A Symphony of Brotherhood

“With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”

Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream Speech 8-28-1963

I realize that I’m a week late with a Martin Luther King Jr. Day post, but I’m using that day as an inspiration for this post. While this is a Federal Holiday (for those of you who had the day off, I hope that you enjoyed your three day weekend), I spent my MLK day at the Y. For most of my life, this day has seemed like a normal day (except that we would get school off). This year’s MLK day was slightly different. The first noticeable difference is my environment. Both the Y members and the staff are primarily African American, and on this day the mood seemed more uplifting and actually like a holiday. I spent a portion of my day watching the documentaries that we showed in the lobby: the “I have a Dream Speech” and the other speeches given on that day on the Mall. My boss [who attended a HBCU (Historically Black College and University)] is very much into Dr. King’s work and the significance of MLK Day. He kept commenting about how smart the people sounded during these speeches. I agreed. He also provided an interesting juxtaposition to what we were watching as he kept yelling at the kids coming in to play basketball (who had the day off from school) to “pull your pants up, it’s King Day”. Anyway the above “symphony of brotherhood” quote from Dr. King’s “I have a Dream” Speech has always stood out to me. On one hand the beautiful metaphor appeals to me as a musician, but on a deeper level it appeals to my sense of community; it is recognition of people who come together from all over to devote their time towards a cause that they all share a belief in on one level or another. Dr. King summarizes community with this quote. On this day that calls people to participate in service projects, I could not help but think of this year that I am answering the call to service and the many others that I know who stand with me to do a year of service, and to view the year and community through the lens of Dr. King.

I first immediately thought of the people that comprise my community in Saint Louis. This community is what Dr. King alludes to when speaking about the symphony of brotherhood nearly fifty years ago. My community has many faces and identities: Caucasian, biracial, Filipino-Canadian, we come from all different geographical regions of the United States. We have varying levels of faith, and display an array of spiritual, political, and ideological identities. Regardless of our background and outward identities, we all have one unifying identity as a volunteer, and with this identity we all work together, pray together, struggle together to live simply, to struggle together merely to live day to day with our different personalities, ways of life, thoughts, ideas, and beliefs all under the same roof. But, we all have come together to stand up and work for justice.

I think that community is the most difficult of the four JVC values to both explain to others and to comprehend. Part of that reason is because it is constantly evolving in both outward and inward appearances. My community’s look, feel, emotions, thoughts, ideology, spirituality, and workings constantly change. The closest I can do is to say think about the ways that your families have evolved over the years, and now imagine that lifetime of evolution as a microcosm that only lasts for one year. Community is, in a sense, and accelerated family for one year. It is difficult to truly comprehend a volunteer community unless you have either done something like this or are currently participating in a volunteer community setting.

Luckily, we have some help this year. Moving beyond my immediate community, Saint Louis is a great place to volunteer there are many other volunteers from other programs designed similarly to JVC who live and work here. We see three of these programs on a frequent or semi-regular basis (Vincentian Service Corps, Alumni Service Corps, and the Gateway Vincentian Volunteers). I find it fun spending time with the people that make up these different volunteer groups. I feel comfortable talking to the other volunteers, as it is easy to connect to these other volunteers who are in similar circumstances this year, and each program is focused towards like goals and values as the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. In some ways, this feels similar to the feelings of comfort and familiarity that I experienced when in an art/performing arts social settings in Kenya. (See Art and Cultural Social Circles in Nairobi)

Now let’s expand this volunteer community universe that I know to a regional level.

One of the things that I was most excited about when I became accepted into JVC and even first heard about the program was visiting the Jesuit Volunteers in other cities in the Midwest. Each JV community traditionally hosts a holiday weekend in which it invites all of the JVs from the JVC Midwest (Saint Louis, Nashville, Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, and Cleveland). Saint Louis had to miss the first of these weekends (Harvest Moon/Oktoberfest in Cleveland) but spent Halloween in Nashville and Thanksgiving weekend in Chicago. After going to Nashville I said I would never miss another of these weekends again. These weekends are great to catch up with people, learn about how each community is doing (the good, the bad, the gossip, etc) how people are doing with their jobs, learn about their cities and people are doing living in a city that they more than likely have never been to before. They make for great weekends with fun activities and interesting conversation. Saint Louis’s official weekend is Mardi Gras weekend in which we invite everyone, but two weekends ago some people from Nashville and Chicago came to visit. Weekends such as this one gave me time to catch-up with other JVs and have conversations that are “very JVC”, as they range from nightlife, and tricks to living on a meager budget in the different cities, to the churches in Saint Louis and different mass styles, to the social issues and problems facing the city (and county) of Saint Louis.

Later this week, I am attending a five-day (Re) Orientation in Indiana. It will be the first time that I will have seen everybody in the JVC Midwest program at one time since Orientation almost six months ago. I feel like I have come a long way since then. At the beginning I felt a little intimidated by this year of service, and the people in the program because this year was a complete mystery. I didn’t know anyone, didn’t know what to expect from this year of service, was unfamiliar with Saint Louis, and was nervous about meeting and living with a community of new people for the next year. It seemed as if everyone went to a catholic university and, more specifically, attended one specific university (Santa Clara), and everyone seemed to know everyone or at least was already connected on some level. This drove me to feel shy at the beginning during Summer Orientation. This time around, I suspect will be much different as I feel much more comfortable and like I share a volunteer identity with everyone and have spent a few weekends with many of the volunteers and gotten to know many of them.

Click Here to listen to a beautiful song called Symphony of Brotherhood that I discovered in 2008 and featured many weeks on my college radio show.