Finding at the Temple Revisited

Week 4 of Striking

I love Sunday hikes, especially now that I’ve started my rosary practice because I am so in tune to my thoughts, insights, and messages. I become so tapped in, especially as I silently pray all 15 mysteries of the rosary.

At Latourell Falls the other weekend, we were about to be entering our 3rd week of striking, and I was praying, enjoying the scenery. I realized at some point that there is a strong connection between the final mystery of the Joyous Mysteries: Finding at the Temple and this historic strike.

Before people get too bent out of shape about this Christian practice on this otherwise earth-based account, I want to remind you that the rosary is my relationship with the divine feminine as a whole, and it is (for me) a more ethical way to connect with ancestry as I am white, and not acknowledging the harm caused by Christianity over the millenia feels a lot like spiritual bypassing.

As I prayed and walked looking at the signs of fall, leaves turning, mushrooms sprouting, I was reflecting on my understanding of The Joyous Mysteries. I got to Finding at the Temple, and I began thinking about entering our 3rd week of striking. For me Finding at the Temple was Mary (the divine feminine) taking back control from potentially toxic masculinity/masculine energy. She decided as mother to teach her son rather than relying on corrupt men.

On the day of writing this love letter, we have entered week 4 of our strike. We have been defamed, threatened, and heckled. We have been shown nothing but disdain and disregard from district officials. By going on strike, we are coming together to fight the corrupt misers on top. I felt a deep connection to Mary as I prayed out on the trail that Sunday morning. It was a deep connection within this set of mysteries that I have struggled the most to connect with.

We are leading by example to stand up to the corrupt. We are instilling in our students (especially the older ones) not to let greedy leaders take advantage and turn you into a martyr for their yachts and clubs. As this mystery (to me) is a reclamation to of self from institutionalized corruption, it feels to fit very snuggly within the current reality of our situation.

We are fighting for safe schools, temperatures that are under 90 (some rooms are up to 115F) and above 60 (some rooms require students and teachers to have access to literal parkas and gloves), a removal the mold we’re breathing in, repairing ceiling tiles crashing on students’ and teachers’ bodies and desks. Teacher working conditions are student learning conditions. We want mental health and special education services to be funded. We also want a fair cost of living adjustment, not the 8% pay cut that the greedy misers are proposing. With the bonuses he receives (from teacher and student dedication and hard work), our superintendent makes more than the president of this country, but he will tell us over and over that there is no funding. No, there’s no funding for your salary and bonuses and the salaries of your lackeys. We will continue fighting for our students’ rights and our own.

This strike has been exhausting and defeating for so many union members. For me, it has been incredibly healing. Entering year 3 at my school, I am finally hanging out with and getting to know my coworkers. I am able to talk with my peers rather than being secluded to my classroom because I don’t have time for lunch, prep, etc. I have begun to feel included in a community for what feels like the first time ever in person. This strike has been healing. It has been empowering. It has also been exhausting physically. When I am down and out on the line because it is raining, and I’m cold and wet, I can now think back to that feeling of epiphany, feeling of wow, feeling of empowerment when I connected the dots between my prayer practice and the active fight for truth and abandonment of corruption.

I continue to pray for a fair resolution, a contract that protects us and our students, a contract that allows us to live with wages that cover basic needs. I continue to pray that the personal attacks and pettiness will stop, and that the misers on top will open their eyes to see that striking isn’t what we want, and we want to be back at work with our kids. By continuing to delay an agreement, the district is saving money by not serving the kids. They care only about the money, not the kids, and I pray for that to change, that their hearts open and find their humanity.

By the time you read this, I hope that we have had a tentative agreement that has been approved by the board, not shot down unanimously like today’s. I hope that you are able to rest this holiday weekend. When we are in the long, tenuous, arduous battles, it can wear down our souls. I know that everyone is fighting for something or someone right now, everyone.

How will you or how have you cared for yourself this week/end?