At Clarkson, SLU a light shines on
This little light of mine I am going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
African-American gospel hymn
Driving to Canton I was told that Shaun Whitehead was a "force of life." Having been reared on a healthy skepticism about the human condition and people in particular, I rolled my eyes. But after one hour of clapping and singing and being inspired to press on for the day when justice will roll down like water, I think a "force of life" is a bit of understatement.
The Rev. Shaun Whitehead is a chaplain at St. Lawrence University. But she is not like any chaplain I've ever seen, and the celebration of the life and ministry and sacrifice of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was unlike any thing I have enjoyed in a long time. For just a moment, when people started grooving and dancing and praying and singing all at once without missing a beat, I thought I was back in a mud hut church in Africa where the praise is as great as the poverty.
And yet it was not the Shaun Whitehead show. It wasn't a show at all. It was the precarious place where the religious and the activists and the scholars and the students who love to sing and the forces of history create a confluence, and you know you must "wade in the water."
There are lovely moments where God does "trouble the waters" and unless you are so attached to your fear that it must kept safe from grace, you get wet.
Into this mix came the new president of SLU, Bill Fox. Now I have met President Fox, and I know that he and I have as much natural rapport with a gospel service as a tree in Brooklyn. So when he took to the pulpit to deliver a message in the midst of all the grooving, I offered a quick prayer for him.
It is a daunting task to speak when people have the echo of Dr. King in their ears and hearts. But he delivered and challenged the students and people present to press on and make sure the fight you fight is the right one, the truth you yearn for is truly a new day of justice and not just another form of brokenness that keeps the winners and losers on their sides.
That was Monday. Three day before on Friday I was at the "neighbors," Clarkson University. Seven years in the north country and I have never attended an event at either one of these universities. So, that I would find myself at both in close proximity, gave me pause. I was at Clarkson to meet Dr. Phil Hopke.
Dr. Hopke is chasing the wind trying to persuade and convince governments that they can create the infrastructure to build 3 billion small stoves for people in extreme poverty.
Knowing what I know about a good number of the folks who would use one of these stoves, I am excited and inspired about his concern. Dr. Hopke recently was a Jefferson fellow in Washington D.C. Being such a fellow is when the federal government says lets get together a dozen really bright folk and let them abide with the problems of the world.
Well, it turns out that 24 percent of all emissions polluting the planet come from open-fire cooking. And for people who count things this is a really, really big number. Hence, 3 billion stoves to make things better.
Before I sat through Dr. Hopke's lecture, he gave me a kind of private tutorial. And that is good, because in college I knew my goal was Arts and Letters and the "other" side of the campus was not for my poetic sensibilities.
As we spoke and walked about the campus, though, I found some of my science phobia falling away. There were knobs and gadgets and machines everywhere. So many I couldn't help but think, let's see what this does. I didn't try them out, but I was inspired. There was a pulse, a kind of tangible energy of the world's problems being fixed.
Sitting in the lecture I couldn't help but be uplifted. Here were 30 students who are highly motivated to create the better, faster whatever and yet they took an hour asking what if we dialed back our technology so to bring some people forward? What if we all breathe the air, so this is a benefit for all?
So here I sit between stoves and spirituals meant for freedom. Help for the bottom billion and remembering the great hope of Dr. King "991/2 is not enough." In light of the devastation of Haiti I needed some inspiration, I needed to believe the forces of justice are far greater than weight of our indifference. A common theme of every account and assessment is that Haiti was a disaster before and we couldn't fix it, what are we going to do now?
Knowing the animosity that often exists between the two schools and that hockey season is still up and running, this may be a bigger challenge than fixing Haiti, but a part of me just wanted to cross the wires of those two events. I wanted the 3-billion-stove lecture to know that aid is only effective with love and friendship.
I wanted Shaun Whitehead to pray for Dr. Hopke that it was water the first time, but it's fire next time. Only instead of wrath it's a better fire, a refining fire, that saves us all.
It may be that the folks at Clarkson design a better light for us to shine or even determine the best trajectory for that light, but it is ever the soul moved to love that overcomes all faults and failures.
Friday at Clarkson; Monday at St. Lawrence; this equals a better Tuesday.
The Rev. Mr. Garry is pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Watertown.
