Why are you here

Surprise, surprise...some of my posts are somewhat heavy.....

While this gathering is amazing, there was part of me that was wondering on the first day, “What am I doing here? Why did I come to the Parliament?”

As I have grown in years, I have come to have less patience for “conferences.” People gather, talk about all kinds of things, have these “feel good” moments, speak in general terms and then leave to back to where they came from – self-congratulating that they “did something” good. Let me just confess - I have attended these gatherings, felt good at these types of gatherings and went away with some self-congratulation. In fact, I have probably even organized these types of conferences! Meanwhile, injustice remains intact, oppression continues and social ills seem to gain a stronger foothold. Now I know it’s not that clear cut, but I have become more aware, I think, of the limits and potential dangers of “gathering” to talk about issues. I am indebted to my friends on the margins (of all kinds) who remind me and poignantly ask, “What good does your talking do for my life?”

I try to hold a question like this with me each day at the Parliament. What good does your talking do for my life?

What I have seen is that while the Parliament is vulnerable to the dangers of “conference,” the presence of people from around the globe helps to deter any self-congratulation. At most of the workshops I have attended, people are talking about poverty with the global poor in the room or we are talking about climate change and its impact on the nations with people from the most directly affected nations in the room. Heads of religious orders and denominations are not just talking about interfaith dialogue, they are actually doing it in front of us and it is happening in our very conversations. On this point I am also coming to appreciate the very real and basic value of dialogue itself. Talking to each other and listening to each other is actually a profound encounter. I know because I do this every day in my work, and I am seeing it anew here at the Parliament.

And I cannot tell you the number of times that I have heard honest and direct pleas and urgings that the United States must do more and take a more active role. Truly it is my sense that the “world” is literally waiting for us to take up our proper place in so many conversations that affect this planet.

I will also say that one of my more profound realizations came yesterday listening to a presentation on Yoruba – an indigenous religion of Africa – that only existed orally up until the last 10 years. As with any indigenous expression, there is something profound (dare I say direct from the creator) that gets expressed in the languages, practices and ritual expressions of the first peoples of this planet. I heard it again in the presentation today about the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations of the Iroquois). I think I appreciated in a new way and developed a more profound respect for the unique voice and contribution that is expressed (and was nearly destroyed) in so many of the indigenous practices, languages and belief systems.

OK, I can go on and on. It’ll have to suffice to say that I have just been drinking this stuff in. I am sitting in workshops with the likes of Jim Wallis, Joan Chittister, Chief Oren Lyons and Imam Khalid Fattah Griggs (African-American Muslim)to name but a few. I am seeing religious expressions that I have never seen before, meeting some new folks from across the US and the world and finding some new spiritual territory inside of myself. It’s not the mountaintop, but it’s pretty darn good.

I am not sure I will ever know “Why” I needed to be here. But I do think that all the “talking” that is going on is the seed for fruit that will only ripen once I return home. I also have to say how blessed I feel to be able to return to a life that is already so 'full' and laden with richness. Some folks come to gatherings like these and lament the end because there is not much to return to. When the Parliament ends, I know I get to come back to home. Inshallah!