THE THREAD | Rejoice is the last word

{a weekly letter from Andrew}

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Rejoice is the last word. The final word. The word all words become.
 
Rejoice is not today’s word.
 
Today’s word is hard to pronounce. Today’s word is on the lips of a man struggling to breathe. Today’s word is gasp, is sigh, is heave. Today’s word is muffled facedown on the hospital mattress. Today’s word is mumbled behind a mask.
 
Today’s word is expletive, explosive, a plosive in desperate search of a long vowel. Today is quick to anger, and that anger righteous. Today’s word is Oh my god, absent any obvious god.
 
Today’s word is tire-skid. Train-wreck. Debris. Remains. Critical condition.
 
Today the word is widowed. The word is orphaned. The word is faltered, severed, altered beyond repair.
 
Today the word is distance. Distance between friends, between lovers. Distance between sister and brother. Distance between Rejoice — and all else that is and suffers. A long dash, a rough gash slicing wide.
 
Today the word is not Rejoice. Today the word is belief. Belief enough to not-quite-pray, belief enough to almost-bear. Belief enough to merely be, and be more tightly tethered to here.
 
Today’s word is glimpse. Today’s word is hint, to see only to a certain extent. Today’s word both reveals and obscures the word all words become. A glimmer, a glint.
 
Today’s word is shard. Shard as in piece of mosaic and shard as in cuts the skin. Shard as in causes you to imagine something larger and shard as in causes you to suffer much harder. Shattered windshield at the scene of the wreck. Scattered shard. Far-flung fragment.
 
Today the word is forage. Today the word is rummage, gather, bring back together. Today the word is we are each other’s broken pieces.
 
Today’s word is a word search. A search for that last word, the final word, one word to comprehend all of these days. Comprehend as in understand and comprehend as in fully account for. As in bring together, as in rejoin all that belongs. That is the word we search for.
 
That word is not (yet) today.

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(Photograph by Kate Moore)

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THIS WEEK:
 

What I'm reading: Zadie Smith's Intimations, Darryl Pickney's Busted in New York

What I'm listening to: Palestrina, Tom Petty's misplaced second verse

What reminds me of the better angels of our nature: Marilynne Robinson's latest op-ed

What's inspiring me: Kate Moore's Photo of the Day project
 

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Peace along the way,

Andrew
 

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