Among many haunting images regarding the incomprehensible, unconscionable situation in Ukraine are images of Vladimir Putin seated at the end of very long tables for meetings with individual Russian government ministers. The disturbing disconnection portrayed in these images stirred a meditation in my own prayer. I began to envision the myriad of people missing from the table: wise and courageous Ukrainian women and men, children whose hearts stir imagination, musicians and artists who invite new forms of community, protesting peace animators, young soldiers who sold their souls for what “they did not know” …
Into my personal, liminal, meditative space came David Whyte’s poem, “There Is No Table Long Enough.” In the final three stanzas, David summons each of us to reflection, to our shared responsibility to tend the work of our global, collective shadow.
May we see then, in this allegory,
as we too, in this time, sit so far away,
the simple way an individual life
no matter how imprisoned,
transformed by generosity, saves
so many lives in the future.May we take the time, while we confront
this fear now, on the outside
with necessary and courageous physical action,
to preempt any future evil by bringing
every hidden edge into the light, by bringing
our inner troubles into the conversation,
where heads are allowed to lean close
to one another at a table shortened
to the point of mutual understanding.There is no table long enough
to keep us from our own unspoken darkness
but, thanks be to God, and every power
beyond us, there is no table long enough
to hold the riches of darkness transformed,
to hold the wine raised and the bread
consumed, to hold every item of our shared bounty,
brought from every field of our endeavour,
in a promised future, that despite ourselves,
will always be destined to forgiveness.—David Whyte, “There Is No Table Long Enough”
May it be so.
To view the entire poem, see: https://sacompassion.net/poem-there-is-no-table-long-enough-by-david-whyte/.
—Ann Jackson, PBVM, Prairiewoods spiritual services coordinator
image from The Independent