Revolution, but I did not yet know how little I knew of the Revolution's complexities and nuances.
During that period a number of historical fiction novels were re-published and sold to a public that was eager to know more about the revolutionary era. One of those books particularly caught my attention: Rabble In Arms, by Kenneth Roberts. The book's plot was centered around the life and contributions to the war made by Benedict Arnold, and it told a story that I had never heard before. Namely, that the Revolution would likely not have succeeded without some extraordinarily brave actions taken by Arnold during the war's early stages.
I was astonished. I had never heard of anything about Benedict Arnold except that he had betrayed his country. He did that, of course, but his history was far more complicated than anything I had been led to believe. This book was a life-changer for me, not merely because of its excellent portrayal of history, but for how it forced me to confront the complexities of the real world--and the people that inhabit it.
I had not thought of your song Where You Been in a while, thank you for the reminder. It reminded me of two other songs re-imagining part of Christ's story: Kris Kristofferon's Jesus Was a Capricorn and Tish Hinojosa's Building Number 9.
One song that expanded my perspective (and I heard him sing it again recently) is Dirk Powell's I Ain't Playing Pretty Polly Anymore, in which he recounts his own journey to deciding not to play (the many all too familiar) trad ballads where women are murdered or otherwise abused by powerful men. He points to another sort of story to uplift instead in the song, too.