“Be brave in silks and laces,
gallant in steeds,
splendid in banquets.”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton Richelieu
***
Have you ever watched someone tying their shoelaces? Perhaps it’s because I’m looking at it from a different angle, or because it’s happening so quickly it’s hard to figure it out, or because the technique is different from the way I was taught as a child. But to me, it always seems quite bizarre. And yet, when it’s done, the laces are tightly tied, just as mine are.
I once played golf behind two elderly men. One man had the strangest swing ever! There were tweaks, twists and wobbles in his backswing and follow-through that were from no golfing manual I’d ever seen. And yet, every drive was straight up middle of the fairway, while I spent most of my time searching in the rough for my tee-shot. What looked very strange to me, worked perfectly well for him.
Audre Geraldine Lorde was a 20th century American black writer, feminist, lesbian, professor, philosopher, poet and civil rights activist. Her poems and prose often explored black female identity, and, in so doing, offered insights into the uniqueness of every individual in their struggle with self-acceptance and a societal understanding. In her 1982 publication: Zami: A New Spelling of my Name, she offers this insight:
Being women together was not enough. We were different.
Being gay girls together was not enough. We were different.
Being Black together was not enough. We were different.
Being Black women together was not enough. We were different.
Being Black dykes together was not enough. We were different.
Each of us had our own needs and pursuits, and many different alliances. Self-preservation warned some of us that we could not afford to settle for one easy definition, one narrow individuation of self. At the Bag, at Hunter College, uptown in Harlem, at the library, there was a piece of the real me bound in each place and growing. It was a while before we came to realize that our place was the very house of difference rather the security of any one particular difference.
Whether it’s at Hunter College, uptown Harlem, at the library with Audre Geraldine Lorde, “brave in silks”, “gallant in steeds”, “splendid in banquets” with Edward Bulwer-Lytton, or even tying shoelaces or playing golf, let’s celebrate “the very house of difference” to which we all belong.
***
A prayer for today
Lord, thank you for my uniqueness.
And I hope I’m not unique in saying that! Amen
***
An original reflection © Tom Gordon
Tom Gordon's Hymns and Reflections 