Okay, so maybe it wasn't really below zero that morning - and maybe the only reason these photos have never been seen before is because I only discovered them under a pile of books and papers as I cleaned my office today...
But still, a day more than worthy of memory.
It really was terribly cold that morning, as two of us hardy adults joined twenty or so of our YRUU-ers for Denver's annual MLK Day "Marade." It was cold, yes, but no problem - I was so bundled up in insulated wind and waterproof layers that even my mother would have approved. The youth were another story, however. Despite my repeated reminders and demands that they bring warm clothes with them, most of them (in true teenage style) were dressed stylishly in low-cut canvas Chuck Taylors (some with no socks)and colorful hats and mittens better suited for signalling overflying airplanes than for keeping out the cold.
Don't I sound OLD! It's like I'm channelling my mother's voice...
Anyway, even all of this would have been fine if we had been moving - but we weren't. Instead there were a couple hours of speeches (no exaggeration)from various corporate heads ("MLK would have loved our insurance company!") and local luminaries, each of which flagrantly broke their own promises to keep it short because of the extreme cold! After about the third speech some of the youth were starting to have real trouble - what with standing around in a couple inches of mostly frozen slushy water while a bitter wind cut to the bone. As you can see below, we tried our best to keep warm, but even dancing couldn't keep the cold at bay for long!
For a while I was seriously contemplating cancelling the whole thing. I was worried about frost-bite and other adult concerns too lame for sixteen years olds to contemplate. But when I suggested calling it off, they said "absolutely not" through blueing lips and chattering teeth. "If we can't deal with being cold and uncomfortable for one morning, how can we ever be tough enough to change the world? Martin Luther King put up with a LOT more than this - so forget it, we're marching!"
And so, after some more speeches - we marched.
Sure enough, once we started marching the day seemed much more bearable. Still cold, but more fun by the moment. The youth were right, there was something especially powerful about marching with 3,000 other people through the otherwise silent and frozen streets of Denver. It was inspiring to walk with so many strangers who were also determined to march, cold or no cold - wind or no wind.
We bumped into a pile of kids (in snowsuits and mittens) and their parents (looking much less toasty) from our sister church, First Unitarian, as well as more adults from our own congregation. So for a time we all marched together, maybe 40 or 50 Unitarian Universalists. It was great.
In the end, this may have been one of the most satisfying MLK marches I have ever been part of. As always, our youth inspired me with their grit and commitment. They were SOOO cold, really suffering - yet it never occured to them to call of the march because of discomfort. They were finding their own answers to the critical religious question, "If this is what I believe, what I stand for - how then must I live?"
This is a question I struggle with all the time, and watching the youth struggle (literally arm in arm) to live their values out loud on that frigid Colorado morning reminded me yet again of the path I want to tread.
Thanks, you guys!
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