I was asked to give an invocation at a fundraiser for Coalfield Development Corporation. It was an honor. And a challenge.
How does a humanist pray?
I’ve supported Coalfield Development for 14 years. “Corporation” is misleading. CDC is really a grassroots community that is rebuilding southern West Virginia from the ground up. Since 2010 it has created over 800 jobs, trained over 3,000 people, leveraged $160 million in new investments, and revitalized 200,000 square feet of dilapidated property.
Brandon Dennison, a graduate of Shepherd University and Indiana University, founded CDC in 2010 and received the Heinz Award for Economy and Employment in 2019. He’s a hard worker. And he’s smart—smart enough to qualify his invitation to me.
Would you give the invocation—or whatever?
I took the “whatever” option.
Invocations traditionally invoke God to help, protect, or save us. That’s theism. I’ve left that kind of god behind. And I’m pretty sure the parable of “The Seven Days of Creation” did too. (Genesis 1–2.3)
“On the seventh day,” the poet says, “God rested from all his work”—as in, retired! End of story. There’s no sequel. There’s no mention of God unretiring in that parable.
Interesting.
God rested. And left the rest to us. We are the sequel.
For better or for worse, according to Genesis, the care of the earth and all its creatures was left to humans who are endowed with enormous powers.
Homo deus.* (We’d better get good at it!**)
We can’t count on thoughts and prayers alone to save southern West Virginia. Or anywhere else for that matter. But we can count on hard, persistent, smart, imaginative work.
That’s humanism.
We are on our own, but we are not alone. We have each other. We have our stories and our songs.
So my “whatever” was an invocation from Bruce Springsteen’s “My City of Ruins,” which he sang on national television after 9/11 and again in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It invokes the power within us.
I pray for the strength
with these hands
I pray for your love
with these hands
Come on, come on, rise up.
Which is to say: Work is our prayer. We work with our hands, hearts, brains, and wallets to keep hope alive for southern West Virginia and its people—our people, our neighbors, our brothers and sisters.
Someday we will rest. Today, we rise up.
* * *
*Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari (2016)
**from the Whole Earth Catalogue’s statement of purpose (1968)
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See Paula’s photo on home page. Scroll down to “visual explorations.” Posted July 7, 2024
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