(1927-1993)
Occupation: Farm Worker, Labor Leader, Civil rights activist
Religion: Roman Catholic
Words of Cesar Chavez:
Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.
It is possible to become discouraged about the injustice we see everywhere. But God did not promise us that the world would be humane and just. He gives us the gift of life and allows us to choose the way we use our limited time on earth. It is an awesome opportunity.
What do we want the church to do? We ask for its presence with us, beside us, as Christ among us. We ask the church to sacrifice with the people for social change, for justice and for love of brother and sister. We don't ask for words. We ask for deeds. We don't ask for paternalism. We ask for servanthood.
Cesar Chavez, Coretta Scott King, Dorothy Day
My words:
Although I do not belong to an organized religion or spiritual tradition, I am grateful to those people who do belong to them and practice them with love and compassion, those whose hearts are not closed to those who don't share their experiences. Through their teachings, they have brought grace to my life and the lives of many of us who belong to something beautiful, too, in the experience of not belonging to an organized religion or spiritual tradition and yet not being alone either.
Meanwhile the sun shines wisely and warm, trees flutter green
in the wind, girls take their clothes off
To bathe in the cold ocean or to hunt love; they stand laughing
in the white foam, they have beautiful
Shoulders and thighs, they are beautiful animals, all life is beautiful.
We cannot be sure of life for one moment;
We can, by force and self-discipline, by many refusals and a few
assertions, in the teeth of fortune assure ourselves
Freedom and integrity in life or integrity in death. And we know
that the enormous invulnerable beauty of things
Is the face of God, to live gladly in its presence, and die without
grief or fear knowing it survives us.
(am's italics)
(am's photo of the landscape where Robinson Jeffers lived and wrote his poetry)
Now it's time to thank this blogging community for all the inspiration you give to me and to go meet for breakfast with another diverse community of friends. Some of us belong to organized religions or spiritual traditions. Many of us don't. We are fortunate to have found each other.
