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Can you imagine it?
Palestinians and Israelis settling down together
in their common lands
bound together by the silver covenant of Jordan,
marrying each other,
reading each other’s books,
singing each other’s songs, laughing?
Can you imagine it?

Afghani pilgrims in turbans and tunics,
women dressed with ancestral modesty,
coming to Al Quds to bow at the site
where Muhammad dreamt he leapt to heaven,
nearby joining their sabra friends
as seder guests?
Can you imagine Judith and Bill Kaufman
from Columbus, Ohio,
living on that court not far from Aladdin’s
visiting their friends Omar and Fatima Al-Din
in Baghdad, their pink-cheeked children
joining in dancing till they’re dizzy with joy
under the backyard fig-tree
while the grown-ups discuss the writings
of Iqbal over fried artichokes?
Can you imagine wide-eyed Cubans
from La Habana vacationing in LA or Miami?
And the other way around?
Can you hear it?
Tears lubricating the clatter of Spanish and
English into laughter,
no more the crack of ricochets
breaking the earshot of those who now
embrace shoulder to fleshy shoulder,
with hands stroking backs fiercely,
with deep and wracking sobs?
Can you imagine it? Really, can you see it?
The president of the United States
extending a hand the color of Ethiopian coffee
to sign her witness on the marriage certificate
of her daughter Charlene to her partner Chantal?
Can you imagine it?
Not saying “I have no money to give you today”
because no one has to ask?
Can you imagine not having to fret
about traveling here or going there,
or wanting to slink past the man in the tarry coat
asking for spare change?
Can you imagine childcare and soulcare as if
children and the spirit really mattered?
Can you imagine it?
Can you imagine healthcare by healers
instead of by insurance cartels?
Can you imagine no one lying to you
about their need for cocaine or Coors
because addiction and all of its sources
have been taken seriously?
Can you imagine no one calling sex
“dirty” or their foul moods “black”?
Can you imagine no one hiding behind
the safety of their guilt and blame?
Can you imagine it?
Can you imagine people not having to shout
because they are already heard,
or people going to work instead of overwork?
Can you imagine it?
When I fail to have this vision before
the eyes of my heart, daily, hourly,
written into my pulse and breath
tattooed in them as a saving text,
then come, Spirit,
Purveyor of Peace, Paz, Paix, Pace,
Friede, Salaam, Shalom, Mir,
You Reality beyond doubt,
Incandescent Nameless
No Thing at the center of all things,
and annoy me, burn in me, jar me, jostle me,
overcome me, shake me, startle me,
until I am willing to see what must be
even more clearly than I see what is.
And let me never be embarrassed by my vision,
nor ever again confounded.

From Sonata for Voice and Silence: Meditations, published by Skinner House in 2008 and available from the UUA bookstore or 800-215-9076.

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Rev. Dr. Mark Belletini

Senior Minister Emeritus at First UU Church of Columbus, Ohio

Mark Belletini was born in Detroit Michigan in June of 1949. He grew up there, attended parochial schools, and Oakland University in Rochester MI, then discovered his embrace of the Unitarian Universalist way at the Universalist Unitarian Church of Farmington MI. He graduated from Starr King School for the Ministry in 1978, served our congregations in San Francisco and Hayward CA, and retired from his last call from First Unitarian Universalist Church in Columbus OH. During his ministry he taught at both SKSM and at Meadville Lombard, and chaired the Hymnbook Resources Commission which put together the hymnbook Singing the Living Tradition. He served on our credentialing body for ministry, The Fellowship Committee, for 8 years. Skinner House Press has published his books Sonata for Voice and Silence, (a small collection of the devotional writings he used for years to lead into the great silence at the heart of worship he led on Sundays,) and Nothing Gold Can Stay, a book on grief. He is an active member of the Ohio River Study Group for which he has enjoyed continuing scholarly pursuits in the papers he has written and delivered. He has been an artist throughout his life, loves to cook, has been active the GLBTQ struggles both within the UUA and outside it, and is deeply and gratefully steeped in his Emilian Italian heritage and culture from all four grandparents. He counts his friends and colleagues the joy of his life, with his adopted and amazing son Tony Hess as the focus of his daily gratitude.

Latest posts by Rev. Dr. Mark Belletini (see all)

• Ode to Silence - December 1, 2020
• Sequence - July 1, 2019
• Soul - June 1, 2017