I spent last week remembering the legacy of President Jimmy Carter. From Plains to Atlanta to the Capitol Rotunda to Washington National Cathedral back to Plains. In brief here are three of the many nourishing souvenirs…
What I saw…
In my mind’s eye I am left viewing a washed-out baggie, hanging in the kitchen cabinet dish rack of the Carter’s modest home, in the process of being recycled for another use. An indication of his lifestyle and commitment to the earth and all its people, thanks to Jason, his son.
And visually in real time I saw the first few pews of Washington Cathedral filled with all the former living U.S. presidents, their spouses minus one, and other political dignitaries. For a brief moment there it was— political diversity gathered harmoniously to fulfill a higher good.
What I heard…
The closing hymn was “Crown Him with Many Crowns.” It was a triumphantly sung reminder that the ultimate, lasting determiner and shaper of life is love and justice as embodied in Jesus and others, not any one political perspective or the ultimatums of any one person.
What I felt…
My mother was my seventh-grade English teacher. Actually, she also taught me English in the eighth and ninth grades as well. One of her enduring gifts to me was the poet Robert Frost. His poem “Mending Wall” has hovered in the back of my mind since those days— “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down.” Carter revealed this “something” to us.
I know there is a long distance between the front pews of the National Cathedral and public policy formed in the legislative and executive branches of our government, a distance not measured by miles. Nevertheless, I felt a quiver of hope as I watched the legacy of Carter pass before my eyes…there IS something that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down. It’s a “something” that we need to pack in our hearts and embody in our actions as we inaugurate a U.S. president next week.
I came across the crack in this ancient wall as I was exploring Tuscany photographically several years ago.
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