Category: Holidays & Happenings - trish hermanson

'Trash Doesn't Lie' but Reveals All

2/1/2021

As we enter Black History month, I recall discovering this pottery shard when Duane and I explored the ruins of a sugar plantation on St. Croix Island in the Caribbean. With the push of a shovel, this piece of history rose to the surface.
     Notice the finely tailored people on this fragment from a dish? They are like the Danish family that once lifted silverware to eat from this plate. But if anything broke, their slaves buried it along with other garbage at the edge of the plantation.
     “Trash doesn’t lie,” archaeologist Michael Prouty says. This particular piece reveals a time when there were ten slaves per each white person on St. Croix. These slaves rebelled in 1848 and gained their freedom, while some American whites still maintained their “Gone with the Wind” fantasy of plantations run by “happy” slaves.
We’re more evolved and enlightened now, right? Maybe not. Racism still unearths its ugly head when new fringe groups embrace white supremacy. When anti-Semitics terrorize Jewish neighborhoods. And when some folks label all refugee seekers, including women and children, as crooks. I don’t embrace these beliefs. Yet sometimes to elevate myself, in my mind I subtly put down others who differ from me. Isn’t that the essence of racism?
     Evolution and enlightenment haven’t worked. You’d almost think we have the shards of a broken nature to deal with.

Am I Willing to Speak Up?

1/18/2021

Am I willing to speak up about things that matter? About lies that lead people into conspiracy theories that can lead to anger and sometimes violence?
     But how should I speak up?
      “Time is cluttered with the wreckage of communities which surrendered to hatred and violence,” Martin Luther King Jr. said. “For the salvation of our nation and the salvation of mankind, we must follow another way.”
     King resisted the temptation to fan the flames of anger with more inflammatory language. Instead, he combined truth with love. Am I willing to speak up that way?
  That’s a lot harder.

Beware of the Blind Curve Ahead....

1/1/2021

When I saw this sign along the trail, I realized what good advice this is for me for the New Year. After all, who imagined what would race toward me around the blind curves of this past year? It was pandemic, street pandemonium, and political tirades.
     I can’t predict what’s around the next corner in my life. None of us can. But when it veers toward me, I can choose to “keep right.” I’m not talking politics here. I’m saying I can choose to speak and do what’s right.
     Otherwise, I might get in a wreck.
     We’ve survived the Year of 2020. Now, even as disease and discord still foment around us, let’s do more than survive. Let’s thrive by being redemptive forces in 2021.
     I appreciate all of you! Here’s my toast to you through Regina Spektor’s gentle song welcoming the New Year.

What Ripped You Apart This Year?

12/28/2020

What ripped you apart this year?
     The loss of a loved one to COVID? The loss of a job? The loss of a political candidate?
     We’ve all been ripped apart one way or another. But during these days in which we continue to be pulled apart by political mud slinging, let’s remember our commonality.
     Whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, a Libertarian, or refuse to associate with any of the above, and whether you’re red, brown, yellow, black, or white, we share this beautiful spinning ball called Earth.
     Together, what lessons can we take from this horrific year?
     That the world can be brought to its knees in a flash.
     That my life and livelihood can be torn away.
     That we desperately need each other.
     And I’ll add, that problems aren’t solved by either the left or the right, but by reaching up to God.
     I want to keep these lessons in mind so I’ll retain 2020 vision in 2021. Otherwise, I’ll suffer from the nearsightedness of forgetfulness.
     As we enter this New Year, let’s virtually hold hands at a safe social distance and discover how we can mend what has been ripped apart. This song by Peter Mayer, recorded in pre-pandemic days when life was cheerier, still speaks to me about our shared future.
     What are your lessons from the year?
     ***    Lego artwork by Nathan Sawaya.

God is Wild!

12/21/2020

God is wild. He made sex, after all. And he’s smart; he could have made lips into bones, but he knew better.
     Do I have your attention yet?
     God is lavish, too, with a crazy sense of humor. He delights in animals as bright as macaws and as dull as slugs. As tall as giraffes and as small as bugs. He made people tall and small, too. But then came the fall - a cosmic fracturing of relationships, ecology, everything.
     However, God wouldn’t let his world stay permanently ruptured. Like the hero in any great story, he entered the mess to fix it. Not as a super hero, though. He sneaked in as a baby, disguised by wearing skin like us. He grew up and pointed to lilies in the field and birds in the air and said we are more valuable than these. Worth dying for even, which is what he did to mend the brokenness from the fall. Then wham, he conquered death!
     Mysteries are wrapped in mysteries here that go beyond my comprehension. But this I know: God is so wild he entered into his creation to shout out his passionate love.
Now that’s worth a “Hallelujah Chorus” or two.