Erin Wathen
  • Home
  • Home and Holler: The Blog
  • About
  • Where Y'all From? The Podcast
  • Speaker Requests
  • News and Publications
  • Contact

Home and Holler

A Prayer For the Most Hated Man

4/20/2021

2 Comments

 
Picture
Tonight I pray for the most hated man in America. 
Not that he be comforted. 
Not that he find peace. 
But that he might know a thing we call 
Transformation. 

Because if there might ever be a moment of 
“Dear God, what have I done,” 
If there might be a shock of horror
At glancing in the mirror,
A slight shudder of 
“Whose blood is this on my hands?” 
Then maybe there can be this thing that we sometimes call
Redemption. Atonement. 

Tonight I pray for the most hated man, 
But also 
For the ones who handed him a gun. 
For a nation that raised him to fear brown people, 
Grew him up to worship the idol of his own whiteness, 
And then handed him a gun again, saying
“Here, go protect us
From that one over there, 
With his hands pinned behind him.
Go shield us from that man, 
Calling out for his mother.”

Let there be a collective sigh tonight of
Lord hear our prayer
And what is it that we have done?
And may we someday fully account for
the number of souls,

Beloveds,
​Whose blood runs in rivers down city streets
In all this shining, sinful land. 
 
Tonight I will pray for the most hated man,
For all the terror that the bars won’t keep out, 
For all the rage that the walls hold in. 
I pray 
Not for his comfort.
Not for his peace.  
But that he might know a thing that we call 
Transformation-- even if we little know
What it means. 
​

And I pray that he might, 
For the rest of his captive days, 
Speak with reverence the name of the one
Whose breath he stopped 
On bended knee. 

2 Comments
Kathleen Yanni
4/21/2021 08:08:10 am

Hard to put into words the feelings this post evokes. Solemnity and peace. An impeccably peaceful way to describe the final bookend of the acts of two men at one moment in their lives where one had grace and the other was blinded by his ego.

Reply
Sandy Dobday
4/22/2021 09:33:23 am

I hate Trump more than Chauvin, but I pray that we will all be transformed in this country.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    March 2023
    July 2022
    June 2022
    November 2021
    August 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020

    Categories

    All
    Books
    Community
    Family
    Food
    Holidays
    Home
    Living Simply
    Parenting
    Podcast
    Quarantine Life
    Seasons
    Social Justice
    Spirituality
    Travel
    Wellness

    Sign Up For Emails
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Home and Holler: The Blog
  • About
  • Where Y'all From? The Podcast
  • Speaker Requests
  • News and Publications
  • Contact