{"id":23201,"date":"2023-12-14T11:08:57","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T16:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=23201"},"modified":"2023-12-14T11:23:04","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T16:23:04","slug":"23201","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=23201","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Patrick Mayberry - &quot;Lead On Good Shepherd (feat. Zahriya Zachary)&quot; [Official Lyric Video]\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UAJ7rwJWHZE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Becoming Agents of Change<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Arab-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye recalls a transformative, unexpected occasion of generous acceptance:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal \u2026 I heard an announcement: \u201cIf anyone in the vicinity of Gate A-4 understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well\u2014one pauses these days. Gate A-4 was my own gate. I went there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An older woman in full traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly. \u201cHelp,\u201d said the flight service person. \u201cTalk to her.\u2026 We told her the flight was going to be late and she did this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I stooped to put my arm around the woman and spoke to her haltingly. \u201cShu-dow-a, Shu-bid-uck Habibti? Stani schway, Min fadlick, Shu-bit-se-wee?\u201d The minute she heard any words she knew, however poorly used, she stopped crying. She thought the flight had been cancelled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for major medical treatment.\u2026 I said, \u201cNo, we\u2019re fine, you\u2019ll get there, just later, who is picking you up? Let\u2019s call him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We called her son and I spoke with him in English. I told him I would stay with his mother \u2026 and would ride next to her.\u2026 She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and found out of course they had ten shared friends. Then I thought \u2026 why not call some Palestinian poets I know and let them chat with her? This all took up about two hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life, patting my knee, answering questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade&nbsp;<em>mamool<\/em>&nbsp;cookies\u2014little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts\u2014out of her bag\u2014and was offering them to all the women at the gate. To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the mom from California, the lovely woman from Laredo\u2014we were all covered with the same powdered sugar. And smiling. There is no better cookie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then the airline broke out free beverages \u2026 and two little girls from our flight ran around serving us all apple juice and they were covered with powdered sugar, too. And I noticed my new best friend\u2014by now we were holding hands\u2014had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing, with green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And <strong>I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, this is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in that gate\u2014once the crying of confusion stopped\u2014seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other\u00a0women, too. This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>==================<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&#8220;The best way to stay hopeful is to do hopeful things.<\/strong><strong>&#8220;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&#8211;&nbsp;<\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/clicks.aweber.com\/y\/ct\/?l=7brA&amp;m=iUN14BGoW90RJVk&amp;b=X0C8Y96C29r2u1DsRnxTiQ\"><strong>Daniel Berrigan, Jesuit Priest, Poet, and Activist<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This past week I revisited a book called&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/clicks.aweber.com\/y\/ct\/?l=7brA&amp;m=iUN14BGoW90RJVk&amp;b=fsXvZCD1x0GQOAK42d3e6Q\">Daniel Berrigan: Essential Writings<\/a>. &nbsp;It is marvelous. &nbsp;I have not finished it yet, but his poetry and prose have claimed my imagination. &nbsp;Over the years, I have come into contact with people who knew him personally and said that he was the real deal. &nbsp;He fought against the Vietnam War, mopped hospital floors on his days off, protested, prayed, wrote poetry, and so much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In many ways, he was one of the best examples of what a Christian could look like in the modern age.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He was also known for saying, &#8220;<strong>If you follow Jesus, you better look good on wood!&#8221;<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;By this, he was referencing that if you follow Jesus, you better expect to be crucified for it. &nbsp;Dan seemed willing to take his joke seriously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Becoming Agents of Change Arab-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye recalls a transformative, unexpected occasion of generous acceptance: Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal \u2026 I heard an announcement: \u201cIf anyone in the vicinity of Gate A-4 understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately.\u201d Well\u2014one pauses these days. Gate A-4 was my own gate. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23201"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23201"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23205,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23201\/revisions\/23205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}