Walk the Walk: Day Nine - Gainesville to Alexandria, Virginia

Why did I think I could walk over 100 miles when one year ago, I couldn’t walk up the stairs without being winded?

The reasons: 1) I’ve had companions on the way to help me, encourage me, push me, and help care for me; and 2) our POWER leaders said they wanted someone on this pilgrimage. (It helped that one of the gifts of my sabbatical time was focusing on my health. But I still haven’t walked over a mile in years...)

I didn’t think I was the right person, and I’m probably not. But as someone inclined to the driver’s seat, and inclined to leading, I’ve been trying to practice “following.” So when Bishop Dwayne Royster, our Interim Executive Director at POWER, said he wanted someone on this walk and no one else was signing up for the full, nine-day pilgrimage, I agreed to go.

Today was the first day I was able to walk the full distance without jumping in the support vehicle to hydrate, stretch, or do first aid on my bandaged and battered feet. Just as we are about to finish this pilgrimage, I think my body is getting the hang of it.

Which is, really, just like life. And definitely like confronting racism and white supremacy in our lives - for those of us who are white.

I could not go the full distance on the first day. Fortunately, because you all, and my POWER colleagues were expecting me to actually DO this thing, I didn’t give up. (Although part of me wanted to.) This walk has been led by two super-tall white men, one of whom is a marathon runner and both of whom trained for this. They have been setting the pace. (I will save a reflection on that for another sermon.) I’m not nearly as fit as my comrades here. Several walked the 500-mile El Camino de Santiago in Spain, most trained, and almost all are younger than me.

I’m not great on my feet - either athletically, or in speaking extemporaneously. I was on WURD Radio last Friday to talk about this pilgrimage. It was our second day walking. I was exhausted and didn’t feel like I said what I wanted to say. But I was committed to showing up - as imperfect as it was. Because my brothers were counting on me.

This, I am learning over and over again, is the work. To show up. Believe it or not, you don’t have to be an athlete to be a pilgrim. Or an orator to give your testimony. As long as we journey with companions, we will learn, be supported, be pushed and pulled, and cared for on the way. And we will get stronger. And wiser.

As white folks learning to unravel and untangle the ways that white supremacy operates within us, we won’t get it right the first time. And that doesn’t mean we should quit. Because, as the feminist theologian Nelle Morton has said, “The journey itself is home.” This is the road.

I am grateful to be on it. To be accompanied. And to know that I will be back in Philadelphia tomorrow night, to continue this work in community - with you, in our church, with POWER, and in my own family. I will come home marked. It will take a while for my body to recover, and I have a podiatrist appointment on Monday. That’s part of what we do - summon the resources we need to do the work set before us.

We head into Washington, DC in the morning. Our 130 mile journey will end. And begin. We will take part in the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington. It is also the 65th anniversary of the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, who became the “George Floyd” of his day when his mother, Mamie Till Bradley, insisted that his casket be open at his funeral. The whole country saw, for the first time collectively, the impact of lynching and anti-black violence when it was published in newspapers and magazines across the country. Sixty-five years later and we are still watching videos of black bodies being murdered in broad daylight - the modern-day equivalent of lynching.

Thank you for being there for me, and for sharing this work and commitment in the ways that are right - and challenging - for you, our church, and the beautiful world that we all know is possible.

Blistered and blessed,

Linda

*I am participating in a nine-day, 140 mile walk from Charlottesville, Virginia to Washington, DC as part of the national “Walk the Walk” pilgrimage of white faith leaders to RECKON with the anti-Blackness that permeates our past and present as a nation and as faith institutions, RESOLVE to advance racial justice in our faith traditions and nation, and REFRAME the faith narrative in this nation. This is co-organized by Faith in Action, the national network of POWER Interfaith, of which our congregation is a part. More here at https://walkthewalk2020.us/