Adapted from a non-religious invocation for University of North Florida Student Government Senate meeting, February 8, 2019
Good Afternoon. I’m honored that Student Government has invited the Interfaith Center to re-form our partnership in providing a moment and thought for reflection at the beginning of your Senate meetings. Soon, you’ll see students in this role, but for today, I’m glad to be with you.
The UNF Interfaith Center exists to bring students together, students of different of religions, students of no religion, students of diverse cultures and experiences. We seek to understand differences, to appreciate them even, and to seek our common ground too.
Both of these are crucial. To really know each other, for us to know each other, we need to know our differences. To really know each other, we need to know what we hold in common too. We need both to know each other. And if we know each other, then this campus and the world will be different.
This reflection reminds me of the poet of Native American heritage, William Stafford, who says in his poem “A Ritual to Read to Each Other“:
If you don’t know the kind of person I am
and I don’t know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.
Our star. If we don’t know each other, we could miss what we can be together.
And that draws my mind to the words of African American Poet, Gwendolyn Brooks. In her poem, “Paul Robeson”, she remembers that pioneer of the Harlem Renaissance and political activist, projecting their resonant voices together:
that we are each other’s
harvest:
we are each other’s
business:
we are each other’s
magnitude and bond.
So you in your work and in all the steps of your day, seek to know each other. Seek to understand real differences and seek common ground too. Remember that we are each other’s magnitude when we find ways of being together. Our magnitude is our bond.
May it be so.
Matt Hartley 