Ellen Grady's Comments
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I’ve liked spending the time thinking about what to put on the t-shirts. It helps me to re-member and reflect on Peter and what was important in his life, and what he shared with us!
Living the radical call to love God, and neighbor, and enemy, and to do the works of mercy as we are called to in the Gospels, was central to Peter’s life. And it’s been important to find quotes to reflect that.
In some ways it’s so simple, and Peter liked to keep things simple. So here’s the story of this year’s shirt.
Peter and I got married on July 14, 1984 here in Ithaca, NY. It was a great wedding and we had a wonderful celebration with so many family and friends. But our friend, Felton Davis from the NYC Catholic Worker, didn't physically join us that day, instead, in the spirit of our wedding, Felton went to the Federal Building in downtown Manhattan and spray painted on a wall, “To Ellen and Peter, Happy Wedding Day! Let Love Disarm Us All”
He served 6 months in federal prison for his action.
Let Love Disarm Us All!
These words seem as appropriate today as they were then, when the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist’s doomsday clock was set for 3 minutes to midnight. (Actually I looked it up the other night and it is now also set at 3 minutes to midnight.)
Let Love Disarm Us All!
And I think it goes to the heart of the theme of how Peter tried to live his life.
Today we have over 2 million people in US prisons, systemic racism that protects police violence against people of color, drone strikes, torture, war, a huge stockpile of nuclear weapons, and capitilism and its total disregard for the people and environment.
We live in a society that is armed to the teeth and that relies on violence to protect a way of life for the few, which is literally killing, most especially non-white people, and the planet.
The killings in Charleston, SC this past week is just another glaring example of this violence.
Black Lives Matter!!
We need to disengage from those systems that perpetuate violence, we need to stop relying on violence, we need to disarm-- on a personal, inter-personal, community, national, and inter-national level.
The second thing in this process has been the quote for the back of the shirts. Peter had lots of sayings that he liked, some that he created (“A day without sweat is a day to regret”), some that belonged to others (“Move the feet and the body follows”).This year’s quote, “The hurrier we go, the behinder we get” is Peter’s paraphrase of a line from Alice in Wonderland. As usual, Peter’s version changed the original from a personal thing to a communal experience. And it seems to reflect so much on what is happening to us societally.
The third part of this t-shirt process has been figuring out about the design. This year we have been very excited by the amazing artwork of Corita Kent. If you don’t know her, I highly recommend Googling her name and looking at and reading about her work.
Inspired by Corita, the image we have created takes the actual spay painted words of Felton’s. We turned the wall on its side, as well as the windows, columns and stairs of the building.
Corita had much to share with the world through her artwork and writing. She wrote, “It is a huge danger to pretend that awful things do not happen. But you need enough hope to keep going. I am trying to make hope. Flowers grow out of darkness.”
Living the radical call to love God, and neighbor, and enemy, and to do the works of mercy as we are called to in the Gospels, was central to Peter’s life. And it’s been important to find quotes to reflect that.
In some ways it’s so simple, and Peter liked to keep things simple. So here’s the story of this year’s shirt.
Peter and I got married on July 14, 1984 here in Ithaca, NY. It was a great wedding and we had a wonderful celebration with so many family and friends. But our friend, Felton Davis from the NYC Catholic Worker, didn't physically join us that day, instead, in the spirit of our wedding, Felton went to the Federal Building in downtown Manhattan and spray painted on a wall, “To Ellen and Peter, Happy Wedding Day! Let Love Disarm Us All”
He served 6 months in federal prison for his action.
Let Love Disarm Us All!
These words seem as appropriate today as they were then, when the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist’s doomsday clock was set for 3 minutes to midnight. (Actually I looked it up the other night and it is now also set at 3 minutes to midnight.)
Let Love Disarm Us All!
And I think it goes to the heart of the theme of how Peter tried to live his life.
Today we have over 2 million people in US prisons, systemic racism that protects police violence against people of color, drone strikes, torture, war, a huge stockpile of nuclear weapons, and capitilism and its total disregard for the people and environment.
We live in a society that is armed to the teeth and that relies on violence to protect a way of life for the few, which is literally killing, most especially non-white people, and the planet.
The killings in Charleston, SC this past week is just another glaring example of this violence.
Black Lives Matter!!
We need to disengage from those systems that perpetuate violence, we need to stop relying on violence, we need to disarm-- on a personal, inter-personal, community, national, and inter-national level.
The second thing in this process has been the quote for the back of the shirts. Peter had lots of sayings that he liked, some that he created (“A day without sweat is a day to regret”), some that belonged to others (“Move the feet and the body follows”).This year’s quote, “The hurrier we go, the behinder we get” is Peter’s paraphrase of a line from Alice in Wonderland. As usual, Peter’s version changed the original from a personal thing to a communal experience. And it seems to reflect so much on what is happening to us societally.
The third part of this t-shirt process has been figuring out about the design. This year we have been very excited by the amazing artwork of Corita Kent. If you don’t know her, I highly recommend Googling her name and looking at and reading about her work.
Inspired by Corita, the image we have created takes the actual spay painted words of Felton’s. We turned the wall on its side, as well as the windows, columns and stairs of the building.
Corita had much to share with the world through her artwork and writing. She wrote, “It is a huge danger to pretend that awful things do not happen. But you need enough hope to keep going. I am trying to make hope. Flowers grow out of darkness.”
