Straighten Up — Writing My World

It was the last day of our mini reunion in Greenville. Gale, Susan, Betsy and I have known each other since our days at Furman University and beyond. We’d spent the first day marveling at the changes on Furman’s campus and downtown Greenville. Now Gale wanted to visit “Pretty Place,” formally known as the Fred W. Symme’s Chapel at Camp Greenville. Gale & Susan remembered attending a wedding there too many years ago to count. They assured us that it would be worth the drive and a lovely place to conclude our visit.

What struck me first was the quiet. Just a few people were scattered about sitting in the pews, but no one was talking. They were just taking in the space and the scene before them. The cross took center stage of course, but it was the view that stilled me.

As I sat pondering the view, Betsy took a photo of me. She emailed it to me once I was home. It was a sweet reminder of our visit and the hush that seeped into all of us that day. Yet, as I looked closely at the photo, I noted my stooped shoulders and wondered what drew them into such a slump? Surely I bore no heavy worries that day. I wonder now if they are permanently slumped in despair?

Honestly, I have always been self conscious about my posture perhaps from my years of ballet and now yoga. Even as I type this I am reminded to unfold my spine and feel the invisible yogic string pull my head upward. I do so knowing that I can never straighten myself completely as my spine swerves with scoliosis. Yet, even my curved spine does not explain the sad slope of my shoulders that day.

I suppose I carry my worries in my posture. Too often I feel beaten into submission by the dire climate news, the feisty political discourse, wars, gun violence, and our inability to work together for solutions. Mostly, I worry that we are offering my grandchildren a world that is an unfixable mess. A world that is forever changed from the one I grew up in.

So how does one “un-stoop” their weary shoulders and find hope these days? I often find it in the words of others. Recently, I read a lovely sermon by Nadia Bolz-Weber. In the sermon, she references Luke 13:10-16. Jesus is teaching on the Sabbath and sees a woman who for 18 years was “badly stooped.” He lays hands on her and immediately she stands up straight. Of course, Jesus gets in trouble with the rule-followers once again, but that is not what Bolz-Weber asks us to see. It is the un-stooped woman.

“She stands up straight, her shoulders back, her chin raised, her eyes available to give and receive light and love and recognition. She stands among them with the full dignity afforded her by her creator.”

I wonder now if that isn’t what Betsy’s picture is reminding me to do as well? Can I pull myself straight so that I, too, can give and receive His “light and love and recognition.” Can I trust in the words of Jesus who hung from a cross like the one above my head and carry on? Can I love as abundantly as He asks me to do? Can I find that same love in others…even those I disagree with? Can I walk shoulders back with the hope He offers? Finally, can I give more than I take and find hope in what I already have?

When my sisters and I were feisty, irritable teenagers, my Dad used tell us to “Straighten up and fly right!” He was an aeronautical engineer, but the metaphor was often lost on me as a teen. Yet, now so often I hear him telling me that everything will be ok. So perhaps it is time to once again follow his advice and “straighten up” so that I can “fly right.”