Good morning…
Yesterday in our class, I shared the talented gift of a spoken word poet. What a perfect gift to share again with you today, on this first anniversary of the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel. As we listen together to this mesmerizing monologue, The Heart and The Fist by Rudy Francisco, we move our way through these powerful words.
“In 2012, Pedro Reyes, an artist from Mexico City, convinced his government to donate the guns to him and he turned them into musical instruments. So somewhere there’s a tambourine, a drum set, a guitar, all made out of things that were used to take people’s lives. But now they create a sound that puts life back into people’s bodies—which is to say, a weapon will always be a weapon, but we choose how we fight the war. And from this I learned that even the most destructive instruments can still create a melody worth dancing to, and sometimes don’t we also call that a battle? I wonder how long it took to convince the first rifle that it can hold a note instead of a bullet but still fire into a crowd and make everyone move.”
Our ears wind their way through a restorative rhythm to settle into Rudy’s ultimate conclusion.
“I’m learning the difference between a garden and a graveyard is only what you choose to put in the ground. You see, once I came across a picture of a strange-looking violin. The caption said it was made out of a rifle. I thought to myself, ‘Someday that could be me.'”
And I heard a voice from heaven roaring like a waterfall and clapping like thunder. The voice I heard was like a symphony of harpists playing their instruments. As I watched, they began to sing a new song (Revelation 14:2-3a, VOICE).
…Sue…
P.S. Photo by Wim van ‘t Einde on Unsplash
