declare 9/12 to 9/19 reconciliation and common humanity week in order to bring people back together after five years of complicated feelings

...past the 19th September.

Of one of my favorite interpretations with kidsongs

_{sorry I’m late}

The New Seekers – I’d like to teach the World to sing

I’d like to build the world a home
and furnish it with love
grow apple trees and honey bees
and snow white turtle doves

I’d like to teach the world to sing
in perfect harmony
I’d like to hold it in my arms
and keep it company

I’d like to see the world for once
all standing hand in hand
and hear them echo through the hills
for peace throughout the land

That’s the song I hear
Let the world sing today
a song of peace
that echoes on
and never goes away

I’d like to teach the world to sing
in perfect harmony

I’d like to teach the world to sing
in perfect harmony

I’d like to build the world a home
and funish it with love
grow apple trees and honey bees
and snow white turtle doves

I’d like to teach the world to sing
in perfect harmony
I’d like to hold it in my arms
and keep it company

It was good to have a hopeful and kind reason to think about the last five years. Wouldn’t an international day of reconciliation be amazing? I’m going to try to remember to celebrate this week every year.

I’m giving a talk tomorrow for people who live near me who are trying to make sense of the world in the last 5 years. I was in NYC on Sept 11, so while perhaps not the most my experiences aren’t the most relevant thing in the world, I am looked to as the local expert. It’ll be a big audience – about 50 and all I can give are my personal opionions and reflections – I have no real answers. But it is great to see this goal as it’s basically the spirit of what I am trying to say in my talk, and what’s been on my mind.

I’ll start in my own head on this goal….
My husbands eldest daughter is hard to describe… She has married well and is very fortunate in that day to day worries about money are not an issue…She has a husband who adores her and two lovely healthy children…
When her father and I married she was 16 and I remember several conversations where she was quite emotional and told me that since I moved in life was now normal….I worried over her , but allowed her her space…I ran interference for her between her and her Mom, to whom she did not speak….always encouraging her to make a relationship and NEVER trying to mother her …. (Well…I am a motherly type and to be honest, I do tend to mother everything….but truly, I worked hard at being her Dad’s wife and his childrens’(3) respectful friend….)
At any rate, at one point she tried an end run around her Dad, using the formerly despised Mom as a back up…and I called her on it…(She was 17)...and from that day forth no matter what…. I am no longer on her radar…..She does not come to the house, She does not call the house or me….She even calls her Dad on his Cell phone in the evenings… If I plan an occasion and notify all of them a month in advance, she calls Her father the week before the occasion and says they can’t come and sets up an alternate date for an additional affair at her convenience. Any time we are together as a family, anything I say or do is matter for ridicule, or just plain rude disrespect…it is very uncomfortable for me to be around her….This all makes my husband sad and he wishes we would “get along” He has stated he wants “some kind of a family life with her” I would like the same but my attempts at seeking common ground are generally rebuffed….going to her house ALWAYS results in some kind of contest over whatever and when they do come here (about once a year, even though they live 1 hour away) she avoids dealing with me so much that the last time they were here, they left without even saying good bye….She comes to town and calls him for lunch and I am not included EVER unless my husband thinks to call me ..Small deeds, but rude and calculated, I feel….I decided a year ago, that these things only upset me if I let them and I would never try to make him choose…and She is HIS daughter and they deserve time together…I have a very busy life without the stress of that relationship, or non-relationship….so live aND let live is the way to handle it…
My husband loves to ski. The daughter and her husband have a place in Vail and like to take Dad along…I do not ski, but I am going to go because my husband really wants me to go along…I am going to NOT notice rudeness and I am going to especially notice kindness, and I aM going to work on MY acceptance of her….rather than trying to deflect competition before it starts….
Reconciliation and common humanity has to begin in your own personal relationships before it can spread to the World, I think.

I have been thinking about this all day, ever since I joined this goal. What can I actually do this week to further reconciliation and common humanity? I’m stymied. Here’s what I’ve decided.

1. I can chant metta for myself, then those I know, then all people. Here’s the version I use, which I usually sing:
May I (you, we) be safe from harm//
May I (you, we) be happy and peaceful//
May I (you, we) be healthy and strong//
May I (you, we) be free from suffering

2. I can put in the front window of my apartment, facing out, the beautiful copy of Picasso’s painting “Dove with Flowers.”

3. I can find two similarly peaceful quotes from the Bible and the Koran and put them one after another as my email signature.

Such tiny gestures.

I thought about making this goal in honor of the town of Gander, Newfoundland, a town which took in hundreds of stranded passengers when the skies were shut down and no air travel was allowed on 9-12 and afterwards. And all the people who went out and donated water and blood and who have girted the hearts and souls of those affected by the tsunami and hurricanes and other tragedies. We’ve been living in interesting times, just like that Chinese curse always promised.

I also thought about how Star Trek is experiencing its 40th anniversary this year – it premiered this time last Friday, in 1966! – and couldn’t we use some of that good old fashioned human storytelling, that stretched our minds and tried to open our hearts a little? If Mr. Spock is so many folks’ favorite, maybe that means there’s a little bit of the alien, of the outsider in all of us – someone who can relate to needing a friend, needing understanding.

In all this remembrance of the 9-11 tragedy, and all the political tension leading up to the American elections in 2006, maybe we can take a week – at least a week – just to try and find commonality again, even if just for a short while.

Maybe we could all resolve to talk to someone new – someone who we wouldn’t otherwise have the courage to introduce ourselves to – or to go somewhere new. Maybe to get back in touch with an old friend or family member, “just because”. Or to tell people we love them. In the spirit of reconciliation and the humanity we share.

_Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring),

SECTION 1. USE OF ROTUNDA OF THE CAPITOL.

The rotunda of the Capitol is authorized to be used at any time on November 27, 2001, or December 4, 2001, for a National Day of Reconciliation where —

(1) the 2 Houses of Congress shall assemble in the rotunda with the Chaplain of the House of Representatives and the Chaplain of the Senate in attendance; and

(2) during this assembly, the Members of the 2 Houses may gather to humbly seek the blessings of Providence for forgiveness, reconciliation, unity, and charity for all people of the United States, thereby assisting the Nation to realize its potential as —

(A) the champion of hope;

(B) the vindicator of the defenseless; and

(C) the guardian of freedom.

SEC. 2. PHYSICAL PREPARATIONS FOR THE ASSEMBLY.

Physical preparations for the assembly shall be carried out in accordance with such conditions as the Architect of the Capitol may prescribe._