Warming hearts

We had about 15 of us this evening on the side of the road, bearing witness. In between trying to get people to take a flyer while they were stopped at the light, I managed to chat with my friend Ethan. It was his first time to join us on one of our actions and he had some questions and ideas.

Ethan is a national staff member for the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) and is grounded in the moral basis for our peace work. He wanted to know how much outreach we had done with local churches. My answer was not much, just that one of our active members is a member of the Asheville Friends Meeting and has spread the word in that direction. But we wanted to do more. He suggested that he could do a little outreach to the UCC church that he attends, one that Melody and I are also fond of and have visited a few times for Sunday service. Having a discussion forum there would definitely be a blessing.

The conversation with Ethan reminded me of why I am doing this work. It's not a practical or pragmatic thing to me, and it's not that I think we can win (although that would be so great). But standing against the Goliath of the military-industrial complex, even in this small manifestation, is acting on my morals, about being true to my sense of what is right and just. Really, I am not so concerned with the effects of all this. I just do it because it is the right thing to do. 

Sometimes, in the midst of making our case to the public about why this plant should not be built here, we get wrapped up in debating the details of job creation, tax incentives, transparency in government, the linkage between jet engine parts and far away wars, and more. It's all important to consider, but it's stuff that engages the head more than the heart. If I listen to my heart, it all becomes much simpler.

How can I look at heavy machinery tearing up the forest and not feel that this is wrong? How can I see pictures of starving children in Yemen and not understand that anything, any job or payment, that leads to that result is a failure of vision and conscience? How can I see all the money being diverted into the war economy and the fossil fuel industry and not also hurt for all the lost opportunity to make people's lives better? It's my heart that drives me, not my head.

And as I watch the cars roll by, I reach out with my flyers, but I also reach out with my heart. Silently offering these strangers some food for the spirit, hoping to touch that moral and loving place that lives within us all. This is what I'm doing there, and I think it's also what my friends are doing, as we all stand out there on a cold rainy evening with our banners and signs.

It might seem like it's a drag to stand out on a roadside like this, but actually it's pretty uplifting. We have each other and we know why we are there. We are warming hearts.