All things find their road?

In the wake of a tragedy, I felt broken hearted, I sat with my reflection, praying and hoping for a kinder world. Do all things find their road? Maybe, maybe not. Sometimes people get lost. I know I was lost and now, not as much. I had the opportunity to be at the PASCD 2014 conference this past week. It was definitely a road home as I visited with friends and colleagues who I had not seen for a while when I felt set adrift in the sea of public education. While the road may lead to home and the path may be clear many of us get lost. Not everyone finds their path, accepts their path, or lives the path of wholeness.

How do we live in the tragic gap of broken-heartedness? It took me long times to find my way wading through life with others who hid, who were afraid too. We had no champions as young gay people. No, not everyone finds his or her way. The road is long and hard. It took me a long time to find my way. It took courage to accept love. And some days it is still hard to stay the path. The road is treacherous without protection as a gay person (PA does not have an anti-discrimination law). I can't comprehend the pain of people who cannot hide their race, color or language differences, who face subtle and not-so-subtle degradation every day.

The pain of otherness cuts deep. Many of us feel it. When we don't know what to do, we can push and fight, like children who don't know how to express themselves. We become the very violence we abhor. We hide in the margins undetected until that last straw breaks. All the rage, pain, anger and fury bubble to the surface. If we could just see it their way! Can we heal? Can we find the road? Can we find our way home? I think we can. During this conference I met my friends, old and new, educators, who care so much for children and I find hope.

I am angry about the systematic degradation of people; upheld in schools and public places. Can we be sure we are not teaching another generation to hate? I watch broken-hearted trying to figure out why one persons' child is more valuable than another. I find hope when I stand side-by-side with others who are willing to make a change, not just talk about it. Or when I meet others who are willing to have respectful and hard conversations. I am hopeful when I find my heart broken and sit in this tragic gap with others who are heartbroken too, longing to teach every child, every teacher, every person that we all matter. We are all a part of this great journey of life…. Finding ourselves, out passions and our way home!

*Several of the concepts and ideas of broken-heartedness and the tragic gap are from the works of Parker J. Palmer. They are linked directly to his catalog of works.