It’s August 2018. It’s hot here in southern Indiana. It’s time for school to start. As I find myself preparing to teach one more year, adding to 23 years as a teacher now….I find myself as a student listening and learning from two Funerals (with a capital “F”) of two major Teachers (capital “T”). They each touched the world in different ways and continue to teach and touch us in the moments that made up their passing. Over Labor Day weekend I watched the funerals of Aretha Franklin and John McCain. They couldn’t have come from two more completely different worlds; Music and Politics; Black and White. But they also came from a common core message they lived and left for us to hear. It was their message and gift regarding Suffering, Love, and Service that captivated me as I watched. In both funeral services they left messages about ways we suffer today and how to add Love and Service into our current mix of pain as a people.
I hope to share what I felt while these two artists of life taught me from beyond the veil. John McCain pre-planned every step, every visitor, and symbolic message to help us learn, accept, and heal from the immense hate and divisiveness we live with today. It seemed to me, those who loved and knew Aretha Franklin, – on their own, based on the natural depth of love and community -knew how to show us the message at the core of Aretha Franklin that seemed to take no pre-planning. It came naturally. I am a white woman, so I dare not say I have a clue of the depth of black culture --- but what I can say, is if you have ever been to a white church service and a black church service in America -- you know we tend to express ourselves in VERY different ways. If you haven’t been in both cultural pews – you BETTER do it and you better do it now. We need you. We need that. We need one another.
Both services and communities sent messages about our current president, and his obvious absence at both venues. He was not invited to either funeral – for “teachable moment” reasons. And this non-invitation came from both a black woman and a white man. Please know, in both services, and in my blog, one message sent loud and clear is to not stoop to negative bashing that only aggravates and in itself is a form of violence. There is power in sending a clear message and example especially from beyond the grave. Each speaker echoed this message: Al Sharpton did this, Barack Obama did this, George Bush did this, and Cindy McCain did this. I’m going to try and take us step, by step, through each funeral. And forgive me; they were both long funerals, so this blog may also be quite long. But we do not have much longer to make right, that which has been made wrong.
Please note: I know there are many things McCain as a politician did that I do not support, but this is not a political blog – this is a learning blog – and I prefer to be a student that learns from everyone, especially those with whom I do not easily connect. It is usually from them that I learn the most about myself.
McCain: Politician, warrior, survivor, senator, instigator, father, enemy, and friend.
While I never voted for and did not support all of McCain’s policies, I intuitively felt he was a good man, trying to do good in the world. McCain tried to make right, that which he had made wrong. He knew when he said “The civil war monuments of the South were not messages of white supremacy”….that he did so to win votes in South Carolina. He knew he was wrong when he said it, and later announced what he had made wrong and spoke to attempt to make it right. He knew his choice of Sarah Palin, helped set into motion the divisive energy we live in today. His learning and acceptance of this responsibility was confirmed on a PBS special about his life. It taught me that he owned this mistake and spent the last 10 years of his life making right the impact of this powerful wrong; turning the energy of his actions that ignited pain into healing.
Did he fail as a human being because of his political ploy when he said he wished he had picked Joe Lieberman, a white Jewish man vs having picked a white woman? Such roles, such reasons, are enough to make me want to scream. Instead, I sit in silence and slowly remember selfish ignorant mistakes I’ve made. I can only call him out on this, if I also call out myself. I listened to the original actors as Liberman then spoke of his love for the man and the way McCain lived his life. Lieberman told us about McCain’s way of forgiving his captors at the Hanoi Hilton; how he worked on the normalization of Vietnam; how the Vietnamese see him as a hero. Lieberman called McCain a “defender of the dignity of all human beings”. He told the story of when they stood on a balcony in Jerusalem, McCain re-quoted to Lieberman the original message and meaning of “a shining city on a hill”. This quote has many “legs”, some of which are sickeningly ironic used by the Puritans who came to this country to begin a new way of life and liberty while massacring innocent first nation peoples, their beliefs, beauty, and destroying their spirit guided way of life. Did John McCain, recognize, shift, and accept his contribution to the failings of this country and “we the people”? Was his use of this quote, on this balcony, with his Jewish friend a recognition of what we’ve done that is unforgivable entwined with a request to be forgiven - to try anew?
Aretha Franklin: The natural woman who sings to us to respect.
To try and express the messages I heard from Aretha’s funeral is pointless, as my words could never do justice. The songs offered up by this community’s side of the aisle are a chorus of giving, living, and loving that touch us and teach us. Sit. Listen. Learn. Then, leave your side of the aisle, cross over, and love one another.
Thank you Aretha.
“Is My Living in Vain”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NYTSbWUmPI
Gladys Knight: even in our music he sends us messages
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd7ioBjz_z0
Yolanda Adams:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL57xzk_TkA
Aretha at Barack Obama’s inauguration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW7n8hklwsk
Saturday, January 19, 2019
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