Friday, November 7 — “The good traveler cares for weary companions, grieves when we lose heart, takes us where she finds us, listens to us.”
Today I’ll be more brief than usual. Bankruptcy Judge Stephen Rhodes should announce his decision about the come-out-of-bankruptcy plan early this afternoon. I expect it will continue the rolling wave of good news that promises the city a fresh start. The two articles I’m linking here both call their readers’ attention to the amazing array of human beings who chose to risk working together and appear to have pulled off a major urban miracle in a time when very complex negotiations requiring give from all players are in short supply. All the key players took risks by getting into the game, without their conviction that Detroit matters, that its 700,000 citizens matter, that the crises have been real, this plan could not have happened.
I looked for a poem to say all this and settled on one of my heroes, Dom Helder Camera. Dom Helder was bishop of an extreme rich/poor corner in Northeastern Brazil (Recife) and a demanding prophet against the violence of too much wealth at the cost of too much poverty. Prophetic, and lyrical. I propose it as blessing prayer for Detroit today.
Sun is shining, a few hundred of my historian of technology friends are gathered just outside Detroit to listen to one another, Judge Rhodes will be talking to all of us. Amen.
Have a great weekend,
john sj
Today’s Post
It is possible to travel alone, but we know the journey is human life
and life needs company.
Companion is the one who eats the same bread.
The good traveler cares for weary companions, grieves when we lose heart,
takes us where she finds us, listens to us.
Intelligently, gently, above all lovingly, we encourage each other to go on
and recover our joy
On the journey.
Dom Helder Camera
