What Might Be Possible?

by Ann Thompson Cook

At the turn of a year, I find myself reflecting on how far I still have to go in becoming open. Open to people who seem to me to have closed minds, open to people who draw the circle tight and exclude those I care about. The trouble is, if I can’t be open to them, I am them.

And so, standing there, I’m having trouble with the common wisdom in the movement about how we should focus our attentions on the “movable middle.” Over the years, I’ve seen too many people who seemed staunchly opposed to equality—who appeared far from movable—reverse themselves.

In fact, over the years, I’ve noticed that I’m not that good at predicting who’s movable and who’s not.

In Kitchen Table Wisdom, Rachel Naomi Remen tells the story of a farmer who had beaten the odds of cancer, despite a dire prognosis. It wasn’t that he denied the cancer, he just listened to the prognosis the way he listened to the government soil experts. She explains, “As they were educated men, he respected them and listened carefully as they showed him the findings of their tests and told him that the corn would not grow in this field. He valued their opinions, but … ‘A lot of the time the corn grows anyway.’”

So I keep asking, what would it look like for me to be open to every one? What might be possible if I could see that spark of light, that bit of gold inside, no matter what meanness they had ever expressed, no matter what they were saying or doing at the moment?

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Ann Thompson Cook directs Many Voices, which later this year will launch an online, ecumenical clearinghouse of worship and educational resources for the welcoming movement. Her books on sexual orientation and gender diversity—And God Loves Each One, Dios nos ama por iqual, and Made in God’s Image—are distributed by eight national organizations including RMN.