The Second Gaze - Something Big

No matter who are taking the oaths of office, the inauguration of a new presidential administration is something big. Beyond the formalities and pomp, it is the beginning of a time with a leader whose actions and decisions will impact the lives of billions of people. Yesterday was "big" in other respects as well - the first woman elected to the role of vice-president notable among them. My wife and I watched Kamala Harris take her oath of office and I was grateful to see yet another barrier broken for women in our country.  

Last night, we dessert-ed on this cake made by my daughter to mark the day. It was a big cake of a big flag with frosting that was, well... big.  And I probably added a few big pounds eating the cake.  But there was more to it than just a beautiful frosted flag on the outside.  She wanted to make it a marble cake - one with different colors inside reflecting that there’s something deeper for us about how we are all in this together and tied together whether we know it, like it, or want it.  We’re all in this together.  

Reminds me of words from Dr King who wrote in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail:

In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be...This is the inter-related structure of reality.

And then these words from Paul in Ephesians 4:1-6

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

If we could live like that...that would be something big...