The Anchorite’s Milk Box

Some years back when I was studying theology, I did a paper on Julian of Norwich.  She left her life as a married woman and mother to become an anchorite or spiritual recluse and devoted her life to God.  She went to live in a small room off the Church of Norwich which for monks and abbots is called a cell.  There she had no luxuries and spent most of her time talking to God.  There was a small window at the edge of her cell that looked out to a court yard where people would pass by, some stopping to ask Julian for prayer.

An epidemic of plague overtook Europe and people in Julian’s hometown were frightened.  They were convinced that this illness was sent by God to punish them for their sins.  It was at that time Julian heard God say, “ All shall be well – All manner of things shall be well”.

This context crossed my mind as I struggled to find liquid soap during the current Covid19 pandemic.  Being in the high-risk category of people who should not venture out into public places, I was dependent on others to do grocery shopping for me. Due to the sins of greedy people, Items such as disinfectants, paper towels, toilet paper, and liquid soap were not easily available.

I was speaking with my neighbor about this and she informed me that she had lots of liquid soap on hand and I should bring my empty container over and she would fill it.  She instructed me to come to her milk box on the side of her house to get my refill.  I donned my face mask and walked across the street.  There, waiting on the inside of the opened box, was the anchorite ready to answer my prayer for liquid soap. 

We chatted about the state of the world while she filled the container.  When done, we promised to get together again, open-faced like happy sandwiches, relieved and free from harm’s way.

I thanked my neighbor, and walked back home.  I thought about Julian in her stone cell looking out the window, and wondered how life would be without liquid soap.

Choosing Hate or Choosing Kindness

'[N-Word] Hating' White Student Arrested, Kicked Out of California College After Drunken, Racist, Homophobic Rant

When I first read this headline, I thought to myself, “Well now this kid has been kicked out of college and will hang around with other racist, homophobic or bigoted people like himself and will never learn tolerance, understanding or how to control himself in pubic.”  Somehow, I don’t think the punishment fit the crime.  It’s not disciplinary unless we seek to reverse a negative action into a positive change.

Then I got to thinking, this is a perfect example of where our current society has migrated—hateful actions will bring about other hateful actions.  This is the type of situation where a young man who might have had an opportunity to educate himself, had a reasonable and just discipline for his actions, will now – quite possibly—find a weapon and lash out on unsuspecting bystanders. 

I really hate what we’ve all become.  And I use the word “we” sparingly, and include myself because there are times I am so despondent and so fed-up with political acts of revenge and exclusion, that I just want to rip someone’s head off.  But, of course, I don’t.  Instead I put myself in this myopic space looking only for “the good” until “the bad” feeling passes.

From the “Pause,” journalist Ezra Klein talks with Krista Tippett about “Why we are so polarized?”  He says, “We need to build a politics where one of our aims is the participation and respect, we give to each other. That doesn’t mean a politics where the fights aren’t hard-fought or the stakes aren’t high or everything is compromised down for no reason … but we need to be looking to pull people into the process, and we need to be looking to pull people back from the ledge.” 

The podcast: https://onbeing.org/programs/ezra-klein-how-we-walked-into-this-and-how-we-can-walk-out/

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