Until your light outlasts the night

A rather lovely prayer penned by the Episcopal bishop of Missouri, Deon K. Johnson. I'm tempted to post it on my office door.

The stones weep

Multifaith prayer vigil at Columbus Circle for Renee Nicole Good and thirty-nine others who have died in or fleeing ICE abuse in the past year. After some prayers (including one from the Episcopal Bishop of New York), Buddhist and Sikh chants and a mourner's Kaddish, each of the forty name was read, as the names and pictures of all were held aloft, with the person's age when known. When a soprano then sang "Ave Maria" I pictured those whose names we had heard sheltered and united beneath her cloak, as in that statue I so love in Vienna. The vigil ended with Good's widow's poignant tribute to the beloved whose murder she witnessed, a Hindu invocation of the rage at evil and cosmogonic love of dancing Mahakali, and a rendering of "Amazing Grace."

I sometimes think interfaith events dumb traditions down to an uninspiring lowest common denominator but these prayers didn't downplay the differences. Their fierce particularity heightened our shared grief at each of these senseless deaths, and our determination that hatred and cruelty shall not prevail.

What can we do but sing

So happy to be back singing with the choir this morning. Our anthems were some Haydn and Copland's setting of "Shall we gather at the river." 

For several us it was a return after a few weeks holidaying with family, and catching up we registered how frighteningly the world is changing around us. Our young tenor lead was in Colombia for his grandfather's funeral when the US attacked neighboring Venezuela. An alto told that her two daughters, school music teachers in Minneapolis, reported zoom classes as public schools, which had already instituted "ICE drills," had closed: students were too scared to show up. The soprano lead described herself as shattered by the realization that the government could just kill you and claim you were a terrorist. 

The choir director suggested we might, as a body, join a demonstration sometime, an idea we all welcomed. In such terrifying times, the tenor reflected with a wisdom beyond his years, "what can we do but sing?"

Eye-opening

The New School's new semester begins in twelve days. But what new school will that be? Cancellations of courses with less than 75% enrollment continue (one of mine was a casualty*), but the biggest question is which faculty members will voluntarily or "involuntarily" leave the school, and what will be produced by the three months of liberal arts "academic re-envisioning" announced the day after fall classes ended (!). I had my first meetings as a University Faculty Senate co-chair today, one of them with good people from the Provost's Office, and I'm not sure folks have any idea how tumultuous, not to say traumatic, this semester will be.

At Public Seminar, the online journal based at the graduate faculty, someone decided it might be useful to look at New School history at this juncture, and stumbled on two essays from the New School Histories vertical my friend J and I edited for the university centennial in 2019. One is one of mine, which I'm always glad to share... though I guess resonates in unforeseen ways in this moment.

The thought has crossed my mind a few times these past months whether it might be time for a new New School history article for Public Seminar, but what would it say? The thought arose in response to the mobilization of variously one-sided versions of that history by the advocates for restructuring and by those threatened with restructuring. But this is no time for "demythologizing the New School," or adjudicating among the myths - even with the rider that what New School actually has been is stranger and more inspiring than most people know.

*This means I "owe" the college an extra course in 2026-27

Killers

Today an innocent American citizen was killed by ICE in Minnesota. 

A few days ago, several score people were killed as a U. S. military raid abducted the president of Venezuela, a few days after a village in Nigeria was showered with U. S. missiles.

In the weeks before, the U. S. military executed over a hundred people operating boats suspected of carrying illicit drugs in the Caribbean and Pacific.

"I'm not looking to hurt people," says the president, but his murderous lackeys know his definition of "people" excludes most of us.

Twelfth night, and the next day

Heard in a sermon that a theologian named Thomas Troeger suggested that Nativity scenes should be dynamic. The shepherds come and go and then for a long time the Holy Family is alone. Magi appear and go, instructed in a dream to go home by a different route than they came, avoiding murderous Herod. Then the Holy Family should move too, as Joseph was told in a dream to flee to Egypt, perhaps to a windowsill looking out on the suffering world Jesus came to save. It's powerful...!

Attack on multilateralism

The brigands' assault on the rules based international order continues. The administration is withdrawing the United States from sixty-six international organization, treaties and conventions, deeming their work "contrary to the interests of the United States." As one reads through the list it becomes clear that, beyond all the vital particular issues and relationships scorned, "intergovernmental," "partnership," "international" and "regional cooperation" themselves are anathema to these short-sighted isolationists, perhaps also "united" and "renewable."

24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Compact;

Colombo Plan Council;

Commission for Environmental Cooperation;

Education Cannot Wait;

European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats;

Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories;

Freedom Online Coalition;

Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund;

Global Counterterrorism Forum;

Global Forum on Cyber Expertise;

Global Forum on Migration and Development;

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research;

Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals, and Sustainable Development;

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change;

Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services;

International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property;

International Cotton Advisory Committee;

International Development Law Organization;

International Energy Forum;

International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies;

International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance;

International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law;

International Lead and Zinc Study Group;

International Renewable Energy Agency;

International Solar Alliance;

International Tropical Timber Organization;

International Union for Conservation of Nature;

Pan American Institute of Geography and History;

Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation;

Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combatting Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia;

Regional Cooperation Council;

Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century;

Science and Technology Center in Ukraine;

Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme;

Venice Commission of the Council of Europe.

UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs;

UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) — Economic Commission for Africa;

ECOSOC — Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean;

ECOSOC — Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific;

ECOSOC — Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia;

International Law Commission;

International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals;

International Trade Centre;

Office of the Special Adviser on Africa;

Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children in Armed Conflict;

Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict;

Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children;

Peacebuilding Commission;

Peacebuilding Fund;

Permanent Forum on People of African Descent;

UN Alliance of Civilizations;

UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries;

UN Conference on Trade and Development;

UN Democracy Fund;

UN Energy;

UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women;

UN Framework Convention on Climate Change;

UN Human Settlements Programme;

UN Institute for Training and Research;

UN Oceans;

UN Population Fund;

UN Register of Conventional Arms;

UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination;

UN System Staff College;

UN Water;

UN University

Flowers of memory

Because of the unseasonal rains, the "flower fields" outside Borrego Spring have burst into bloom the way they usually only do in the spring. This was a chance those of us who visit the area only in winter and summer never get, so we took a day trip to see them on the eve of our return to New York. They're familiar from photos my parents have shared, as well as many featured in the Anza-Borrego Desert Wonders facebook group of which I'm a member, but here they really were! 

Beyond the flagship pink desert sand verbenas, white dune primroses and yellow desert sunflowers we found a dozen other flowers too (like the marvels above), though none making as big a splash. Besides the fact that verbena-primrose-sunflower trifecta seem to appear only in a few places (two are marked with a flower sign on the official Anza Borrego map), the most striking thing was something none of the photos had shown - the view from above. The verbenas and primroses spread in all directions from a single point, verbenas sprawling opportunistically along the contours of the ground, primroses with a circular symmetry reminiscent of straw stars. I had something to give back to the group!

The desert lily, the Facebook group's holy grail, seemed to be blooming too, so we asked a docent at the Visitor's Center if there was somewhere not too remote where we might find some. She directed us to a simple campground some miles beyond the famous flower fields, where she'd seen some ready to bloom on Saturday, though she couldn't promise anything. They're small, she warned us. Desert lilies creep out of barren-looking sand with tentacle-like leaves, which appear singly and doubly before buds emerge. We saw many just starting before spotting our first buds - spent! Soon we happened on others getting ready to bloom and finally what turned out to be a half dozen that were in bloom. The flowers have a lovely sweet scent, but you need to put your face close to the ground to smell it. After a while, we started noticing desert lilies popping up in many places - they're a distinctive blue-green.

I was buzzed as we drove back to my parents' house on the coast. How fortunate to have had a chance to see these glories! (Even in spring they bloom only when - if - it rains and only last for a short time.) But then I had a strange worry. Had I really not seen them before? Had we not in fact seen them together just a few years ago? Was I not then glowing just as I was now? 

As those who know me beyond the blog can attest, my memory is not the best. Its gappiness - and my awareness of it - can create some odd and elliptical sensations. Today's species of subjunctive déjà vu is one of them. It seems to show up when I've finally done something I'd long planned or hoped to, perhaps even more specifically something I'd looked forward to announcing I'd finally done... 

Except that, really, I had not expected ever to have a chance to catch the Borrego blooms. I had resignedly contented myself with triangulating from others' photos the way one does with real estate pictures. Maybe I was confused by how closely reality met my unreal expectations! Or intoxicated by the desert lily's perfume. 

As it turns out, I really haven't seen the bloom before (unless perhaps as a child), and certainly not the desert lilies! I have a new question, now that my interaction is again mediated by artfully shot and carefully selected photos, now including my own. That picture of the desert lily above: did one of the left-side leaves move?

What we believe

Two bits of verse which lifted my spirits on this dark day. First, Cornelius Eady's poem for the inauguration of Mayor Mamdani, "Proof":

You have to imagine it.

Who said you were too dark?

Too Large, too Queer, Too Loud?

Who said you were too poor, too strange, too fat?

You have to imagine it.

Who said you must keep quiet?

Who heard your story then rolled their eyes?

Who tried to change your name to invisible?

You've got to imagine.

Who heard your name and refused to pronounce it?

Who checked their watch and said not now?

James Baldwin wrote 'the place in which I'll fit will not exist until I make it.'

New York, city of invention,

Roiling town, refresher

And re-newer,

New York, city of the real,

Where the canyons

Whisper in a hundred

Tongues,

New York,

Where your lucky self

Waits for your

Arrival,

Where there is always soil

For your root.

This is our time.

The taste of us, the spice of us, the hollers and the rhythms and the beats of us and the echo of our ancestors who made certain we know who we are.

City of insistence, city of resistance.

You have to imagine an army that wins without firing a bullet.

A joy that wears down the rock of no.

Up from insults, up from blocked doors, up from trick bags, up from fear, up from shame, up form the way it was done before.

You have to imagine that space they said wasn't yours.

That time they said you'd never own.

The invisible city lit on its way.

This moment is our proof.

And our rector's version of José Luis Casal's "Immigrant's Creed":

We believe in Almighty God, who guided the people in exile and exodus, the God of the prophets Joseph in Egypt, and Daniel in Babylon, and Mohammed in Medina, the God of foreigners and immigrants.

We believe in Jesus Christ, a displaced Galilean, who was born away from his people and his home, who fled his country with his parents when his life was in danger.

When he returned to his own country he suffered under the oppression of Pontius Pilate, the servant of imperial power.

Jesus was persecuted, beaten, tortured, and unjustly condemned to death.

But on the third day Jesus rose from the dead, not as a scorned foreigner but to offer us citizenship in God’s kingdom. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God’s kingdom among us, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries, and reunites all races.

We believe that the Church is the secure home for refugees, travelers, and all believers.

We believe that the communion of saints begins when we accept the diversity of the saints.

We believe in forgiveness, which makes us all equal before God, and in reconciliation, which heals our brokenness.

We believe that, in the Resurrection, God unites us as one people, in which all are distinct, and all are alike at the same time.

We believe in life eternal, in which no one will be a foreigner, but all will be citizens of the kingdom where God reigns forever and ever.

Treating law as a joke

Timothy Snyder: 

Unvarnished evil

Utterly sickening. White supremacy is genocidal ideation. Repent!

Rebirth

A year and a half after a brush fire tore through the eastern part of the Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve Extension, the nature trail through it has been reopened. We'll check it out soon. It was already getting dark today so we just walked along the trail on the bluffs above it, finding some still fire-scarred land on the ridge bursting with bush poppies. The area of the blaze below was a plush carpet of new green.