11/26/00
Naming names ...
I’m on vacation as I write this. On a cruise, actually. Which
means I’m blissfully unaware of local events, crises, even celebrations.
In fact, I can barely keep up with the turtle-slow dash to the
White House on CNN.
Still, I thought of that struggle for leadership the other evening
as our ship inched away from the dock at St. Thomas in the Virgin
Islands. (Where former Chicago Auxiliary Bishop George Murry now
pastors in a place that sports the outward trappings of paradise,
but suffers the violence, poverty and racism of many communities.)
But back to that dock ... As we pulled away, the few feet of wall
above the lapping water are exposed, a wall festooned with graffiti.
Not obscene, not some subway-car tagger’s warped art. Rather the
dock is splashed with names—hundreds of them. I’ve seen these
names on previous visits, and I’m struck by how they have grown.
There’s Roberto. And Manuel. And Celeste. There’s John. And Simon.
And many more than I could see in the dark as we crawled into
the channel toward home.
But with CNN and the Florida recount playing in the background,
I realized a connection.
Simon and Manuel and Celeste and the others want to make their
mark on the world—even if painted in white under a dock. Just
as a couple of guys named Al and George seek also to make their
mark in a larger arena.
I’ve got to be careful, I guess, not to equate would-be presidents
and paint-carrying vandals. But there is a similarity: It’s something
we all share—the desire to leave something behind that will be
remembered. For many, it’s passing on faith to our children. For
others, it’s proclaiming God to the masses. Or serving people
in God’s name. But make no mistake: it’s the mission and hope
of each of us.
In that sense, it reflects Scripture, which understands some of
us as teachers, others as healers, still others as prophets, but
which sees us all as having the ability to somewhere, somehow,
leave behind something which makes the world just a little different.
And hopefully, just a little better.
Maybe there is nothing overwhelmingly powerful about a name painted
onto a dock on a Caribbean island. But maybe there is. Roberto,
Simon, Celeste and the others will know best.
For the rest of us, even presidents and almost-presidents, we’ll
find our way, too.
—Tom Sheridan,
Editor and General Manager
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