Sunday, October 28, 2007
Must... create... drama
Uh oh... Scott Lucas is talking:
Monday afternoon: In the midst of an already tense environment on Sproul Plaza, with opposing groups set up on either side of the walkway, glaring at each other with menace... Haha. Good one. Is the world so boring to Lucas that he has to imagine conflict for his stories? I at least go through the trouble of actually creating the conflict.
I can conclude only by ceding the floor to my friend Tinley Ireland, who gave, for my money at least, the best speech of the evening. Just as the sun set, shining right into her face, she stood up on the steps of Sproul Hall on that same consecrated spot where earlier in the day the fear-based community had shouted itself hoarse about the people "over there" who are just waiting, waiting to get us. She stood there and told us about her faith. She talked about how the hardest part of following Christ was to love not just her friends, but her enemies too. To stop having enemies at all, to feel that universal pulse of humanity, that spark of the divine that flows through all of our veins.
At the end she asked who in the crowd didn't believe that Jesus was the son of God. Most hands went up. Mine did. She smiled, and as the light faded she simply and truly said, "I love you." I've been on the receiving end of a few punches in my life, but nothing ever hit me that hard. I don't know exactly what kind of politics or religion or philosophy that is—but whatever it is, where can I sign up? A church, maybe? I'm not sure I really buy the argument that folks who disagree about theology are "enemies." Certainly not in the same sense as folks who disagree on whether or not the other should be alive, at least.
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