Tomorrow morning I will be part of a group of about 100 folks leaving Charlottesville on a Civil Rights Pilgrimage to the new Memorial to Peace and Justice in Montgomery, AL.  I am looking forward to this trip with such a mixed bag of feelings !
My most over-riding feeling right now is anxiety.  I am basically an introvert and am wondering how it will be to spend 6 days with 100 other people !  We are traveling by bus, with quite a number of stops at sites that have been significant in the struggle for Civil Rights for African Americans, but mostly everything will be done as a group.  Already I am outside my comfort zone !!!
Fortunately, I have as my roommate a younger woman whom I have known for quite a long time.  I was dreading having to room with a total stranger !!
In addition to being anxious , I am feeling really curious about how this trip will play out.  It seems a wonderful opportunity to meet a variety of people and build relationships.  I am convinced that we need more opportunities to share our stories in order to move forward towards healing the racial divide that so scars our nation.  I hope to have the privilege of hearing other peoples' stories and sharing some of my own in order to discover those things that can bring us together in our humanness. Who will I become acquainted with this week?  How will  our lives intertwine ?
Early today about 250 people gathered at the Jefferson School for a Community Discussion About Lynching.  We watched the video made earlier at the site of the lynching of John Henry James, where soil was collected.  The ritual of the soil collection was moving, and felt to me like a sacred ceremony such as a funeral.  An actual funeral was denied Mr. James and so many others who were victims of lynching..
The movie "Outrage" was shown also.  It is a short documentary film about lynching.  In the making of the film a number of people were interviewed who are descendants of lynching victims.  Their stories are emotionally very powerful and demonstrate the long-lasting effects that these types of inhumane events have on their victims.  What I would find interesting is if one could talk to people whose ancestors had been part of the mobs that perpetrated these murders --- or whose ancestors had been spectators at the actual events.  What kinds of scars are left on their souls ?
It's now late in the afternoon and I'm exhausted !!  Have to meet the bus at 7 AM !  I am looking forward to actually beginning !