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Keeping your community covered. We're committed to producing high-quality, fact-based news and information that gives you the facts in this community we call home. If our work has helped you stay informed, take action, or feel more connected to Windham County – please give now to help us reach our goal of raising $150,000 by December 31st.
Rainer Maria Rilke wrote: “You are nearing the land that is life; you will recognize it by its seriousness.”
The land I have chosen is South Africa. Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) had become his most serious and daring, forming the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1995 to heal both victims and perpetrators of Apartheid, to take each one on the journey into remorse, deep enough to bring life back into balance. Yes, that deep. Counseling agencies and clinical psychologists worked under the leadership of Desmond Tutu.
There is a book I hope you can read: A Human Being Died That Night, by a South African woman, Pumla Gobedo Madikizela, who played an important part in the Commission's work. You will recognize it by its seriousness.
Madikizela wrote of connectedness through “the sheer fact of [one's] being human.” Is this where we begin? Where the journey starts? So many were healed. Others were not able to crack open the anger to find their tenderness.
The content was political; the delivery, from the heart. It was as though Barack Obama entered each and every living room to say, in a quiet and normal voice, “Same-sex couples should be able to marry.” No trumpet sounding here. Ten days later, the National Association for the Advancement...
