Merciful One
You who gave us wisdom and understanding
You who placed within our hearts’ pounding the possibility of pursuit of justice
You who granted us keen senses and constant memory and each breath of life
May you give us, all of us, through the 200 and 2 score and 10 year red, white, and blue haze
The ability to see the truth:
America has never yet been great.
May this truth be made plain, soon
And in our lifetimes.
May we place our feet on the path to remedy.
May You build within us the right kind of stubbornness
To craft John Lewis’s good trouble
To pursue Dr. King’s dream
To dissent even if society remains unready
To align ourselves against our blood-stained foundations
To speak out falsehoods with the unbroken blast of the shofar
To listen to those who know the same stories by another narrative
To listen to those who have fought for what we seek before we knew to seek it
To listen to our heartbeat
To listen to our condoning silence
To listen
Sh’ma
All of we wrestlers with what is beyond us.
May we begin the work of making America anew.
May You give us the strength to let “that’s just the way it is”
Fall away as an excuse.
May You grant us the courage to sit with our culpability
And our losses
And our shame
And be unafraid.
May You help us to seek not greatness for its own sake but
Great gentleness and growth
Cradled in love
Together
Generation by generation
With all our heart
With all our strength
With all our essence
With all that animates our souls.
And let us say, Amen
