Four years ago today, our family joined thousands of others on and around the National Mall for the Women's March. What we felt that day was the power of love, the power of hope, the power of community. I felt that again yesterday, in President Biden's Inaugural address, and in Amanda Gorman's gorgeous poem, "The Hill We Climb." They appealed to our better angels, encouraging us to focus on what we have in common rather than what drives us apart.
In Biden's speech, he said that in our nation's most difficult moments, "enough of us have come together to carry all of us forward." I find that deeply true. I also think that perhaps we do not all agree on what "forward" is. Forward, for me, is toward a more perfect union, toward a global society that is more just, more loving, that understands ever more clearly that each person has dignity and worth and a contribution to make to the whole that must be honored and that each is free to offer. To put it in terms of my Christianity, that we may move closer to "on earth, as it is in heaven." I would love to know what others consider "forward."
Conversations around that are so important if we are to move "forward" together. Imagine an animal with two heads on opposite ends, each trying to move forward. It would be torn apart. My prayer as we move forward in time is that we find a way to look in the same direction so that we can move forward, together, in love.