“Peacebuilding: Sequence and order uncertain. It circles. It seeds. It tends to deep roots. Suggested approach: Stay humble and know that everything touches everything. It’s a relational thing. - John Paul Lederach
I think it is easy to fall into the kind of thinking that would assume my most important contributions to the betterment of the world and the realization of the highest ideals of a now 250 year old experiment in democracy would be directly and nationally political. And yes, I do believe in the importance of being an engaged citizen, educating myself with factual information and staying aware of the politics of the day. I’ll do my part. And yet, so often my own experience aligns with Tip O’Neill’s quote “all politics are local” and to John Paul Lederach’s description of peace building as the understanding that “everything touches everything” and “it’s a relational thing.”
This week as we marked a significant birthday for the bold, beautiful, flawed experiment (which is us) I had to ponder how to talk about my own complex feelings. I think about my friend Parker J. Palmer’s description of patriotism as the ability to continue to aspire to the ideas of equality, liberty and justice while acknowledging our imperfect/brutal history — and that patriotism can and will call us to be in a lover’s quarrel with current policies and our national state of affairs. Currently, I find myself bewildered and grief stricken as some of our most important steps forward in the past hundred years are under attack or already rolled back. I search myself to know how to even begin to express my concern over a leader and movements within this country that endorse a kind of greed, corruption, self aggrandizement and callousness to suffering I find breathtaking in depth and scope.
I think about the sage wisdom of the original peoples of this country when they based important decisions upon how it would effect seven generations from that moment in time. I think about an interdependence and wisdom that understood the tangible ways in which their communities were living out decisions made seven generations before their time.
All that said, I return to the question “How do I hold in balance all I do and do not pledge allegiance too”. How do I lean into my love for this world, love for my community, love of the ideals and ideas that continue to make deep and abiding sense to me —like care and kindness, like interdependent relationship, like hope based in daily loving action?
So perhaps this how we celebrate July 5th, on the day after the fireworks of American Independence Day has given us a moment to pause and reflect upon our national hopes and aspirations for a more perfect union. Let us consider what we love, what preserves and provides, how we are truly interdependent, and how to “pledge allegiance” to all that is beautiful, true — serving us today and for seven generations beyond.
Carrie
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Making Sense - or I pledge allegiance
I pledge allegiance to a drop of dew
Wobbling on a broccoli leaf,
To the silver pattern on a zucchini frond
A perfect spiral at the center of a cabbage head.
I bow my head to the licorice smell of fennel filagree,
The taste of rounded peas
The perfect dun of barley hay.
And the tasseled promise of knee-high corn.
I namaste a row of growing beans,
To garlic scapes and turnip greens
To the sweetness of sweet potato vines
To the last red radish and first blueberry.
I lift up my face to the summer sky
The sound of larks
And the feel of dirt
To all that keeps making sense
In senseless times.
By Carrie NewcomerTake a piece of paper and write at the top the words “I Pledge Allegiance To”. Then list things that come to mind. These can be large concepts like “democracy” or “justice” but then try to think small and list some of the things that you hold dear and true and often encounter in your daily life….a child’s laugh, a wood thrush call…small beautiful things with which you align yourself, would pass to your grandchildren’s grandchildren and beyond.
If you did the practice above, feel free to share one or two of your “allegiances”!
This is a beautiful song called All To Do With The Moon by my friend Krista Detor. Krista is one of the finest lyricists and musicians I’ve ever met…and her partner, David Weber (the producer and general wizard of my new album) is playing guitar and singing with her in this performance at The Shrewsbury Folk Festival. It’s all to do with those invisible threads - and all to do with the moon.
John Paul Lederach’s most recent blog and dispatch on Interdependence “Taken Together” where he ponders his experience with communities who continue to consider the Seventh Generation and the wisdom we can learn from those communities.
https://www.johnpaullederach.com/dispatches/taken-together/
Parker J. Palmer’s The Fourth of July, 2026
To the question Is there something in your part of the world that is considered common and that you find wondrous?
We live on a lake and have for 32 years. Everyday it shares something beautiful...the grey heron sitting on the bank, the snowy egrets flying by, the gold it turns at sunset, the kayakers rowing by, the golden leaves surrounding it in fall, the way it freezes over in the winter. It brings joy everyday. - Robin
There is a wondrous mama cottonwood tree in our back yard. She is old and grand. I cannot get my arms half way around her trunk and her reach is tall into the sky. Her roots are deep, looking for the water of the underground river across the road. She is a magnificent creature. Strong in the winds while giving up a few twigs and branches. A place for the birds and squirrel to rest between flights and foraging. And oh…the sounds of her gentle cottonwood whispers. I’ve never loved a tree, but this one has stolen my heart. - Sandi
A mamma wren discovered an “ornamental” birdhouse on my porch and decided it was good enough to be a real birdhouse. Four new babies!
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