Hope Across Generations

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Netflix: Anne with an E – Anne Shirley & Diana Barry (Kindred Spirits:)

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INVOCATION

Spirit, bestow us with compassion and mercy and hope. 

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STORY

I am old enough to be my friend L’s mother. In fact, I am very good friends with both L’s parents. An even stranger fact is that L’s dad was one of my pastors for many years and her mother was not only on staff with me at our church but also my small group leader. Come to think of it, L worked there too. It’s how we all became friends. 

L is equal parts everything I’ve never been (white, middle-class, raised in a two-parent home, hip, cool, self-possessed) and everything I too have been (feminine, bookish, romantic, curious, empathetic). The thing we have most in common is that we both love what we love. L loves Twenty-One Pilots as hard as I loves Kendrick Lamar. She unabashedly loves her friends just like I love mine. She loves Anne with an E and vinyl records for the same reasons I do—the warm nostalgia of something we missed that returned to us. She loves to write and so do I. She loves to read. Me too! We first bonded over our love of Harry Potter. I used to tell L that she reminded me of my own kid who was closer to her age. But now I see that she really reminds me of a younger (but way cooler) me. 

L loves everything John Green has written, but being a whole generation older than her, his books sadly were never on my radar. If I had been the same age as L, I’m sure I would have read each and every one of his books, too. Although I missed out on his books, I didn’t miss out on his podcast The Anthropocene Reviewed. It’s a podcast about how humanity has shaped our planet, and though it has a certain bittersweetness to it, each month it administers a balm of hope as well. 

After listening to an episode this morning, I thought of L and how I was so glad we didn’t allow our age gap to deter us from developing a friendship. Then I wondered if I was old enough to be John Green’s mother?!?! Turns out I’m not, and I was a little sad about it. Who can say why? 

But this I know: hope like friendships should be ageless. We should never let our number of years keep us from either of these things. And just as our friendships should be wonderfully diverse, so should the balms of hope we apply to this world.  

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BREATH PRAYER

INHALE
May our hope… 

EXHALE
continue.

INHALE
May our friendships… 

EXHALE 
be ageless. 

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A SONG OF HOPE

Joel 3:1 Inclusive Bible (Chapter 2, Verse 28 in Other Translations)

After that, I will pour out my Spirit on all humankind. Your daughters and sons will prophesy, your elders will have prophetic dreams, and your young people will see visions.

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BENEDICTION

Continue: A Poem by Maya Angelou

My wish for you
Is that you continue
Continue
To be who and how you are
To astonish a mean world
With your acts of kindness
Continue
To allow humor to lighten the burden
Of your tender heart
Continue
In a society dark with cruelty
To let the people hear the grandeur
Of God in the peals of your laughter
Continue
To let your eloquence
Elevate the people to heights
They had only imagined
Continue
To remind the people that
Each is as good as the other
And that no one is beneath
Nor above you
Continue
To remember your own young years
And look with favor upon the lost
And the least and the lonely
Continue
To put the mantel of your protection
Around the bodies of
The young and defenseless
Continue
To take the hand of the despised
And diseased and walk proudly with them
In the high street
Some might see you and
Be encouraged to do likewise
Continue
To plant a public kiss of concern
On the cheek of the sick
And the aged and infirm
And count that as a
Natural action to be expected
Continue
To let gratitude be the pillow
Upon which you kneel to
Say your nightly prayer
And let faith be the bridge
You build to overcome evil
And welcome good
Continue
To ignore no vision
Which comes to enlarge your range
And increase your spirit
Continue
To dare to love deeply
And risk everything
For the good thing
Continue
To float
Happily in the sea of infinite substance
Which set aside riches for you
Before you had a name
Continue
And by doing so
You and your work
Will be able to continue
Eternally

[Amen]