Faith offers America the opportunity to heal ourselves and solve the problems we face
I was recently at the Tanglewood performing arts center in Lennox, Massachusetts, for a concert to see the famed rock and blues singer and songwriter Bonnie Raitt. I had never heard of the warm up act but when Lucinda Williams was announced, I noticed that she was being escorted out onto the stage.
She could not walk on her own and needed the support of a staff member to make sure she got safely to the microphone. Clearly she was impaired but I could only guess why? For the rest of the concert the veteran songwriter and performer of the blues Lucinda Williams stood up with dignity on stage in her black wardrobe. Even though she remained stationary during her performance, she still sang her heart out without a trace of disability.
This well-known star in country and blues circles sparked my curiosity. I turned to my cell and confirmed what I thought to be the reason for her appearing to be physically impaired as she was escorted across the stage. Back In November 2020, Ms. Williams suffered a stroke and she has been working her way back to the stage and the Grammy-winning career she has earned over the years.
Many of us who have either had strokes or cared for stroke patients know full well what a challenge it is to recuperate and often times what feels like clawing one’s way back to good health and functioning like the person he or she once was. Every person is different in their ability to heal, and the effects of a stroke upon the brain vary in degree and the damage that ensues in the aftermath of the stroke itself.
She inspired the audience that by the time she finished her performance the audience gave her a standing ovation. Despite her ongoing recovery and the inability to walk independently while she performed her music, the clarity of her voice and the passion behind her lyrics transcended her stroke. Her blues music reached my soul and clearly the rest of the audience that night.
I do not know her religious affiliation or anything about her faith tradition. She noted in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine about recovering from a stroke by saying, “What happens is your brain gets all … the wires get all crossed and you have to retrain your brain basically, to tell your arm to do whatever it is you’re trying to do,” Williams said. “So that’s the biggest challenge.”
My question is, can a community or even a nation have in a metaphorical sense a stroke where the mind of a nation can experience a disruption and an impairment in our ability to function properly?
Just think about all the risk factors in the environment that can trigger a stroke in a person. Are there environmental risk factors that can trigger a different kind of national stroke in our culture? Take into consideration our domestic issues from economics, politics and gun violence let alone foreign policy issues like the war in Ukraine and the clearly evident impact of climate change. Consider the outgrowth and explosion of extremism in our nation. Are we walking impaired? Is it possible that our wires our confused, too, like a stroke victim?
Do we need to claw our way back toward healing and retraining ourselves one limb at a time? Faith offers us the opportunity to find in our respective religious traditions the spirit to reach out to God. In other words, ‘pray as if everything depended upon God.’ But we know full well that religious teachings require us to take the responsibility to heal ourselves. ‘Act as if everything depended upon us.’
Like Ms. Williams, America’s voice is strong and our spirit is resilient. Yet, there seems to be an impediment that has hampered our ability to walk resolutely to solve our problems and to work together toward improving the outlook for our fellow Americans. Do we need a kind of physical therapy that will strengthen our capacity to find the pathway toward regaining that “can-do” attitude that has sustained us through the years?
The Psalmist said, “A Song of Ascents. Of David. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore” (Psalm 133:1-3).
Has our nation’s spiritual muscles atrophied, and is now the time to work every day to strengthen them so that we can find the common ground to walk together and the will to unify and heal a nation clearly divided against itself?
At the end of the day the singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams said in the Rolling Stone interview, “The main thing is I can still sing. I’m singing my ass off, so that hasn’t been affected,” Williams said. “Can’t keep me down for too long.”
Can we say the same thing for America?
Rabbi Brad L. Bloom serves Congregation Beth Yam. He attended the University of Wisconsin and lives on Hilton Head Island.
This story was originally published June 23, 2022 at 10:06 AM.