Tell Me a New Story

Imagine having this staring at you: Plastered on a huge rear tire on the car in front of you, a huge Tweetie Bird, hands on hips, looking right at you and… scowling!

Not too sweet – or “tweet” as Tweetie would say. He was definitely not about to utter his signature “I tought I thaw a puddy tat” but, instead, seemed to be challenging me – personally – with, “Are you going to do something about this mess or not?”

I’m trying; I’m trying, I wanted to retort. I’m trying to think of something new to say and then put word into action.

But what is our new story? What is our refreshed and refreshing new perspective, our insightful and inspired new description of a new understanding of our experience in our ever new and changing worlds? Thomas Berry, priest, monk, renowned ecologist, writer, and educator said: “With a story, people can endure catastrophe. And with a story they can gather their energies to change their lot.”

Is that the challenge Tweetie was demanding?  Is our problem in our Church, in our world, a missing coherent, compelling narrative to fit this day and this time? Thomas Berry certainly thinks so:

It’s all a question of story. We are in trouble just now because we do not have a good story. We are in between stories. The Old Story – the account of how the world came to be and how we fit into it – is not functioning properly, and we have not learned the New Story. The Old Story sustained us for a long period of time. It shaped our emotional attitudes, provided us with life purpose, energized action. It consecrated suffering, integrated knowledge, guided education. We awoke in the morning and knew where we were.

Now, it seems, we only know where we’re not. How do we move on from there?

Berry said to look for the stories, for the moments of revelatory grace, from the unfolding natural world and from Indigenous populations who reveal to us a sacred universe. I say look to those, yes, and to the stories we have not heard from women, from all marginalized genders and peoples, and let them listen to our stories from our unique experiences in the world today. Elevate these to the pulpit, the altar, the pew.

And here, from poet, Kaylin Haught, is an unusual and “heavenly” example of what might come through:

God Says Yes To Me

I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it even okay if I don’t paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I’m telling you is
Yes Yes Yes

Keep talking, I’d say. We’re listening…and, by the way, Thank You.