I am feeling flooded by political news, oppressive heat and humidity, and nonprofit transitions. My heart goes out to the true flood victims. Mine is only metaphorical.
I constantly hear about how divided the country is, and by many measures, we are. But when I step back and look at the big picture, I see just how interconnected we are. Our division has an impact on all of us, be it in politics, over climate change, or about the ways we reach out to help our neighbors (or not).
The presidential race usually gets top billing on the news, and rightfully so. There is a clear choice between the candidates. My favorite unofficial campaign slogan is “Make America laugh again.” I quote an old friend often these days in reminding people that “weird” is a verb as well as a noun and an adjective. The world is weirding. The weird is scary. Too weird for words.
Scientists agree that our climate is changing. The disagreement lies mostly in who or what is responsible for climate change. Human impact on the environment seems undeniable to me. Many of us are on fire or under water—literally. My home isn’t flooded, but there is standing water outside my door. The mosquitoes are thriving. Some leaves started to turn and fall in July. People were still cleaning up after last summer’s flooding when two “one-hundred-year” floods hit Vermont last month. There were people who lost everything who were helping their neighbors, because they had nothing more to lose.
The weight of the world is taking its toll on nonprofit organizations in Vermont. Leadership transitions are common. There is a more worrying phenomenon: nonprofits are being forced to close their doors, unable to compete for funding with the election and flood relief. One of them is near and dear to my heart.
WholeHeart, Inc. will cease to exist as a nonprofit as of June 2025. Their programming will continue at least into February. Staff, board, and program participants around the world are reaching out to each other to grieve AND to imagine positive new possibilities for WholeHeart and its programs. We are reminding ourselves that our hearts don’t have to simply break, they can break open. I wonder what WholeHeart’s home repair will look like, and will it survive the next flood?
One of my new young friends told me she is going to the convention in Chicago. She is excited and scared. I told her that I was in Chicago during the 1968 convention. I had just graduated from high school and was headed for California with my church youth group. We stayed at the unairconditioned YMCA with doors that didn’t lock. It was hot, humid, and scary.
Vincent Harding’s wise counsel is as true now as it was then. We must love each other into positive new possibilities.