Benediction
From the twenty-minute midwestern goodbye to that blessing at the end of the service, thoughts on sending each other on the way with a little extra something
I saw David Ramirez again this past week. He’s got some new songs out and you should see him if he comes to a club near you. I’ve written about this guy before.
As with his last show, he closed with what is maybe one of my Top 5 of all time. "Find the Light" is part godspeed, part encouragement, a little bit love song. Ending on this note feels like a blessing before reentering the world.
The benediction at the end of a church service was always my favorite part. Though I no longer attend regularly, I like that stretching out of hands, that lowering of head, to be sent forth to go in peace and do good things. Many churches, including the Catholic church in which I grew up, administers final blessings before leaving the building, and leaving this life altogether. Observant Jews pray benedictions daily. Muslims share the benediction as-Salam-u-'Alaikum, or ‘peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah’. Friends stand in the doorway after the ritual of the twenty-minute midwestern good-bye, wave, and send us forth to drive safe and have a good night.
Not a greeting, not a farewell, but a benediction. A boost from the spirit of one to another, to travel forward changed, energized. Spoken out loud, from the heart. Very analog. An element of magic.
The idea of benediction has stayed with me all week. Keep your eye out for them this week; it’s surprising how often they pop up. They happen in movies, for example. From “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while you might miss it” to “Have fun storming the castle!”
Activist Edward Abbey offered the one below. It’s pretty famous; you may have read it before. It’s from a speech he gave to environmentalists in Missoula, Montana, in 1976, the year of the bicentennial celebration of these United States. I’ve had it posted on our family refrigerator in every house we’ve lived in.
Consider it a benediction here, as I close out this post. Happy almost-weekend. I hope you can get out there and enjoy it.
One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out.
Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast … a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic.
Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here.
So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space.
Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive,
and I promise you this much;
I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies,
over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box,
and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators.
I promise you this;
You will outlive the bastards.
