Randall Mullins, Feb 25
Expecting a light morning for news,
I turn on the tv,
coffee in hand,
feeling at ease,
until a baby boy’s face appears on the screen.
His father,
who must have loved his son,
“lost it,” as we say,
shook him too hard,
and killed him.
He was charged with murder,
and is now in custody.
This, brothers,
all over the world,
from our lonely workplaces
to fields of battle,
is our harsh invitation
to transformation.
Those among us
who also have lost it,
or who came close
(I am one),
but managed to stop short of tragedy,
recognize the hard truth.
“Love your enemies”
must include
loving those
wounded parts
of ourselves where we
have not yet learned
to weep our way toward home.
Is it not clear
that most of the destruction
of Things Sacred comes
from the wounded hearts of men?
Let us hold one another accountable,
but let us not condemn this man
before remembering
that we are in this struggle together.
Is he not Everyman?
a brother?
wounded like us,
but never beyond repair?
He deserves time apart,
a place of penitence,
a penitentiary,
a space
where the soul can come forth.
It can happen.
Someone has said that
the young man
who does not weep
is a savage,
and the old man
who does not laugh
is a fool.
Transforming our pain,
healing,
includes the sacred work
of grieving,
and we can never
complete this work alone.
We too are in custody,
but not in a prison.
We are in custody of the Beloved,
helping us turn toward home.
We have a True Home
at the Sacred Center of Everything.
waiting there to embrace us.
Even if it seems
thousands of miles away,
let us turn toward home,
walking shoulder to shoulder,
with brothers
drawn to the same sweetness,
knowing ourselves as Beloved.
– Randall Mullins (Dedicated to my Illuman brothers)