Saturday, February 27, 2010

A Poetry Prompt from Archbishop Tutu

Last night I went to hear Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak. He and the Dalai Lama are both in South Florida this week--what are the odds of that? The tickets to hear the Dalai Lama sold out quickly, but that was cool with me. I'd much rather see Desmond Tutu. To read more about what he said, go to my theology blog where I posted here. For a little trip down memory lane, back in the 80's when apartheid was one of the faces of evil on the planet, go to my theology blog posting from yesterday here.

Early in his talk, he said that an ancient prophet said, "Your name is engraved on the palms of God's hand."

Later in his talk, he said that God sees the evil in the world and waits for us to do something about it. He said, "You are God's hands."

I then wondered, if I am God's hands, and names are engraved on God's palms, what names are engraved on my palms. I thought, there's probably a poem in here somewhere. I thought you might like to play too.

4 comments:

Doreen McGettigan said...

Wow..That made me nervous..I am God's hand's..I am going to perform a couple of extra random acts of kindness tomorrow..I always try to do at least one a day.
I once heard that the names of your family members past, present and future are imprinted on your palms..I wish I remembered where I heard that..

Kristin Berkey-Abbott said...

Thanks for that idea of family members' names being imprinted on palms--I like it.

joanie said...

Did anyone share a poem they wrote from this prompt? I heard Tutu speak in April at a professional conference in Baltimore, and he brought me to tears. I wrote a few lines of verse about it, nothing too profound, but just felt I needed to mark the occasion for myself in some way. I'd be interested in reading what anyone wrote from this prompt. Might try it myself!

Kristin Berkey-Abbott said...

So far, no poems that anyone has shared. I still love the image, but no good poems yet.