I want to pause a moment this week to share my thoughts about the upcoming week. I know that we, as residents of the District of Columbia, represent a wide cross section of faiths and beliefs. That’s part of what makes us a great community. Today, in the Western Christian tradition, happens to be Palm Sunday, the first day of what Christians refer to as “Holy Week.” Holy Week symbolizes the progression that we all go through as a society, and as individuals of whatever faith tradition, from triumph to tragedy to transformation. We go through it with regard to health issues like the lingering Covid-19 pandemic. We go through it with surges and recessions of violent crime. We go through it with peaks and valleys as to our successes and failures when it comes to education, employment and accessibility to affordable housing here in DC.
Just this past week, for example, we saw the historic vote of the U.S. Senate to affirm the appointment of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to become the first black woman to serve on the U. S. Supreme Court and then, days later, we learned that the former quarterback of Washington’s NFL franchise, Dwayne Haskins, who grew up here in the DC metropolitan area, was tragically struck by a car and killed on a highway in Florida. A few weeks ago, I quoted a line from the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling. I will quote another here: “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same.” My message this week is that we should celebrate our triumphs and hold faith through our tragedies that, as Annie sang, “the sun will come out tomorrow.” I truly believe that no matter how difficult times may be right now, tomorrow, if we put our hearts and minds to it, will be a better day. So take time out to share a kind word of encouragement with someone who needs it today. Tomorrow, you may be in need of some random act of kindness yourself.
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