On the 101st day of the venerable monks’ Walk for Peace from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., I was able to offer my blessing and receive theirs. They were walking up historic U.S. Route 1 not far from where we live in the Richmond, Va., area, and we joined the crowd waiting for them.
We were standing across Route 1 from St. Joseph’s Villa (longest serving nonprofit for children in the U.S., founded in 1834), where the monks stopped to rest. In our area, the monks also received hospitality from Kingsland Baptist Church, Fire Station 17, Virginia Union University and Randolph-Macon College.
Lynda Weaver-Williams
Although it was the warmest day we’d had in two weeks, there still was ice on many roads and walkways, temps in the 30s and a stiff wind was blowing, but folks were out. I saw lots of people not really dressed for a wait in the weather — a guy in shorts (there’s always a guy in shorts), a young woman in lace leggings and a light jacket, as if she hadn’t planned to come but did anyway, people in sneakers and no socks. There were babies in strollers and several people who brought their dogs.
As we waited, people did not seem impatient, just glad to have found a spot on the route. People were not pushing forward or elbowing to get to the front, in fact, they were trying to make sure others could get a view. And when the monks walked by, all of 23 seconds on our video, people were respectful, a bit awed and after, joyful. I didn’t hear anyone say they were disappointed because it all happened so fast.
It seems many of us are willing to go out of our way to bundle up, follow the Walk for Peace route and stand in the cold for who knows how long just to witness action that is mindful, intentional and dedicated to less conflict and anger.
Adam Serwer’s essay in The Atlantic, “Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong,” describes his visit to Minneapolis neighborhoods continuing to assist one another with food, security, transportation and protection. He says it is the bonds of these multi-racial/ethnic groups that demonstrate how neighbor love actually works in our country.
As I checked out the crowd around me waiting for the monks, we were our own multi-ethnic group — as many Black people as white, and about as many Asian and Hispanic folks. Although we were not there to protect each other or share food, I am guessing not many of us were there out of curiosity either. It was too hard to get there/be there for the novelty of it.
Many of us need what we sense from the monks’ effort and from the thousands of people who come out to bear witness to it. We want, as the monks suggest in their teaching, to focus on our breathing — breathing in peace, breathing out peace. We want to ground ourselves in our own heartbeat, but also in the heartbeat of God, connected to the suffering of the world and the traumas of our own neighborhoods and families. We do not want to look away. We want to be fully present and aware in this historical moment.
And if waiting with people we don’t know in the cold to watch 19 monks pass by helps us feel a bit more aware and connected, we’ll do it.
I am reminded of a familiar story in Buddhist teaching.
A Brahmin questioned the Buddha about his identity: “Are you an angel?”
“No,” he replied.
“Are you a god?”
Again, he replied, “No.”
“Are you a saint?”
Again, “No.”
“Then, what are you?”
The Buddha said, “I am awake.”
May it be so.
Lynda Weaver-Williams retired from VCU’s School of World Studies and lives with her family, including four grandchildren, in Glen Allen, Va.