November 7, 2012
Dear Mr. President
Congratulations! I am pleased at your re-election, although
I know many who are not. My experience is that important things take time, and
governing a country is important work.
The reason for my writing to you this day is to offer a
couple of suggestions. Now I know I don’t know anything about governing a
country, but I do know something about helping people to ask important
questions and talking about the answers without trying to convince each other
about the right, or only, or correct answer. And I have observed that the
people who we have elected are having a lot of trouble talking to one another
and coming up with solutions to some Big Issues.
My experience has taught me that people tend to come
together and have conversation over a meal. People tend to actually see each
other when they are eating together, and when you actually see the other, it is
so much harder to dismiss them. So my suggestion is that you schedule some
potluck meals. Don’t even assign what people need to bring, just leave that up
to grace. It really works well.
Secondly, it is my experience that people all over the
political spectrum show up for choir rehearsal. You can look in many church
parking lots during choir rehearsal and see bumper stickers on cars that say “Coexist”,
and “I’ll keep my money, my freedom, and my guns, and you can keep the change”,
and “Republican health plan: don’t get sick” and one of my personal favorites,
“Well behaved women rarely make history.” The point is, when people sing
together all of their harmonies make music. I think you should have congress
sing together. Songs like “My country, ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of
thee I sing,” or “O beautiful for spacious skies,” which happen to be in my
hymnal, or “This land is your land, this land is my land,” or “If I had a
hammer,” or, well, you get the idea. Singing together creates community, and
community is about relationship, and relationship is what the members of
congress need to get something done.
Blessings on you, humbly,
The Rev. Kathy Monson Lutes
No comments:
Post a Comment