Ebony's Pearls

Pepper and Itzl
Originally uploaded by nodigio.

Yanno, I've posted about proper apologies several times here over the past couple of years, and it looks like I may have to take it to a larger, more public and vocal venue than this little virtually unknown LJ. It genuinely seems as if people have forgotten how to apologize.

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Maybe I will start offering classes on making apologies. Someone's got to do it and no one else seems to be stepping up to the plate.

I organized a small blessing on our capitol steps. We shared space with a Christian group. They had huge speakers set up, a podium, flags flying, a banner, and 400-500 chairs set up for the deluge of people they expected to show up. They had a slightly higher attendance than last year (probably because it only threatened to rain this year instead of actually raining) - about 20 people showed up for them. A few reporters and a photographer came, looked at the empty chairs and left. It's possible they had a higher attendance later in the day, and reporters returned for that.

We were there for an hour to do our part and left to either return to work or go to the picnic.

We didn't have any speakers, or a podium or any chairs set up. No banners or flags. But we had nearly 60 people in our group.

This was our agenda:
10:30 a.m. - gather on the eastern side of the south steps
10:35 - Sing "We all come" to cover for late arrivals
10:45 a.m. - brief explanation of why we are gathered, what NDP is, who gets to participate and what we plan to do
11:00 a.m. - We join hands to offer our blessing on the state and the country (led by Donna)
11:05 a.m. - we take the bottle of water we brought for that purpose and pass it around, each person in attendance gets to offer their own brief blessing aloud or silently before passing it to the next person
11:30 a.m. - we take the water and pour it on the plants near the steps
11:35 a.m. - we gather for one last farewell song (our national anthem) and depart either to the picnic or back to work
11:45 a.m. - those who are picnicking gather in the park to eat and talk more about the day

I was back at work by 12:30.

We invited the Christians who were there to join us, and they declined. They did not reciprocate and invite us to join them.

We're repeating next year - already put in a request for space on the capitol steps.