The words on the yard sign read, in part, “Love Wins”, and I remembered:

During the summer of 1973, the Sanitation Workers in Newark, N.J., were on strike. Amid the reeking garbage which filled the sidewalks, I was coordinating a neighborhood day camp for children and youth in a small mission church. The children were still enthusiastic; the older youth were somewhat jaded as they struggled to thrive in a neighborhood characterized by vacant dirt lots strewn with broken glass and pieces of concrete as well as used condoms and drug paraphernalia.

One day, during that hot, dry summer, eight-year-old Karon took my hand and led me down the street to her garden. With love and cupfuls of water, she nurtured her garden in the midst of the ruin. When we arrived at the vacant lot, I beheld the most beautiful dandelion I had ever seen. My heart was both broken, to know that most people would see only a weed, and yet filled with a new awareness of the power of love.

Karon’s love had won. Had won over destruction and despair. Her one act of love did not change the neighborhood. Its impact may have affected only Karon and myself. But when two and two and fifty become a million children and adults nurturing the beauty of a dandelion, the beauty will spread (as dandelions will do).

In the adapted words of a 60s protest song:

“Just one heart can’t turn the world around;

Just two hearts can’t turn the world around.

But when two and two and fifty make a million

We’ll see the change love makes…”

(“One Man’s Hands” was written by Alex Comfort, 1920-2000 and recorded by Pete Seeger during the Civil Rights Movement.)

Our nation is broken. It is characterized by the reeking odor of hatred and strewn with the broken promise of “Liberty and Justice for All”. Now is the time to join our hands and hearts together, as friends, neighbors and strangers, faith communities, and others, through groups like Northeast Addison County Indivisible Chapter. Let us write the words on our yard signs large enough to see from coast-to-coast that Love — bold and selfless and risky — Wins.

Love Wins!

Patti Welch

Bristol