Imagine
I recently discovered a person called Simon Barrow. He is a practical theologian, (ie. who thinks outside the traditional box and language) a commentator, a journalist, an adult educator and a trainer. So he is no slouch and I’m glad that he’s on the side of the ‘good guys’.
His work was passed onto me through a screen which can and does have some helpful things to offer, but like all technology, it can be abused and used for the degradation and harming of others.
As we complete the first month of this year Simon’s poem ‘Unwounding’ is brim full of hope and possibilities but it doesn’t pretend that all is glossy and gooey. Rather it teaches us that the wounds of the world and the wounds of others are the same as our wounds. The fears of others and our fears are pretty much the same and if we turned aside from the illusion that retribution and revenge will fix things… imagine what might happen. Imagine what could happen.
So the poem has a haunting echo of John Lennon’s song ‘Imagine’. I offer his superb piece of work for your thoughts and if you are that way inclined, your prayers. Whatever wounds and fears find us this year I hope that your/our ‘un-wounding’ may be victorious over the enemies of fear and retaliation.
‘Unwounding’ … by Simon Barrow
Imagine what would become possible
if we could but gaze on the wounds
of the other, and recognise in
them our fellow fractured
lives and likenesses?
Imagine what would become possible
if we could but see our petrified
enemies as lost and longing
kindred souls on a painful
path to siblinghood?
Imagine what would become possible
If we could but turn ourselves aside
from the vast and veiling
illusion that vengeance
ever rights wrong?