This week, which has seen such tragedy, has brought me to affirm why I do what I do. I believe that the best response to tyranny is to act in integrity and to continue on the Path. Why, we may ask, when our country is in the grips of an unbelievable struggle between common sense and demagoguery should we take off to Europe to explore places held sacred by our ancestors for centuries? Why in the face of nonsensical gun laws and wanton slaughter of innocents should we gather in the circle, meet soul to soul and ask the timeless questions? The answers to these questions seem obvious to me. I believe that we need to create a counterpoint to the crazed quality of our politics and the frenetic vapidity of mass culture.
On Saturday, I attended the tender wedding of my cousin and his true love. They have only been allowed to marry these past two years and they carefully planned a ceremony that spoke to their love and to the times we live in. It seemed to me that everyone at the wedding got it about love and the sweet simplicity of two beings who have found each other. To wake up Sunday morning to news of Orlando was such a painful shock. My heart broke. And then later that night on the Tony Awards, I hear Lin Manuel Miranda’s sonnet with these words:
“….We lived through times when hate and fear seemed stronger;
We rise and fall and light from dying embers, remembrances that hope and love last longer
And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside…”
And I remember that it is a duty to love in the face of hate. It is a duty to remember the old places where wisdom and revelation reverberate through the centuries. It is a duty to open to our own wisdom and knowing and to gather together with our kin.
There is still one place left on my Pilgrimage to Avalon September 4-9, 2016 https://circleway.com/?page_id=643
And room at Chartres for Meeting Mary September 10-11, 2016
http://www.veriditas.org/event-2074090
And Mystical Portugal September 19-23
http://www.veriditas.org/event-2074104