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The SUn rises Anyway

11/13/2020

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The sun rose this morning. 
Anyway.
Despite.

The sun doesn’t decide to rise 
based on my rising to greet it 
or whether fires burn wild and far 
or how many new cases of COVID 
or how much hatred 
or fear
or something 
I don’t understand and can’t name
causes people to 
put children in cages and
cut down thousand-year-old redwoods
and eliminate 
basic 
human 
rights 
of people they don’t 
recognize as their own.

The sun doesn’t ask,
“Is your heart broken?
Can you endure 
another day?”

It just shines.
The earth turns
and the sun returns.

And in the sun’s influence, 
morning glories open bright purple faces,
birds sing in all their bird languages,
rosebuds open and offer their scent,
lizards emerge and commence push-ups,
honeybees buzz and deliver pollen,
dogs wrestle, romp, and retrieve, 
all the green things grow 
and make fruit and seed, 
people get busy with 
all their busy people tasks,
including small and 
extraordinary acts of 
kindness, compassion, 
and courage,
and I write to you.

Melanie Phoenix
melaniejaya@gmail.com

I imagine somewhere 
elk and buffalo graze in great herds 
and wild horses run free,
humpback whales breach and
dolphins race in endless pods 
across oceans teeming with
fish and octopus, 
vast forests of kelp and coral, 
and strange, deep sea creatures 
no human has ever seen.
And many people 
shower other people 
with love.

The sun beams its sunness,
its prime directive to allow 
it all, whatever happens 
on the planets it warms,
while humans make choices 
about how to be 
and what to do with it all. 

How will we stay 
awake and aware
and what will we do
with our despair, with 
our grieving, broken hearts,
our compassion, courage, 
and joy, and our fierce, 
unlimited love, 
while the sun watches 
and the earth keeps turning?


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November 2020 Highlights

11/13/2020

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A year ago, I had just spent time with Joy Ibsen and Don Lenef to learn the ropes of editing Church and Life. Since then, I have experienced the pleasure of becoming familiar with an interesting assortment of people, just as Joy predicted. 

Vera Rahbæk, the artist of the cover artwork, is part of an artist community in the Stevns region of Eastern Zealand (https://aabneatelierdoere.dk) and is the partner of Uffe Jonas, who has published and performed works related to Grundtvig’s hymns.

The opening poem “The Sun Rises Anyway” and the accompanying photo are by Melanie Phoenix, the daughter of Rev. W. Clayton Nielsen who died earlier this year. The song “A Rainy Day in November” bears a similar message of looking to nature to lift our spirits. Its inclusion in this issue is a nod to Johanne Hansen, whose life also ended this year. In the folder that Joy had given me of miscellaneous content from which I might draw, I found a note from Johanne to include one of Fylla Kildegaard’s song translations.

Erik Hansen’s introductory remarks and “Notes of a Parish Sexton” about his brief stint as the bellringer at Danebod opened this year’s Virtual Danebod Folk Meeting, Actually, he followed.an introductory video tour of the campus, which included reenactments of dancing, coffee time, etc. and ended with the tolling of the church bell, a fitting lead-in to his presentation. The Christmas issue will contain the remaining part of his “Notes."

Shifting from this light mood to heavier theologizing, Gene Marshall highlights equanimity and compassion as marks of good religion in “The Role of Religion in Human Affairs.” As a founder of the Realistic Living nonprofit organization (www.realisticliving.org), he has authored several works to bring about a new Christian language and practice. His latest book is The Thinking Christian: Twenty-Three Pathways of Awareness. 

In “Three Encounters with Jacob Riis,” Thomas Blom Chittick describes the various times he has come across Riis, a Danish American whose compassion drove his life’s work. In a previous article this year, Hanna Broadbridge shared that Danes are developing an interest in Riis and in this issue, she shares in “Identity and Community Spirit” how Danes are attending to issues of social welfare and belonging for people of various ethnic backgrounds. She concludes by emphasizing that our identity as global citizens should move us to embrace and promote the seventeen United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. 

In a memorial tribute to Riemert Thorolf Ravenholt, we learn how he worked toward the goal of ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services. He was also a tremendous supporter of many Danish American institutions.

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November 2020 COVER

11/13/2020

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    Joy Isben

    Editor Information

    ​Bridget Lois Jensen
    1920 W. Clay
    Houston, TX 77019
    713-417-2056

    bridget.jensen2@gmail.com​

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