Sunday, February 12, 2012

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Our final day and we will go to Suchitoto to the Centre Arte para la Paz, http://capsuchitoto.org/en/ Sr. Susan’s home and a visit to the marketplace. We are greeted by Sr. Peggy, a Sister of Charity. With a PhD in Theology, she has worked in El Salvador for the last 30+ years. She is brilliant and humble, and so warm and welcoming. She asks us to tell her our name, the city of our birth, and a “recent birth” experience that we want to share. Each Paz Salud volunteer weaves a story. And it is interesting and humbling to hear what people have to say. Each speaks with humility and sincerity. We have grown closer as a group by now. Some volunteers have been deeply candid with me in sharing stories of their own life and relationship struggles. When I am entrusted with candor, I am honored. I do not repeat these stories but I carry them in my heart and if I ever encounter these friends and colleagues again, I will feel closer having been so enriched.

Sr. Peggy paraphrases something from a book entitled: Honey from a Stone, talking about “shared disturbances” and a sentence that reads: all of our knowledge is a little island in the sea where greater mystery laps at the shore. So true, and now I recall a phrase that I mentioned to a few persons, spoken by Michelangelo, who said: there are more things in heaven and earth than in your philosophy. Sr. Peggy says we are all swimming and looking for metaphors to guide us. Sr. Peggy also quotes, Toni Morrison (author) who stated that our national creed could have been: “life, liberty and the pursuit of meaningfulness” (vs. happiness), for it is what is meaningful that helps us do our best work. And, a wonderful quote from Sr Peggy: “the difference between a rut and a grave is about three feet.” Sr. Peggy concludes by sending us forth to be “good virgins.” She spoke of the Goddesses and how they were like virgins. As virgins we have no pre-conceived ideas, we simply are.
We tour the small museum and see a 60 Minutes segment from the 1980s and coverage of the Civil War in El Salvador. Suchitoto was a rebel stronghold during the War. We also tour the grounds and see the new buildings for classrooms and community celebrations. When I last saw the Centre, it was in far-worse shape. Amazing transformations are taking place and much of theel work is donations-based.

And, wandering into a classroom with music wafting into the courtyard, we are also gifted to a quartet of guitars; a master and his three students, and three musical pieces. As always, the music, especially the voice, evokes an emotion that lives deep in my own soul and has a direct link to my tear ducts in expression. Clear voice stirs my emotions like no other form of art.