December 20, 2025
Saturday
The problem with a dedicated discernment process for Advent is that once I discern whatever The True Meaning is for me in any given year, then I am done, DONE I tell you, and all I want to do is get moving. As my pastor noted in his daily message this morning, “Christmas is almost here, but Christ has already come to us, living here within our community.”
The point was driven home to me when I encountered “13 Questions for the Next Economy,” a poem by Susan Briante, a writer not afraid to tackle directly subjects usually expressed in coded metaphor, even in poetry of the 21st century. The last time I gave a poem here in its entirety, the formatting got all frazzled. I’ve given a link above to the site where I encountered it today. Read it, or don’t. I’ll wait.
OK, so, what about this poem? It is most definitely not in synch with the season. In fact, it’s not even new. It was written in 2018. As Briante says, “The current political moment registers as both a crisis and the continuation of longstanding, poisonous strains of racism and capitalism, so I wanted to write intergenerationally. I am very interested in poems that don’t try to smooth over crisis or find ‘meaning’ in violence. Is there a potential for transformation in staying within what’s uncomfortable? Thus, the questions that remain unanswered, the worry that is not soothed.”
And, of course, the line that hit me in the heart: What revolution will my daughter feed?
That’s the generation I worry about, hold my breath about, the Millennials, born from 1981 to 1996. My daughter was born in 1985. Another beloved member of my chosen family was born two years before. In addition to the work they do to provide for themselves and their children, they are concerned with racial justice, economic justice, and justice and opportunity for the neurodivergent. Their children are Gen Alphas, born in 2016 and 2018. I pray for them every day, write their names every day, all the while living with my own doubt and uncertainty about spiritual matters.
Indeed, the questions remain unanswered, the worry is not soothed.