i need you all

We have all known the long loneliness 
and we have learned that the only solution is love 
and that love comes with community.  
                                         Dorothy
Day
______________________________________________
 
last night I joined a protest
it was not huge as protests go
maybe around 200 people
 
but then my community is not large, as communities go
our county sheltering around 7000 souls
who must do without even a flashing red light
and without the “essentials” of life such as fast food
chains
Walmarts and Costco
 
We a Safeway, and that is about
 
but on this night,
as the clouds gathered, and eventually showered us with
hail 
the people gathered
the very young and the very old
liberals and moderates, and perhaps a few conservatives
 
my Rotary Club was there in mass
there were members of my church, and other churches too
and a lot of people who were “nones”
having decided long ago that the church had lost its way
and lost them
 
there were people who were Cis
and people who were LGBTQI
 
all drawn together by a desire to do something
say something
by a need to stand up for justice, and equity
for kindness and compassion
 
it got me thinking about the importance of community
about the power of community
 
about what happens when people gather together in hate
and about what happens when people gather together in
love
 
it got me thinking about the fact
that when Jesus left this earth, he purposefully left
behind a community
a living breathing community called the ekklasia, the
“body of Christ”
 
and it was reminded that we need each other
one person standing on that sidewalk with a sign would
have been
weak, foolish, powerless
 
but there was power in the gathered community
 
the point is
we need each other
the “long loneliness” is not what works
 
I need those high school kids who came straight from
graduation 
To cry for justice
 
I need all those women, who, white hair peeking above
their masks
Held signs and chanted
 
I need those young, intense people in their 20’s and 30’s
who
full of the power and energy of the young strode and
chanted
 
I need those friends from my congregation
from work
who on not just this night
but every day are part of that community 
in which I live and breathe and have my being
 
I also need that cousin, who right wing, evangelical,
perhaps fundamentalists
who chastises me on facebook
 
and that congregant who posts extreme right wing memes
that make 
my teeth grind
 
Yes, I need them too
they are part of this tribe we call humanity
they are also children of God
my brothers and sisters
 
I need the person who writes me a personal message
on this blog, telling me I need to support this President
and suggesting that I am doing “harm” 
by not doing so
 
I need them all
 
we may not agree
but in the dialog, in the sharing, in the challenging
sometimes in the confronting of one another
we become the body of Christ
the family of God
 
together we stumble forward 
toward the Kingdom
 
I cannot do this alone
None of us can do this alone
 
We need each other
At least I know
I need you