There’s an old Buddhist story about a young monk (about your age) becoming enlightened while visiting a wise old teacher. During the visit, the teacher was holding a bag of dirty laundry. The young monk suddenly understood the nature of his own mind, the nature of the universe. All was radiant, beautiful, in creative flux. And he was part of it. He looked at his master, awe-struck, grateful, and asked: Now what? The teacher handed him the dirty laundry. You know where I’m going with this. Soon the troubling presidential election will be over. Hopefully, all will go lawfully. And we will heave a sigh of relief. And feel gratitude – like the young monk – for seeing that we are part of a system that works, where we can place our trust in one another. And now comes the hard work: the laundry. The mess of stories and beliefs that separate us from one another. How will we listen to the voices of the disenfranchised? How will we listen for shared needs and create a shared process for moving forward? How might our congregation participate in that listening project, cleaning up the dirty laundry of this electoral process, of the accumulating inequities?
