“Can I offer you a free cup of lemonade?”

There were purveyors of all sorts Monday morning on the streets of Cleveland near Quicken Loans Arena as the Republican National Convention got underway. Most vendors displayed the standard assortment of red, white and blue political hats, buttons, and stickers promoting the Republican nominee. Others sold products designed to denigrate or ridicule the other party’s candidate.  Then there were the teams of folks dressed in pink t-shirts offering free hugs.

The Nuns on the Bus, wearing our own blue t-shirts, divided into two teams named “Holy Curiosity 1” and “Holy Curiosity 2” to spread across the downtown area. We were not selling anything or pushing a particular agenda or policy position. Rather, our mission was simply to offer free cups of lemonade to thirsty folks and engage RNC delegates and others in conversation.  Each team pulled a red wagon, designed to look like our bus, which transported our jugs of lemonade.

I must confess that I was more than a little bit nervous when I first heard that we would be engaging in street ministry at the RNC. How would we be received? It certainly felt different than visiting service organizations or holding caucus events with more friendly crowds.  My nervousness increased as the negative campaigning, hype, and possibility of violence at the convention filled the airwaves.  Yet as our bus rolled into Cleveland, there was a sense of purpose, unity and dare I say joy among us. We were on a mission to bring a politics of inclusion to divided places.

I think it also helped that we were offering something as non-threatening as lemonade. As Sister Simone Campbell said, lemonade is something you have on picnics and who doesn’t like a cup of lemonade on a hot day? Well, it turns out many people don’t. More than once I held out my little paper cup of lemonade and offered it up to passersby who were not interested.  But some did gratefully accept my offering, and each person who took me up on the offer of a cup of free lemonade was also more than willing to let me ask a few questions.

Each sister was equipped with a clipboard, pen, and three questions: 1) Who in your family is it difficult to discuss politics with, and why? 2) What worries you about this election? and 3) What gives you hope for our nation.  I talked to a mix of folks: RNC delegates, Cleveland natives observing the spectacle, vendors, and conservative activists.

I observed a general softening when I told my interviewee that we would be visiting the Democratic National Convention to ask the same questions. As Sister Simone says, the Nuns on the Bus enjoy being “equal opportunity annoyers.”

There was certainly a good amount of ideology and partisanship peppering the answers. We were there to listen, not to judge, and I found myself being stretched in a good way as I recorded responses which expressed frustration, fear, and in some cases parroted the hateful speech and generalizations which are expressed liberally on conservative talk shows.  Most of the answers to the second question about worries were of this variety.

When it comes to our families, there was a lot of commonality. A few people expressed that there is no one in their family or circle of friends that they disagree with, which perhaps helps explain the silo mentality and normalization of extreme views in our current political climate.  Most however named someone, often an in-law, sometimes a parent or child, who held an opposite view point. What I found most encouraging, however, was that more than one person expressed that they were still able to talk with each other about the issues, even if they disagreed.

It was the experience of asking the last question about hope that I found most interesting. More than one person was taken by surprise and unable to immediately answer the question.  One man, after a moment or two of quietly looking up, said, “It’s hard to answer isn’t it, because it’s so experiential.”

Everyone eventually was able to find some hope in the midst of our fear-filled political climate. Some answers were again ideological and focused on their preferred candidate’s stump speech. But there were other frequent answers of the genuinely hope-filled variety. More than one person pointed to young people committed to a better future. A number of answers expressed some faith in our nation’s values, principles, and foundations.  “Our diversity is our strength,” one man from Wisconsin told me, “it can be scary but over time our country will heal, based on our strong values.”  Another from Tennessee said, “We have overcome a lot before as a nation and can do it again.”

For that to be possible, I think we need to bridge the growing political divide.  We need to sweeten the sour conversations in our body politic, in our families, and in our communities.  We need to talk with people with whom we do not normally engage. If we want to mend the gaps and reweave the fabric of society, then we need to move beyond trading barbs, attacks, and presumed facts and focus instead on our hearts, probe our fears, and dare to hope for our nation.

A severe thunderstorm blasted the morning sky over Cleveland as we boarded the bus for downtown.  Sister Simone Campbell described the streaks of lightening and cracks of thunder as “the sky crying that a National Convention is being held here.”

I am not sure the majority of Clevelanders are as excited about the Republican National Convention being here as they are about winning the 2016 National Basketball Association Championship.

Some of the people we are advocating for are the people losing money this week. They are people in need of fair taxes, an increase in living wages, affordable housing and healthcare. Several  businesses in the vicinity of the Quicken Loans Arena, however, will be closed this week; people dependent will be negatively impacted. Businesses remaining open will difficult to reach if streets are closed. There will definitely be a crunch in some aspects of Cleveland’s economy.

Background checks, security screenings, and extra law enforcement is also building a healthy tab for the city.

We, the Nuns in the Bus, trust that all measures have been taken to assure safe passage in, around, and out of Cleveland.

We held our caucus last evening at St. Leo the Great School in Cleveland. As in prior cities the problems making gaps between the “haves and the have nots,” in Cleveland are a lack of public transportation, underemployment, low wages, unaffordable and poor housing, expensive or no health care, environmental injustice, etc.

Lisa Sharon Harper, Chief Church Engagement Officer for Sojourners, has joined us for a few days on the bus. She describes our presence among people as sacred encounters; providing sacred breathing space for the soul. What a powerful and humbling image!

The sun is beaming now. Another sign of God’s blessing upon our mission to “Mend the Gaps.”

Since vehicles cannot drive beyond a certain point we now travel by foot to our base camp at the headquarters of the United Church of Christ.

We call our street ministry today, Lemonade Ministry. Two Red Flyer wagons have been decorated to resemble our bus. As we meet people along the way and offer them a cup of cold Lemonade we are prepared to “listen to stories that need to be told and heard,” Sister Simone Campbell.

Three questions are being asked:
1) Who do you find it hard to discuss politics with in your family?
2) What worries you about this election?
3) What gives you hope for our nation?

These same questions will be asked at the Democratic National Convention next week in Philadelphia. We trust that what will be revealed is that all of us want the same thing. We want to heal our nation and solve our problems together! We the People making a difference

We have become signs of hope for a nation crying with fear, seething anger, and bleeding revenge. We are the hands, feet, and the voice of Christ in today’s wounded world.

With one another we stand strong in our faith knowing that God is in each step we take.  God is our peace, God is our hope, God is our tomorrow.

“It’s hard to make a good choice when there is not a good choice available.” – Peter Meinecke, youth program manager of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee in Toledo

One phrase that has been running through my head over the past week is that “actions have consequences.” Is it any wonder that we have a widening wealth and income inequality gap when our nation has chosen, for the past three decades, to prioritize tax breaks for the wealthiest individuals and corporations over using our resources to invest in the common good?

The negative impacts that our nation’s policy choices have on people who are struggling are crystal clear in every state where the Nuns on the Bus have visited so far, and it’s not just in urban areas. Our route has taken us through small rural communities, mid-size towns, and larger cities. At each stop along the way we are blessed to mingle with the local community. During site visits we have heard first-hand stories from ordinary folks unable to make ends meet, no matter how many shifts they work. I have learned that too many Americans are unable to provide for their families or to access things most of the rest of us take for granted, such as transportation, health care, safe and affordable housing, or non-predatory lending.

During our caucus events in the evening, we talk with folks in the community who are concerned about the widening gaps. Many of the participants have chosen to volunteer in their local soup kitchen or shelter, visiting at the local prison or helping kids in after school tutoring programs. These experiences have helped them to understand that in 21st Century America it is very difficult, if not impossible, to “pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”

Our lack of investment in basic public infrastructure, such as public transportation systems, limits the choices available to low-wage workers in places like Jefferson City, Missouri where we learned that the public transit system stops running at 5pm, and does not operate on Saturday or Sunday. In Terre Haute, Indiana we learned that job seekers without their own transportation are unable to access new higher wage assembly jobs located in the outskirts of the city, because the transit system does not travel to these industrial areas. In Fort Wayne, Indiana we learned that even when a worker saves up to buy their own car, predatory lending practices mean that it is often impossible to keep up to date on car payments.

It has also become clear that structural racism limits the choices available to our nation’s children. Racism is not limited to individual acts of prejudice, although we certainly heard many stories of this variety. In every city and town, we also heard people making connections that point to structural racism directing the allocation of resources. Schools in communities of color have less resources available because of inequity in school funding, and students are more likely to face harsh disciplinary penalties such as suspension. Meanwhile the neighborhoods where they grow up are more likely to have broken street lights, boarded up houses, and empty lots instead of state of the art playgrounds and well-lit streets.

On the day before the Nuns on the Bus headed into Cleveland, we visited with the FLOC Homies Union in Toledo, a social movement that brings the skills of labor organizing to young Latinos aged 14 to 24 to empower them to make change in their community.

We heard about the program from Peter Meinecke, youth program manager for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee. FLOC has an employment readiness and youth empowerment program that places youth, called Homies, in work sites in their community to gain first-hand experience. They also learn the basics of leadership and community organizing which they put into practice.

Several of the Homies joined us for conversation around the table. Billie shared the story of how her Homies class, which was mostly made up of young women, realized that each had experienced sexual harassment at school. They organized a march in June to raise awareness about sexual harassment and domestic violence. Three members of the Homies Union then met with Toledo Public School officials where they successfully negotiated adding training on sexual harassment and assault to the health class curriculum, posting information about sexual harassment in schools and the student handbook, and funding a Prevention Specialist in collaboration with the YMCA to work full time on the issue district wide. They managed to make all of these positive changes in just one meeting with school officials!

Another Homie, Alejandro, shared a compelling story of when he was pulled over and harassed by police because the air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror was “distracting.” Many of the Homies have had similar experience with the police, which is why they are recordings their experiences to compile into a video to share with the chief of police. They are also actively negotiating a code of conduct between the police and the community.

The FLOC Homies are making choices to create positive change in their community. I wonder, as we the people face choices on the ballot in our local and national elections this fall, can we do the same?

The opportunity to be a Nun on the Bus is a multi-dimensional blessing. We are privileged to hear stories of pain and promise, challenge and opportunity, impasse and creative responses to systemic injustice.

Sister Simone Campbell keeps reminding us that, in effect, we are missionaries. We are on a mission to mend the gaps. To the observer the public advocacy side of being a nun on the bus is perhaps more apparent, but there is a profound pastoral side to our mission as well. We are listening to how the gaps are impacting folks across this country in real and immediate ways. We are also witnesses to the resilient efforts of communities to reweave the fabric of our society.

Community is key. The nine of us boarded the bus in Madison as relative strangers to one another. Most of us, in fact, had never even met before. Now that we have arrived in our fourth state and seventh city, it is hard to believe that I have not always known these sisters of mine. We certainly belong to and love our respective religious communities.  We know that our sisters are praying for and supporting us across the miles. But we are also now members of another community—we are, now and forever more, Nuns on the Bus.

Prayer has been key to crafting this sense of community among us so quickly. Most days, before we board the bus in the morning, we find a quiet spot for community prayer in the motherhouse where we have found gracious hospitality the night before. Other days we pray together on the bus at the beginning of our morning journey. Whatever the location, contemplation and sharing of the heart brings us together and focuses us on our mission.

Tears have also brought us together as we have met ordinary folks who are struggling to meet basic needs and provide for their families. I will never forget Julie who teared up as she shared her sadness at not being able to provide safe affordable housing for her three children because she could not find a job in her area that provided a living wage.   Or Anne who, because she lives in a state that has not expanded Medicaid benefits, almost died when she was taken to an emergency room for care that had reached a crisis level because she did not have health insurance and thus could not afford regular checkups. It is difficult, if not impossible, to avoid having your heart broken open, again and again, by such stories. Tears are a healing and human response to this sacred sharing.

In our mission to reweave the fabric of society, we are weaving together the threads of our individual stories and experiences with those we meet along the way. It is no coincidence that the graphic on the side of our bus resembles the squares of a quilt.  Each state of our union is part of a whole and we have heard certain patterns emerging across our trip. During our caucus events and site visits, we have heard how problems like the lack of affordable mental health care, stable funding for K-12 and higher education, inadequate public transportation systems, and the prevalence of only low wage employment for job seekers are tearing at the fabric of our society.  While there are some variations in the ways these gaps color the lives of the communities we have visited, the overwhelming pattern that is emerging is one of widening gaps caused by policies that do not promote or serve the common good.

At our caucus event in Terre Haute, Sister Simone told the crowd: “I believe that in the 21^st century it is necessary for us to work in community to make change.”

In St. Louis, we spent a few hours with one community of women working on the multi-dimensional problems facing their community. Voice of Women is a community development organization that unites women to address issues affecting their neighborhood, such as gentrification, lack of access to banking and affordable lending, and food insecurity. Their micro-lending and savings programs provide the economic engine that helps community members thrive. The community garden provides healthy vegetables and brings folks together to tend the garden and relationships.  During our tour of the neighborhood, I met a woman around my age who was raising her children in the same house in the neighborhood where her grandmother had raised her family. She was committed to the future of her community, and wanted to make sure that her 8-year-old daughter would have the same opportunity to stay connected to this resilient community, even as it changes and becomes more racially and economically diverse.

We are about half way through this leg of the trip. The community we are crafting informs our advocacy and gives us food for the journey. I cannot help but think of the words of the prophet Isaiah 25.

On this mountain (or on this Nuns on the Bus trip),
God will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the finest of wines.
On this mountain God will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
God will swallow up death for ever.
Our God will wipe away the tears
from all faces.

As we get closer to Cleveland and the Republican Convention, there will no doubt be more tears and more stories. Yet another blessing of being a nun on the bus is the chance to carry these sacred stories in my heart and share them in order to inform new policies crafted to mend the gaps.

We can’t all sleep on a bed of clouds. Some people in our town have to sleep on stone or concrete streets.
-Layla age 12
Quote on display in Jefferson City at Central Missouri Community Action Agency Family Resource Center

So young and so astute to the world around her. I have never met Layla, but thousands can relate to stone pillows and the cold concrete.

I’ve never lived in public housing; never feared the drug dealer residing next door. I have never had to use public transportation nor worry about what I would have to eat. I have been hugged, however, by those who have.

The people greeting us along the way are so grateful that we have chosen to visit with them. Men, women, and youth thrilled that Nuns on the Bus has made a stop in their city. What a humbling experience this has been!

When we step off the bus people cheer and rush forward to shake our hands. Some people with tears in their eyes want to hug us; telling us how much it means to have us with them. Sr. Susan is keeping count of the number of times Sr. Simone is introduced as a “rock star.”

People are hungry for justice! People are filled with questions of “why” and “what can we do?” People are searching for answers in a country of uncertainty. People want to be listened to without being threatened, judged, or silenced.

Nuns on the Bus is scheduled to travel to 13 states and 23 cities. We have already been to three states and four cities. I know that we have given people a sense of hope and a start to finding the answers.

We begin our day with prayer. Grateful for the people we have met; emotionally moved and strengthened by their sacred stories. We continue forward with their blessings and the power of the Holy Spirit.

The bus is moving and bouncing us along east 64 to St. Louis. Before we lay our heads upon “a bed of clouds” tonight, I wonder how many people will we have met who are afraid of the drug dealer next door, need transportation to a second job that still only allows them to live from pay check to pay check? How many will we have met today who are in need of food and a place to call home; in need of health care to receive proper medical attention for an elderly parent, a sick child, or to seek proper care for themselves?

How many will we have met who are simply hungry for justice?

How do we mend the gaps and reweave the fabric of our society? That is the question at the center of this summer’s Nuns on the Bus tour which will cover more than 2,400 miles to meet with individuals, families, and communities in 13 states, 23 cities, and both political party conventions.

Of course, before you can answer a question as big as that, you need to cover the logistics. Monday afternoon, nine Catholic sisters gathered in a small conference room at Holy Wisdom Monastery in Madison, Wisconsin with the Nuns on the Bus staff to start our journey together. Some of the women have been on the bus before. Sister Simone Campbell, the nun on the bus, has of course been on all five bus tours. For other sisters this is a repeat experience, and for still others, myself included, this is a brand new adventure.

Mentally I have been preparing myself by learning about the seven policy recommendations to mend the gaps in wealth and income inequality and gaps in access to citizenship, housing, health care, and democracy.  I carefully studied the preparatory materials sent to us by the amazing staff at NETWORK.  I even looked up the weather forecasts in the various cities we will visit over the next eight days to make sure I packed accordingly.  Sitting in that small conference room as the staff reviewed the logistics with us, I thought to myself, I’m prepared.

Then something happened that is bound to happen when a group of nuns and people who hang out with nuns sit together in a circle. We shared some of what was in our heart. There was a common sense of excitement.  There was also some anxiety and fear of the unknown as we begin a journey that, for this group of sisters, will finish in Cleveland at the Republican National Convention. (Another group of sisters will then board the bus and head to Philadelphia and the Democratic National Convention.)

Within myself, I discovered a wondering that has been percolating quietly under the surface. In light of everything that has been happening in our country in recent weeks, from Orlando to Baton Rouge to Minnesota to Dallas, and in all of our hearts, is this really what I, what we should be about right now?  Someone else in our circle verbalized their own version of the same wondering

My heart, not my head, told me the answer. The Spirit has led us to this moment and brought us together for a purpose. There is such pain, sorrow and confusion in our society right now, and no one seems to know what to do.  Yet here we are ready to embark on a journey of encounter and listening to bring a politics of inclusion to divided places.  What better response could there be for this moment in history?

This intuition was confirmed when we joined a crowd of 300 plus at the First Unitarian Society in Madison for the pre-launch blessing.  First of all, I realized that there was no way that I could be prepared for the emotional experience of walking off the bus into a crowd of people who see the Nuns on the Bus as a symbol of hope for a broken world. Really, there are no words to describe the feeling, other than that this experience is bigger than any one of the individual women riding on the bus.

More importantly, every speaker during the evening program contextualized the meaning of this particular trip in the mess that we find ourselves in as a society, particularly the recent events these past weeks.  At the root of the violence, racism, and despair are policies that have created and perpetuated systemic injustice.  There are not many spaces in our sound-byte-world where those connections can be made at both the head and the heart level publicly. Nuns on the Bus is one of those spaces.

Earlier this week as I was preparing for my first Nuns on the Bus experience, I ran across a quote from Dorothy Day that sums it all up for me.  She said that the greatest challenge of her day, and I’d say it’s even more urgent today, is “how to bring about a revolution of the heart.”  To those who questioned small efforts in the face of big problems, she said this:  “A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. Each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that. No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do.”

That is why so many people came out to the pre-launch blessing in Madison on Monday night, to cast pebbles into the pond, to add their signatures to the NOTB bus, to throw their lot in with the side of justice, goodness, and peace. As they blessed us on our journey, they found their way into our hearts and will journey with us.

So how to do we mend the gaps and reweave the fabric of our society? One step, one stop, one signature, one story, and one conversation at a time.  We cannot sit down and feel hopeless. There is still too much work to do in our revolution of the heart.

The 2016 election cycle has been marked by anger, fear, polarization, and hate. It is difficult to listen to the news or participate in ordinary discussions in our nation without encountering a high level of hostility. And so, the Nuns on the Bus are hitting the road again, visiting some of our nation’s most economically challenged communities and some of the most prosperous. At every stop, we will meet with Americans who are struggling. We will hear their stories and call on everyone running for office to listen as well, and to do everything in their power to mend the gap –  to close the vast and growing economic and social divides that are weakening the fabric of our country.

To “Reweave the Fabric of our Society” we must mend the wealth and income gap and the access gap.  Throughout our Nuns on the Bus trip, we’ll share our ideas for mending the gaps, and learn from those we encounter about the gaps they experience in their lives.

Follow the trip on Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr. Share your story with us. Attend a Nuns on the Bus event.

We look forward to our journey with you!