Midweek Musings: October 14, 2021

Dear Friend,

I was dropping Hannah off at daycare this morning, which requires yielding at multiple crosswalks and it got me thinking about the different state laws that exist around right of way.

I’ve now lived in seven states and each has had its own laws with regard to who has the right of way where with regard to pedestrians and drivers. This was brought home to me when we lived in Ashland, OR where pedestrians (and wildlife, though perhaps this was more custom than law) had the right of way wherever they were. There were crosswalks, but if a pedestrian decided to cross in the middle of the road, cars had to yield. That isn’t true in all states. Many states’ laws require drivers to yield only if the pedestrian is in a crosswalk or on their half of the road. Otherwise, it is the pedestrian who must yield.

There were folks in Oregon who thought the law yielding right of way to pedestrians was absurd. To them, it made no sense that pedestrians could walk across the road wherever and whenever they wanted and cars would have to stop. I’ll admit that it did, many times, cause a traffic backup in the downtown area; and, as a pedestrian, I always tried to cross at crosswalks.

But I was thinking this morning, as I was yielding, that I prefer laws that give the right of way to the weakest person involved. I can see how giving cars right of way makes things more efficient, but I wonder if it would change anything in our communities if the default was always to yield right of way to the weakest person involved, even if that was inconvenient, and even if they did take advantage of it unnecessarily from time to time.

What do you think?

Pastor Sarah

something Worth reading

The Sounds of My Mother’s Typewriter

by Stephanie Paulsell

Harvard Divinity School professor, Stephanie Paulsell reflects on what she learned from listening to her mother get up early every morning to type. It’s not long and is worth reading in its entirety, but here’s one of my favorite sections:

“Those bursts of sound and ribbons of silence were the sounds of my mother thinking, creating. They were the sounds of her experimentation with words and her commitment to making room in her life for the creative work she loved. They were the sounds of her showing up, day after day, so that she would be there when something unexpected broke through. They were the sounds of faithfulness, the sounds of devotion.”

(keep reading)

something worth hearing

Pink Panther Theme

Božo Paradžik & students

This short 2-minute song is quite enjoyable (assuming you like the Pink Panther Theme Song!).

something worth watching

The Prayer Before The Prayer

This is a lovely prayer about wanting to want to be able to forgive. I’ve included the words below in “Something Worth Praying,” but the video is a lovely collection of people offering parts of the prayer that is worth watching.

something worth praying

The Prayer before the Prayer

by Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu

I want to be willing to let go, to forgive.
But dare not ask for the will to forgive,
in case you give it to me
And I am not yet ready.
I am not yet ready for my heart to soften.
I am not yet ready to be vulnerable again.
Not yet ready to see that there is humanity in my tormentor’s eyes
Or that the one who hurt me may also have cried
I am not yet ready for the journey.
I am not yet interested in the path
I am at the prayer before the prayer of forgiveness
Grant me the will to want to forgive.
Grant it to me not yet but soon
Can I even form the words?
Forgive me? Dare I event look?
Do I dare to see the hurt I have caused:
I can glimpse all the shattered pieces of that fragile thing
That soul trying to rise on the broken wings of hope
But only out of the corner of my eye.
I am afraid of it.
And if I am afraid to see
How can I not be afraid to say: Forgive me?
Is there a place where we can meet?
You and me
The place in the middle where we straddle the lines
Where you are right and I am right too.
And both of us are wrong and wronged
Can we meet there?
And look for the place where the path begins
The path that ends when we forgive.

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