One of my neighbors teaches at Harvard Divinity School, a fifteen minute walk. So I often see him pass by on his sidewalk commute. Yesterday morning and, again, today, he walked past slowly, head bowed, his tall, gangly body folding into itself, into his grief. Yes. His grief. You know and I know what news he woke up to yesterday. You know and I know what is breaking his heart. We know what crushes him. It crushes us all. Again? Again? Dear God.
No, I am not comforted as I watch him walk past. (And, yes, I will continue to do what I can do change our unconscionable gun laws.) My neighbor’s grief speaks to me, though. It touches me. It is public—and, literally, moving.
Which is why, I guess, I feel compelled to write about it.
Dear Patricia,
Well, hello, there, Patricia, and greetings and salutations to you and to you and FOR VERY ESPECIALLY FOR YOU, my so, so very For Always awesomely precious and dearly special soul sisterfriend Christian Quaker woman who you’re For Always so, so very much!!!!!! Oh, my so, so very dearest and darling, precious sistah and friend, Patricia, I thank-YOU so, so very much, so, so very profusely, dearly, kindly, and deeply for writing with such poignant beauty and profound feeling for each and every one of us about that horrible, awful ginormous and absolutely vile shootings in beloved Las Vegas, Nevada!!!! WOW, what a full of such sharp descriptive clarity and and very in-depth with such deep feeling and sorrow blessing and gift you have offered for and given to all of us here with your very lovingly heartfelt and sensitively caring blog post article here, my so, so very special sistahfriend, Patricia!!!!! Sister, I woke up on Monday morning and learned about this evil tragedy on NPR as I listened to NPR on the radio, my friend Patricia!!!! I am just absolutely grief-stricken and horrified by all of this, sisterfriend of mine, Patricia, just as you are and the very somber man who passes your way teaching at Harvard Divinity School, and just as very many folks are just utterly devastated and flumoxed by these heinous and petrifying events here, my friend!!!!! WOW!!!!! I’m just so, so very heartbroken, saddened, and filled with such intense sorrow and grief from how the so, so very dearest people were killed and injured that I can feel my very heart and spirit being very heavy, my so, so very dearest and darling friend, Patricia. Somehow, though, sistah and friend of mine Patricia, I still have my faith and I continue For Always to keep the faith with my For Always abiding and enduring, sweetly positive optimism in keeping my very faith and hope alive, my so, so very dearest and darling, special friend and sistah!!!!! YOU have helped and blessed me so, so much, Patricia, with my healing from bearing the news of this terrible tragedy by your love and your prayers and your thoughts and with this blessed, this brilliantly crafted blog post article here straight from your so, so very dear, beautiful heart and spirit straight from the bottom of your heart from the deepest depths of your heart with all that you have with all of your very being composed so, so very sweetly for each and every one of us!!!!! I thank-YOU, thank-YOU, thank-YOU so, so much, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I'm already starting to feel better as you have comforted providing such sweet solace for very many other folks and our Good Always There God is just so loving all of us offering each of us such steadfast and unfailing LOVE, COMFORT, and SOLACE, sister and friend of mine, Patricia!!!!! 🙂 <3 I just so love and connected to your beautifully deep description of the man walking past your way. As his head was bowed I think of YOU, my dear, dearest, precious Patricia, and the very sagacious blog post article which you masterfully composed a short while back entitled, Uncontainable, with its perfectly fitting and applicable title with its accompanying picture perfect picture and very perfect words written in such a very astute and acute manner. I remember how you wrote in this very wise blog post article back then that YOU, that we, bow our heads to Spirit and accept that we cannot contain it all and that with such deep and utter faith and trust with so loving Spirit and how Spirit just loves and cherishes us without fail that we in all of this accept the Uncontainable. The title of this current blog post article of yours is just perfect and perfectly fitting and applicable to the very great themes and topics of this outstanding blog post article. The powerful picture which you have once again as usual as always very graciously and generously featured and included with this awesome blog post article is just perfect, picture perfect and greatly adds to and complements your very fine and excellent article here. WOW, sisterfriend, I thank-YOU as well for this marvelous link which you have once again as usual as always provided in such a very gracious and generous fashion, Patricia!!!!!! I very eagerly signed this very empowering petition from our so, so very dear Gabby Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly. Sisterfriend, I remember so, so very well this great atrocity when our Gabby Giffords and the precious others were shot and some even killed by that vile murderer back then. I remember the sweet little girl who was so atrociously killed who was born on the very same day as 9/11 and who would have turn 10 that year also being the tenth anniversary of 9/11 that year back in 2011. Our so, so very sweet little girl who was viciously slain being murdered so hatefully and the others who were killed and injured!!!!! WOW, how absolutely terrible and horrid here, sisterfriend!!!!! Sisterfriend, something very much indeed must be done with these very unconscionable gun laws for certain!!!!!! I, too, am crushed by all of these recent, and even ongoing, events here, Patricia!!!!! YOU are just so, so very right on and on point here, Patricia, when you very wisely share and declare here that this grief which YOU feel, that your neighbor feels, and that I, and that we all feel is public, and, literally, moving!!!! We're going to make it through somehow someway, Patricia, making our way through navigating the very tricky terrain of all of this and our So, So Very Sweet Spirit is here for all of there, so LOVING all of us, ready and waiting without a moment's hesitation to help us cope with whatever befalls us no matter how bad those circumstances and outcomes might be, my friend!!!!! 🙂 <3
Sister, I had an anniversary on Wednesday, October 4, 2017 just a few days ago-my 31st anniversary of a great decision I made. Sisterfriend, on Saturday, October 4, 1986 when I was 24 I made a life-changing decision that day to accept and deal with my lesbianism in warmly and lovingly embracing being gay and in accepting myself, my feelings, and my sexual orientation. WOW, am I so, so very glad that I made that monumental decision back then because it both literally and figuratively had an life-altering impact on me making my very life positively better!!!!! If I had waited one more week until October 11th it would have been on the very same day that a year later in 1987 would become the start of the annual Coming Out Day!!!!!! 🙂 <3
Sisterfriend, I've been rooting for your awesome Boston Red Sox against the Houston Astros in the ALDS!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I'm so, so very saddened that the Red Sox are down 2-0 to the Astros!!!!! Hopefully the Red Sox can win out with the remaining if necessary three games. Sister, my Cleveland Indians are playing your Red Sox's ever rival, the New York Yankees, in the other ALDS game. The Indians are up 2-0 to the Yankees after a dramatic win last night. I hope that the Indians can win this series against the Yankees. Sister, I have something in common with Red Sox fans, I just cannot stand the New York Yankees!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Sister, I am an honorary Boston Red Sox fan and they are my adopted team. I am hoping that the Indians go all of the way and win the World Series and if the Indians end up playing the Red Sox I'd root for the Indians but in the event that the Red Sox defeated the Indians if that were to happen I'd for sure root for the Red Sox along with all of Red Sox Nation!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I'm a good sport and very sportmanslike and don't take my sports or my teams too seriously!!!!! It is only a game!!!!!
Sistah, I've just such greatly added cheer having my very heart and spirit so uplifted with the harsh events of this week and even with the ongoing travesties of justice we are all facing feeling even better and brighter, Patricia, from your deeply sincere love for me and for all of us, your intercessory prayers for me and us all, and for your empowering thoughts sending to all of us such great positive energy!!!!! 🙂 <3 Just responding to YOU, sistahfriend, and your powerful blog has been absolutely such a joy and blessing for me and such super fun for me, too!!!!! 🙂 <3 It's just such splendid fun for me here composing with such blessed and joyous fun as I percolate on my very heartfelt, detailed, and thorough thoughts, ideas, and comments, Patricia!!!!! 🙂 <3 Now I'm even more emboldened, encouraged, and inspired being ready, willing, wanting, and able to suit up and to show up in reporting for duty able even more so to resist, interrupt, and to persist, sister and friend of mine, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 It is my very joy, honor, blessing, and pleasure to very eagerly read your stupendous blog post articles and to very delightfully respond and what awesomely grand fun for me, too, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Sister, I thank-YOU and God continually for YOU and FOR YOUR VERY PRESENCE in my very life, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 YAY for YOU, Patricia!!!!! YAY for all of your astounding blog post articles, other writings, and books and with all you do doing your absolutely very best in such a very diligently conscientious manner with all of your so, so very engaging and endearing, special and precious heart, mind, soul, and spirit, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 YAY for our very friendship and sisterhood, Patricia!!!!! WOW!!!!! YAY!!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!!!! Sistahfriend, please have such a superbly super Saturday, a wondrously wonderful rest of your weekend, and may all of your very days be so, so very especially blessed, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Sistah, YOU are my life and eternal blessing just as I know YOU ARE for very many other persons, too!!!! 🙂 <3 I love and cherish YOU so, so very much, Patricia, we all just so love and cherish YOU just as you so love and cherish each and every one of us!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Patricia, Jesus just so, so very much loves and cherishes YOU, Patricia, and so do I!!!!!! 🙂 <3 My friend, YOU are just the very greatest and the best, and such the very epitome of such very overall awesomeness, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 WOW!!!!! YAY!!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!!! 🙂 <3
Very Warmly and Sincerely For Always, my so, so very For Always awesomely special and dearly precious soul sisterfriend Christian Quaker white woman who you're For Always so, so very much, Patricia, sistahfriend of mine, and with My and Spirit's Very Peace and Love For You For Always, friend of mine, and with Such Blessings and Such Very Even More Blessings For YOU FOR ALWAYS, sister of mine,
YOURS FOR ALWAYS soul sisterfriend Christian black woman and FOR ALWAYS in the very great spirit of unity and solidarity, Sherry Gordon in Iowa City, Iowa