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April 26, 1997
When Israel was in Egypt's Land,
Let my people go;
Oppressed so hard they could not stand,
Let my people go!Go down, Moses,
Way down in Egypt's Land;
Tell ol' Pharaoh,
Let my people go!
Thus saith the Lord, bold Moses said,
Let my people go!
If not, I'll smite your first born dead;
Let my people go!Go down, Moses...etc.
No more shall they in bondage toil,
Let my people go!
Let them come out with Egypt's spoil,
Let my people go!
Go down, Moses...etc.
We need not always weep and mourn,
Let my people go!
And wear these slav'ry chains forlorn,
Let my people go!
Go down, Moses...etc.
For a day that started in a fit of rage at a neighbor's child, today ended up as a spiritual experience.
I had gone out to buy a few groceries. When I came back there was a kid's Big Wheel in my parking space. I parked over by the pool and stomped over to my space, shaking. I was inexplicably filled with rage. I felt myself boiling over and it felt totally out of my control. It was as if 19 years of turning the other cheek when neighbors used my parking space or blocked me in or out suddenly erupted in a terrible reversal.
I grabbed the Big Wheel and stomped over to the unit I thought it belonged to. I knocked on the door. A frightened little boy looked up at me. I asked: "Is this yours?" "Yeah." "Please don't leave it in my parking space again! Thanks." I stalked away. I was shaking the whole time. My voice shook when I talked to the kid. My heart was pounding. I couldn't swallow. Back in my kitchen I almost hyperventilated.
This coming on top of waking up weeping this morning was a bit more emotion than I could handle. I started to berate myself for my emotionality, telling myself I'll never be able to function in the real world again if I weep in my sleep and get angry at kids leaving their bikes in my parking spot.
I took a shower and went to pick up Nancy at the bus station so we could meet her friends at The Arlington Street Church for a Passover seder.
The seder was beautiful. People from a variety of backgrounds joined together to renew our compassion and our dedication to freedom for ourselves and others by remembering the story of the Jewish people's slavery in the land of Egypt. The Haggadah we followed was written by a member of the Arlington Street congregation - who turned out to be somebody Nancy knew from Rhode Island College (even in Boston, Rhode Island is a village - or something like that).
Everyone was very friendly to us even though we had never been to that church (as an aside, if you are ever in Boston, check out the Tiffany windows in the Arlington Street Church - they are magnificent - and all Tiffany).
After the third cup of wine (grape juice in my case), participants were invited to share their own stories of how they won their freedom or express their hope for the healing of the world. A couple of the stories really reached inside my hardened heart and changed that heart of stone back into a heart of flesh. People told coming out stories, disability/ability stories, love stories... I felt transformed...
After the fifth cup of wine, people called out "Peace in Jerusalem" instead of the traditional "Next year in Jerusalem."
Shalom Chaverim