Amidst Signs of Troubled Times (Part I)

Part I: Sunday Afternoon Agitation

*On the Steps of Trinity Church

So already, my plan had been to mark the third anniversary of my retirement with a very personal blog post. I'd imagined sharing my reflections about where I'd been, still was, was anew, and might be headed by January 30, the actual anniversary date. But several things inserted themselves between my writing intention and my writing action, all of them more important than my personal milestone. 

Drawing by Scott Ketcham

Some of those things involved family and important others who are navigating difficult moments of transition; others related to Donald Trump's first actions as president, specifically his executive order of a week ago that curtails--and downright prohibits in some instances--the movement of refugees, immigrants, and other travelers across American borders into the United States.

In the last ten days, I've spent a lot of time in both my private and public lives trying to figure out what happened before, what just happened, and what should be done next by me and by others. Never have I felt more keenly how much we're all part of multiple unfolding stories, whether individually we are at the fringes or the centers of them; never have I felt more surrounded by the intense, complicated, and conflicting emotions of so many.

So last Sunday, just when I had resigned myself to the fact that my anniversary blog post wasn't going to happen by my anniversary--not just for the reasons I mentioned above, but because I had tickets to a concert I'd been looking forward to for a long time--I received an email that changed things up again.

The email advised all of us planning to attend the Boston Camerata's Daniel: A Medieval Masterpiece Revisited to allot extra time for getting to Trinity Church, the performance venue, because a rally in protest of President Trump's latest executive order was happening adjacent to the church in Copley Square. I thought for a moment about not going to the concert: maybe this was a sign that I should stay home and write. Or maybe this was a sign that I should skip the concert and go to the rally instead. I was embarrassed not to have known about the rally until this moment: what had I been paying attention to instead? I didn't think about this for long, though. "You've been looking forward to this for months," my husband reminded me. "Let's go." So off we went.

**From The Boston Camerata's Facebook Page

In the photo to the right, you can see Trinity Church and Copley Square. Because Scott and I were briefly part of the crowd as we made our way toward the church, the crowd-counters probably included us when they made their estimates. But the truth of the matter is we weren't part of the rally, even though we supported it. Both of us felt somewhat uncomfortable and ashamed to be heading off to a concert while others protested. Wasn't the essence of privilege leaving the work of protest to others while rushing off to one's planned enjoyments?

The story I've begun here will unfold in the weeks to come. And so the fourth year of retirement begins amidst the turmoil of the times.
 
* Bedford, K. (Photographer). (2017, January 29). A group of protesters held up letters spelling out #NoMuslimBan in Copley Square [digital image]. Retrieved from http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/01/29/scenes-from-sunday-boston-protest-against-trump-immigration-order/hzyFlU1HDPElmiX04p8hSM/story.html?p1=Article_Related_Box_Article 
** The Boston Camerata (Photographer). Here's what it looked like outside [digital image]. Comment on Today at Trinity Church: As a history-making demonstration took place outside, an inspired "Daniel" was sung and played inside. Standing ovation for our wonderful performers. More stories and pictures to come soon! [Facebook status update]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/thebostoncamerata/photos/p.10155024021624048/10155024021624048/?type=3&theater.