Persistence

“Can we be like drops of water falling on the stone

Splashing, Breaking, Dispersing in air

Weaker than the stone by far but be aware

That as time goes by the rock will wear away.

And the water comes again…..”

                              By Meg Christian*

Persistent as drops of water.  That’s exactly what we are when we speak out and stand up for our rights. As living beings.  As women and people of color, disabled and able-bodied, LGBTQ and gender fluid.  Coming together as neighbors of differing races and faiths standing strong in our hope of a life-affirming future.

We can become like water.  We can boil with anger, surge with conviction and flood the restraints of denial with our determination.

Like drops of water, individuals merge when the call comes, rising up and connecting.  We take to the streets.  We write letters, make calls and show up at legislators’ offices.

A couple of weeks ago, discussing with a few friends how we might influence the direction the world, we riffed on the concept of Persistence.  Someone started talking about water.  What water chants did we know?  How might they fit in with our desire to be persistent?  Then we remembered the chorus to The Rock Will Wear Away (lyrics are above).

Quickly we put together a bowl of small rocks and a jug of water. O.K., so the rocks in the living room won’t actually wear away.  But believing in the power of metaphor, we visit it daily, singing the song and watering our rocks.

Perhaps our small actions ripple out into the larger world.  Perhaps through our persistence change can occur.

For me this is what it’s all about.  We hope to achieve a desired goal as a result of our actions.  But we don’t truly know our impact in the long run. 

Persistence.  That’s the key.

I tell an anecdote from Rebecca Solnit’s Hope in the Dark**.  She tells how Dr. Benjamin Spock (the famous 1950’s baby doctor) passed a small group of women picketing the JFK White House on a rainy day.  The women were protesting above ground nuclear testing that caused radioactive fallout in cow’s milk and breast milk.  Dr. Benjamin Spock had been uninformed about this issue before but he was so inspired by the womens’ determination he investigated.  About 6 months after seeing the women protesting he used his considerable influence to spark a movement that ended above ground nuclear testing. 

The women hadn’t known the impact of their actions.  But they kept showing up.  Even on that rainy day.  Sometimes we don’t know our impact either.  But we keep on keepin’ on.

We do what we do because we have to. Our words and actions answer to an inner calling that doesn’t let us off the hook.

It is a measure of our courage and value that we stand up and speak out.  It matters that we show up with our opinions.  It matters to us.  And it matters to our world. 

The rocks that stand in our way may appear to be formidable boulders.  But we are many and our persistence is unending.  In time, drop by precious drop; action by action, the water will wear the rocks away.

This is Natural Law.  It exists beyond the province of human kind. 

Water persists. 

And so must we.

* Listen to The Rock Will Wear Away by Meg Christian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUzukX2dWhg

** Recently Solnit recently offered a free on-line version of Hope in the Dark.  Check it out herehttp://www.peace-ed-campaign.org/free-ebook-rebecca-solnit-hope-dark-untold-histories-wild-possibilities/