Hang in There, World

 This past weekend, I returned to Lawrence, KS. It was my Sunday off, and I was glad to be able to celebrate the 60^th birthday of my sister, Lori. I pulled up stakes from outside of Lexington, KY where Rubi, Wham! and I had camped the past couple of nights and drove back to Kansas, where this trip began.

I had preached on November 1 from the Eldridge Hotel in Lawrence. It had been a stronghold of the Free State movement when Lawrence had been settled in 1854 by a band of anti-slavery folks determined to halt the evil stain of slavery from spreading to their territory from their neighbor to the east, Missouri, which was a pro-slavery state.

It had not been easy; that period in the history of Kansas was known as bloody Kansas, a min Civil War fought long before the one that would shake our nation to its core. On that Sunday, November 1, I preached from the lobby of the Eldridge Hotel, which had been burned down by pro-slavery forces less than a year after it was built. The owner, Colonel Eldridge, vowed to rebuild it and add a story to it every time it was burned down.

I spoke then of how our nation was in a similar battle as the settlers of Lawrence, and indeed of the whole state of Kansas had been then: a battle for the soul of our nation. I spoke not knowing what the election would determine that Tuesday.

Of course, it turned out to be a much longer wait than Tuesday for the results to be known. Yet, it seems as if reason, inclusion, unity has prevailed, though not with a mandate. A record number of citizens voted in this past election, meaning a record number of people cast their vote for the Biden-Harris ticket, and a record number of people cast their vote for the Trump-Pence regime.

It was with great joy I preached the following Sunday, November 8, from the Black Lives Matter Plaza, just outside the White House. Before the election, unscalable walls had been erected around the White House but as I mentioned in my sermon on that Sunday, you cannot put unscalable walls around justice; justice belongs to the people.

What a jubilant day that was!
Still, along with the heartening news that a majority of the voters of this nation had voted for inclusion, diversity, our planet, came more unsettling news about the pandemic this current regime has done nothing to halt.

When the COVID-19 pandemic reached these shores, the Trump administration did nothing to halt it, offered no scientific or medical intervention, left the states to muddle through on their own. It took 100 days for the number of cases in the United States to reach one million. In just the past week, we went from 10 million to 11 million. Cases are surging around the nation, as medical experts feared, and this regime ignored.

In our own state, cases are have risen in alarming numbers and Governor Polis, while stopping short of issuing another mandatory shelter in place, is urging Coloradans to stay put in November, to not travel for the holidays. California and Texas, both places next on my itinerary, have reached their own deadly hallmark of having more than a million cases in their states. California has issued travel quarantines; Texas has not.

In this midst of this, and in midst of my ambitious itinerary for my Car Camino, I made the difficult decision to cut my travel short. It seems irresponsible for me to continue my travels amid such growing numbers and against the directions of my own governor.

So, I arrived home yesterday and plan to stay put through at least the middle of December, if not the first of the year. I can do all the rationalizing I want about how I’m traveling alone and am being careful, but the reality is that I also do interact with people on my trips: family, friends, colleagues, strangers. I cannot in good conscience continue my Car Camino while the COVID numbers surge.

I do plan to hit the open road again, hopefully after the first of the year, hopefully as cases decline. I will need to carefully strategize how I interact with others and what risk reduction measures I am taking to be safe, myself, and to keep others safe.

I am saddened by this decision but feel it is in the best interests of public health and safety, as well as my own. We share a common world; the desires of an individual should never take priority over the safety of us all.

Again, as soon as its safer for me to take All Souls on the road, I will, even as I fervently hope and look to the day when we can all gather safely, joyously together in our own dear corner of the world at 730 N Tejon St.