Gratitude for Joe Sullivan

“I am not meant to be alone and without you who understands.” 
--Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

About fifteen years ago I was coping with the mental illness of one of my children. Her behavior at that time was the result of a storm of brain chemicals beyond her control, and it endangered her life. As I sat sobbing with anxiety, feeling that no one who has not experienced it could understand the life-wrecking affects of severe mental illness, Joe drove 45 minutes on Texas freeways to sit with me, to put his hand on my back, and to be a stable presence of understanding for me and for my other daughter. He got it. He still gets it. I am forever grateful to him. His kindness got me through some of the worst days of my life. 

Today he is in town for the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly, and we met under much happier circumstances and caught up with events of the past fifteen years. 

What Joe and I are both very excited about at this moment is the Cornel West lecture coming up on Saturday evening. It will be streamed, so those who are awake at 8 p.m. Pacific time can hear it as it happens. We expect West will discuss racism in the USA, including the recent horrible events in Charleston, South Carolina, and we both want to hear what he has to say. We know that it is up to white people to figure out how to talk to other white people who are perpetuating the racist poison that goes on causing deep suffering for all people, but we have read what Cornel West has written, and we know he has insights that may help us to see where to go next with this mess.