Yesterday those of us at Tom's home meeting had a very intense Meeting for Worship. We we crammed as some who had not attended for a while were present. Both Andrew and Kassie, Tom's two children, joined us along with their mother who is a member of another nearby Meeting. The messages shared were intense, and also healing.
In this brief diary today I want to talk about the ovewhelming number of emails our community has received, some of the content of yesterday's messages, and then offer something Tom wrote about dying.
We have a list serv at our Meeting for worship. It has been inundated with message of codolences and support for what Tom did. It is not unexpected that we have received messages sent officially n behalf of other Quaker Meetings, nor that many individual Friends from around the world have contacted us. Our Clerk and the others who have received such messages have passed them on. I have seen messages from the UK, from all over the US and Canada, from places as far away as New Zealand and South Africa. I cannot remember all of the messages.
We have also received emails from individuals who in some cases search out our Meeting's webpage or the page provided by Baltimore Yearly Meeting (go Here). Often they express the personal sense of loss they feel even though they never knew Tom nor are they Quakers.
In Meeting for Worship we heard about the pain and loss people felt. That was expected. We also heard about how what he did was moving people to action, to examining wht they were doing, and how they were living.
When people rise to speak, we call the contents of what they say a "message." There was a message about how Tom did not view himself as extraordinary, but that what he did was to simply follow the tested leadings he had to do peace work. This message pointed out that to view Tom as a saint was to ignore the challenge he represented, that ordinary people doing what is right can make a difference.
During discussion while visitors and those long absent were introducing themselves, we also heard about the number of contacts people were hving not just through the Meetings webpage and listserv, but as individuals, as I have done in blogs and on other listservs. Someone posited that this represented what we Quaker call "way opening." In this case, that means that we may now, as a result of Tom's death and the response to it, have an opportunity to make a major difference in how this nation and its leaders are acting with respect to Iraq and all related issues. I do not know if Way is truly Open, but I do sense an opportunity, which is why, for example, I continue to post here on this subject.
Many who have been moved by Tom have wanted to know more. One place many ahve found is his blog, Waiting in the Light, the title of which is of course a Quaker expression. If you have not already done so, I do encourage you to go and read there what Tom has written.
I will close with Tom's words on death. These were posted to our listserv yesterday by our former Clerk, who with Tom participated in an informal journal at the Meeting. As you will see, these words predate by almost a decade Tom's pilgrimage to help the Iraqi people. it will show that he was thinking deeply for an extended period of time.
In the spring of 1993 Tom wrote a piece for Inside/Out, our small and irregular publication of a few Langley Hill friends. It follows:
"DIE, dying -- 1. to cease to live, to expire, to perish
9. in architecture, to disappear or be merged into another part
"Of all the many illusions we cling to in this life none is more
powerful than the illusion of death. In fact it can be said that our goals in life are controlled by the realization we reach at about age
four or five that we will die. Our exhausting struggle to accumulate
material resources, our ceaseless scurrying about trying to cram as many experiences as possible into each day, our need to be 'in the know' so that we can imagine that we are in control of our lives, these are all generated by the illusion of death.
"Yet nothing could be further from reality. In reality the atoms that comprise our bodies do not cease to exist when 'I' die (nor did
they spring into existence at conception). They have existed and will continue to exist throughout this incarnation of the universe.
'I' may have an atom of calcium in our body that was in the bone of dinosaur. When 'I' cease to live the 75% of us that is water will not cease, rather it will continue on. Perhaps a water droplet from our body will evaporate and join the water chain and eventually give nourishment to a tree or flower. Yet more importantly, the spiritual energy within us does not cease its journey any more than does the material energy. That little spark of Divine Energy that was struck in us at conception, that tiny bit of God Within us that powers our existence does not die when 'I' do any more than the atom of oxygen does. In fact, our death is necessary for it to be reunited with the One; the Creative Source of the Universe. Only in the dematerialization of the 'I' can it be sent out again (as it has been since the beginning) to power another one of God's creatures.
"But if this be the case, why do we fear death? It is because 'I' realize that we are utterly unique. For all the fifteen billion years that this version of the Universe has existed and for all the thirty or so billion years yet to go in this incarnation, there has not been, nor will there ever be, a creature exactly like us; even if it is only tohhave one more hair on its head.
"Beyond the illusion lies the paradox. 'I' am completely unique, yet in the vast reaches of the Universe with the thousands of planets that support life, each containing life forms beyond counting, 'I' am nothing, 'I' am totally insignificant. Though the material and spiritual energy that constitutes the 'I' is not even a lip on the continuum of Eternity, it is all 'I' have.
"Only by following the teaching of the Sioux that 'every day is a
good day to die' will 'I' truly live. Only by being ready to let go of the Divine Spark at any moment can 'I' truly live in the present moment. Only through death can the living 'I' be reunited with our Creator. Only through death can 'I' be reborn."