To be a Friend

The past 24 hours have been hard for the FGC Gathering community. First, early yesterday a young man fell while skateboarding, badly cracked his skull, and was flown to a hospital in Roanoke. 

That would have been enough, but then yesterday afternoon another member of the Gathering community - an elder and minister among Friends, a long time activist for peace and LGBTQ rights, a mother and grandmother - was killed in a bicycle accident on campus.

Nobody's died at Gathering in a long time. This is hard.  The shock and grief and shock is palpable everywhere, felt by the gathered body. 

Going into lunch today I noticed that people had started "cards" for Tom and his family and for Bonnie's family. As I thought about what I might write, I drifted along the big pieces of flip chart paper to the end of the table. There I encountered a third card, this time for the driver  of the dump truck, who's name we do not know, who struck and killed Bonnie. 

The three were out together, weighted together, equal, there for all to sign. There was clear recognition of the driver's pain too. 

This kind of inclusion and forgiveness, for lack of better words, seems obvious thinking about it, but it is something we rarely see in our adversarial culture. 

In that moment, I felt particularly proud to be a Friend.