I am a priest and poet and now a therapist. I am married to a political scientist. We bring different things to the table, to our conversations. On this Independence Day we are both grateful for this country in which we live, and not so grateful for the things which separate us from loving those beyond our borders. This quotation came from inwardoutward.org today.
The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?
Pablo Casals
Consider the borders,
The edges we create
Between us and them,
Them and us.
Then
Imagine the borders
Not existing at all:
Artificial countries
In pink and green and blue,
The United States
In the middle of the map
Somehow bigger
Than the rest.
Consider the borders
Then
Consider them
Gone.
Remember the chalk erasers from first grade?
Remember when we wrote things
We could erase?
Consider the borders
The edges
Erased,
Chalk dust clapped into the air
Behind the school building,
The chalkboard washed clean
To begin again
Tomorrow.
Consider the borders,
The edges we create
Then
Consider them gone
Erased.
Consider maps with no borders
No country
In the center.
Consider love
In the middle.
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