Editors note: In today's newsletter, I talk about prayer, but use it in a largely metaphorical sense. I think I wrote it in such a way that makes room for non-theistic interpretations, and I hope you can find value in it even if you are a person for whom prayer isn't important. - HH
Hey y'all!
Two weeks ago, a 19-year-old man, heavily influenced by Christian Nationalist websites, burned the building in which Beth Israel synagogue here in Jackson had met for over 50 years.
I live in Jackson, Mississippi. We know immediately what it means when somebody burns down your place of worship. We have been here before. Beth Israel has been there before—it was firebombed in the 60s by the Klan. We know what this means.
So this past Friday, I and a couple dozen other clergy from other traditions and faiths worshipped with Beth Israel in their temporary quarters in a local Baptist church, as a means of showing support and solidarity with them.
As we went through the service, following the prayerbook from this prayer to that prayer, we came upon this one that punched me in the gut and stopped me in my tracks:
‘Standing on the parted shores of history,
We still believe what we were taught
Before ever we stood at Sinai:
That wherever we are, it is eternally Egypt
That there is a better place, a Promised Land:
That the winding way to that promise passes through the wilderness
That there is no way to get from here to there
Expect by joining hands, marching together.’
It's always Egypt. There is always a promised land to reach for. The only way there is through the wilderness, and the only way through the wilderness is together.
I took a picture of it with my cell phone, and when I got home, decided to look it up. It turns out it isn't a prayer – not really. It's actually the closing lines of Exodus and Revolution, a book by Michael Walzer.
I grew up in a tradition that did not trust written prayers. Prayer was a conversation with God, I was told, and so should be spontaneous. Later, I would be introduced to liturgical traditions, where there were prayerbooks full of written prayers. But the Reformed Prayerbook we used on Friday night took it even further, by using prose from a book as a prayer.
I love that. That we can take words not originally meant as a prayer and repurpose them, redirect them, and make them holy by our intention.
This is sort of what I was getting at when I spoke at the beginning of the year to a small group in Colorado about resilience, and I shared five pieces of writing that see me through. (You can see the slides with the passages here).
They are, in fact, a form of prayer. And now I've got another piece of writing to add to my personal prayerbook.
Do you have quotes or pieces of writing that center you, that are essentially prayers in your “personal prayer book"?
If you want, just hit reply and share them - right now, I need all the hope I can find.
Five Beautiful Things
This 5 minute short was a proof of concept made in 2020 for a potential Robin Williams biopic. Actor Jamie Costa plays Robin, and it’s uncanny how well he nailed it. The project didn’t go forward at the request of the Williams family, but they have said they are fine with this being up.
A beautiful poem by Irish poet Clodagh Beresford Dunne about the things we notice in grief: Seven Sugar Cubes.
Today I learned a word that perfectly describes all this waves hands - Polycrisis
The Correlation Experiment is an online game that, once you answer a few questions about preferences you have, will then go on to predict other preferences you have. No login required, but it still feels almost creepy how good this is.
This thread asking for $100 or less purchases that significantly changed your life is wholesome and helpful and, because it’s the internet, sometimes silly. Good stuff on here, though. 
