\u2018\u201cYou ask me what I\u2019d like to be remembered for \u2013 well, I hope for some of the talks here [a gesture of her hand toward the kitchen tables, now empty] with our guests; and I hope they will remember that I tried to make good coffee for them, and good soup! I\u2019ve enjoyed getting to know them \u2013 they have been good teachers.\u201d\u2019 [1]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Narrative helps to unpack things. Sharing \u2018story\u2019 in community can nurture healing and a sense of belonging. The reader of Dorothy Day may experience such belonging as connections may be found relating to loneliness or faith, relationship struggle (faith and physical) or social justice. Stories are sacred to the honest teller, and to the receiver; stories may be redemptive, to both teller and receiver, potentially redemptive and generative of the possibility for unforeseen belonging and hope.<\/p>\n
What is there of order, and premeditated intention, in any true story? Dorothy\u2019s life, along with her thoughts, jumped around in her memoir, albeit in a \u2018movement forward\u2019. Is it the desire to control, what would otherwise be chaos, that brings order? Margaret Wheatley writes, in her book Leadership and the New Science<\/em>, \u2018Linear thinking demands that we see things as separate states: One needs to be normal, the other exceptional. Yet there is a way to see this ballet of chaos and order, of change and stability, as two complimentary aspects in the process of growth, neither of which is primary\u2019 [2]. Key to notice in this ‘little piece of sweetness’, the absence of control and a willingness to surrender to power, a power that no ‘one’ encapsulates.<\/p>\n I have lots of material to write on. We all do. On the side, wonderful resources to tie into the work, we all \u00a0have them. There are thoughts for themes, outlines drawn, and paragraphs titled to help the big-picture vision in the sweet mapping-of-a-piece. Honestly, I am too scrambled up by the chaos to pour into a plan for a post. Perhaps, unloading a memoir is the better plan.<\/p>\n I was listening to music earlier, classical piano and then, instrumental chillstep, moved by I have been in a little cabin all day; this, after a bottoming-out in weeks gone by (few know). Nature makes more sense to me than words do (see blogpost \u2018Bear and Bare\u2019), and the same effect has music. It is what it is, and it is open for interpretation, and with less violence than when words inspire. I reflected in a note that words, to me are more like noise usually, and that it is less so with music. I feel, normally, a greater sense of order with music.<\/p>\n I appreciate quietness, when someone emits a quiet presence. Too many words can be suffocating, for some. Too few words, for some, can make an awkward space it seems. I wonder what nature and music and effective, honest communication would have to say about this? Dorothy Day was passionate, resolute in her being, emotional, utterly present in her being and with people. Dorothy Day was \u2018less noise\u2019, and \u2018more presence\u2019. Less autobiography and more, memoir. Less about the words, more about the life.<\/p>\n Last week, I missed the memorial of a friend because I had to be in court to dispute a speeding ticket (seemingly, there was not getting around being absent for this). In the case before mine, there was a man disguised as a lawyer, who was noisy (and, nosey). I learned from his gross, apathetic attitude, to not say a word.<\/p>\n In silence and few words, respect. I want to talk less. I don\u2019t want to preach anymore. My friend who passed away was a man of few words. His life consisted of more learning than libraries; enough learning to know, he didn\u2019t need to talk about it. Then, Paul might ask, \u2018well, how will they know?\u2019 St. Francis might answer, \u2018well, only if necessary.\u2019 What mattered to Christian, was living it. Not perfectly, only honestly and with integrity.<\/p>\n \u201cChristian had eyes of fire. He had seen the worst which not only allows someone a learning on what is real and true but also, gives a person the tempered vision, spiritual insight, for what is right and good.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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