My Chicago Home

My Chicago Home
How can we best live as modern, active contemplatives where prairie meets city?

Friday, June 28, 2013

Finding friendship across the globe


Photo by Marianna Bartholomew

Bridging souls

Peace

Fragile
As gauze
Tossed
It hovers
Shimmers
Shades
India's Godavari River

Sturdy
As sailcloth
Woven by those
Determined
To keep it
Billowing
Propelling
Directing
Into headwind
Driving
Through currents
And waves
Untorn
In skilled hands
 
Andhra Pradesh, India
Peace

Multi-hued
As Joseph’s coat
Saffron and indigo
Of India
Ever-green
Red, white, blue
Of America
Scarlet as patriots’
And martyrs’ blood
Snowy as bridal veils
And baptismal gowns
Pure
With threads of gold
Embroidered
  
Peace
Peace--made up of threads of
every warp and weave

Layered
As tapestry
Interwoven
On one side, complex
Threads of every
Warp and weave
Knots
Unravelings
On the other, smooth
Fine
As infant hair

Peace

Fragile
Sturdy
Colorful
Complex
Smooth

Close
As a handshake
Friend’s embrace
Lover’s kiss

Essential
As air

By Marianna Robin Bartholomew
For V and ever-green peace


Being friends with a missionary priest in India motivates me to daily prayer for world peace as never before. When political or inter-religious tensions erupt in his state of Andhra Pradesh, I especially plead with heaven.

My friend lives across the Atlantic Ocean and two seas, off the Bay of Bengal. Before we met, I didn’t know this was the largest bay in the world.
My family's friend, Fr. Varghese.
Shown here visiting with
Sr. Mary Prema Pierick,

Superior General of the 
Missionaries of Charity of 
Calcutta.

Perspective. My friend offers this to my family and me daily. The world is so much larger than suburban America. Our videochats and online texts keep my husband, children and I on our toes, as we learn to communicate with someone so different and yet similar to ourselves.

Personally, I am led to astonishment at stories of the poor’s resilience and courage, awe at the workings of Providence, dismay at people’s misjudgments and cruelty regarding caste or religious discrimination, and deep laughter at ridiculous daily happenings that cross every cultural divide.

When Fr. V. tells me he killed a cobra in his bathroom or that his cow Gowry escaped, I shudder at the first and am thrilled when the cow is found in deep forest 10 kilometers away, before locals can carve her up for market. When 116.6-degree F. temps hit east central India and more than 100 people died of heatstroke, I prayed for cooling breezes across the continent. Last night, I learned landslides had killed 700 people in northern India. My sympathy is real, and that sense of mortality and immediacy is good for the soul.

I am convinced. Everyone could benefit by nurturing a friend across the globe.

Who is your friend? I’d love to hear stories. Perhaps you've welcomed an exchange student or are supporting a poor widow or schoolchild in Guatamala or Uganda. How much nicer the world would be if we could all bridge cultures in this way. Write letters. Safely connect through a trustworthy organization. But don’t deprive yourself of becoming important to someone across the world.

Peace? I am friends with someone in a “hot spot,” a region of grinding poverty and troubled peace. Oh…may friendship and love overcome every need and divide in this world!

Philippians 4:7 “Then the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

Father Varghese and I coauthor a blog that highlights his people and missions at Dalitjournal.blogspot.com. Drop on by!