{"id":1153,"date":"2015-01-26T00:00:30","date_gmt":"2015-01-26T05:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=1153"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:49:52","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:49:52","slug":"jan-26-revolutionary-love-remembering-gary-and-suzanne-lichtman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2015\/01\/26\/jan-26-revolutionary-love-remembering-gary-and-suzanne-lichtman\/","title":{"rendered":"Jan 26 – Revolutionary Love – Remembering Gary and Suzanne Lichtman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday January 26 \u00a0\u2014 “That our love for each other, if need be, \u00a0give way to absence.\u00a0 And the unknown.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I missed the funeral mass for Suzanne yesterday; \u00a0some airport traffic and then lots of center city traffic for the last day of Detroit\u2019s North American International Auto Show; \u00a0102,978 people jammed their way into the dazzling re-newed Cobo Convention Center. \u00a0 All those people this week set a 12 year attendance record and, in the process, clogged the streets so that when I pulled into the Ss. Peter and Paul parking lot, people were leaving for home. \u00a0 Not completely though. \u00a0Gary and his family were still in the middle aisle receiving condolences from a line of people so I could hug Gary and\u00a0visit a while about Suzanne\u2019s immense goodbye. \u00a050 years old; so young. \u00a0 She did not choose to leave their house but she is gone, cancer.<\/p>\n

One reason I made the line was that it was so long. \u00a0All kinds of people came to spend Sunday afternoon praying with Gary, Suzanne and their daughter Natalie Rose, people from across the university, people from the city, bearing witness to a great love.<\/p>\n

Denise Levertov\u2019s\u00a0\u201cPrayer for Revolutionary Love\u201d usually takes readers into the depths of their loves while both are alive, the discipline of living a love. \u00a0Re-reading it again this morning as an homage to Gary and Suzanne, tells me that\u00a0\u201cRevolutionary Love\u201d can also speak to the deepest goodbye of all.<\/p>\n

Blessings Gary. \u00a0Blessings Natalie Rose.<\/p>\n

Best to read the poem out loud, with pauses.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s post: \u00a0Denise Levertov<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prayer for Revolutionary Love<\/strong><\/p>\n

That a woman not ask a man to leave meaningful work to follow her
\nThat a man not ask a woman to leave meaningful work to follow him.
\nThat no one try to put Eros in bondage
\nBut that no one put a cudgel in the hands of Eros.
\nThat our loyalty to one another and our loyalty to our work
\nnot be set in false conflict.
\nThat our love for each other give us love for each other’s work
\nThat our love for each other’s work give us love for one another.
\nThat our love for each other’s work give us love for one another.
\nThat our love for each other give us love for each other’s work.
\nThat our love for each other, if need be,
\ngive way to absence.\u00a0 And the unknown.
\nThat we endure absence, if need be,
\nwithout losing our love for each other.
\nWithout closing our doors to the unknown.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Denise Levertov \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1923 – 1997<\/p>\n

\"Denise<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday January 26 \u00a0\u2014 “That our love for each other, if need be, \u00a0give way to absence.\u00a0 And the unknown.\u201d I missed the funeral mass for Suzanne yesterday; \u00a0some airport traffic and then lots of center city traffic for the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1154,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153\/revisions\/1154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}