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Being Crocus-minded
Tue 1 Apr 2008 11:48am
First Parish of Sudbury Newsletter, Making Meanings Column, April, 2008
This column is a re-run. It first appeared in the newsletter in the spring of 2002. Katie Lee chose it soon after she completed the sermon requested by last year’s auction bidders which asked: “What does it mean to push beyond our comfort zone to achieve a greater good?” Maybe, she thinks now, it takes being “crocus-minded!”
- It takes courage to be crocus-minded.
…I’d rather wait until June.
Like wild roses,
When the hazards of winter are
Safely behind and I’m expected,
And everything’s ready for
Roses.
- But crocuses?
Highly irregular.
Knifing up through hard-frozen
Ground and snow,
Sticking their necks out
Because they believe in Spring
And have something personal
And emphatic
To say about it.
- …I am not by nature crocus-minded.
Even when I have studied the
Situation here, and know there
Are wrongs that need righting,
Affirmations that need stating,
And know also that my speaking-
out may offend,
For it rocks the boat –
Well, I’d rather wait until
June.
- Maybe later things will work
Themselves out,
And we won’t have to make an
Issue of it.
- …Forgive (me).
Wrongs won’t work themselves
Out.
Injustices and inequities and
Hurt don’t just dissolve.
Somebody has to stick (their) neck out,
Somebody who
Cares enough to think through
And work through,
- Hard ground,
Because (they) believe
And (they have) something personal
And emphatic
To say about it.
- Me…: Crocus-minded?
I’ll look forward to seeing you when I return from London.
Katie Lee