Just because daisies are a common flower, doesn’t mean they aren’t a special one. Daisies are native to Northern Europe but can be found in North America, Australia, Africa, South America and even Iceland and Greenland. The word daisy comes from the Old English language, “day’s eye” because its petals blossom at dawn and shut at dusk. What is considered a nuisance member of the weed family can also be used to supplement gardens and yards. Celebrate the tenaciously beautiful daisy every year on January 28.
Here’s a follow-up post to my recent series documenting my time in New Hampshire campaigning for Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson. This series ended on a note of uncertainty regarding the future of Marianne’s campaign.
This evening Marianne put an end to this uncertainty by sharing the following message to her supporters.
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You haven’t heard from me for several days, as I had to process what it meant for me that we had disappointing results in New Hampshire. This moment is a fork in the road, as I’ve had to decide whether now is the time for a dignified exit or continue on our campaign journey.
It has not been an easy decision. But one thing has stuck with me and overshadowed my thinking: If I were to leave now, I could go back to my life and I would be absolutely okay. But who would not be okay are the countless people who have come up to me at events and written to me over the last five days, who have seen in this campaign the hope that perhaps their chronic economic burdens and unearned suffering could be relieved.
They still do not have health care, they still hold huge college debt, they still have to work two or three jobs to make ends meet, and they still live with the constant fear of an environmental disaster. There would be no candidate left to discuss a Department of Peace, or a Department of Children and Youth, or the housing emergency, or ending the War on Drugs.
Therefore, I have decided to continue. We are not going to do what the establishment expects or demands of us. I have seen how our system works, and I will not just walk away. Money is used to squash people and that is wrong. The fact that that was done to me is inconsequential — but for far too many others, it is not inconsequential at all. For them — and with them — I dedicate the next phase of my campaign to smashing the machine that would mute my voice, and by extension, theirs.
Thank you so much for supporting me in the next phase of things. I promise we will rock it.
With true love and affection,
P.S. #SmashTheMachine
Please support our effort to inconvenience power, disrupt the corrupt, and smash the machine. We have 11 days before the Nevada primary in which to protest the coronation [of Joe Biden as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee].
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UPDATE: A message from Marianne Williamson to the voters of Nevada – February 1, 2024 . . .
Thirty years ago today I arrived in Minneapolis from Sydney, Australia for what, at the time, I thought would be a 3-4 year stay in the U.S. to complete my Masters in Theology at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul.
I completed that Masters (and a second) and I’ve been back to Australia many times since my relocation to the U.S. in 1994 (most recently last March), but only ever to visit family and friends. That’s because I have made a second home here in Minnesota, complete with many wonderful friends (many of whom have accepted me as family) and many years of very meaningful work – church reformwork, justice and peace work, civil rights work, meals-on-wheels work, political work, and, most recently, a vocation in palliative care chaplaincy. Looking back, I can discern how all these different kinds of involvement and work have brought me to the place I’m at today.
And that place has a depth dimension to it that’s grounded in a yearning to discern what’s next. For the past decade or so I’ve been feeling drawn back to Australia – to live and work there permanently. I just don’t know how exactly to make that transition.
What I do know is that the awareness of now having lived more years of my life in the U.S. than in Australia is quite sobering. It’s a state of mind and heart in which certain questions emerge: Is this what I want? Is this where I really want to be? And if I do return to Australia, where would I work? Could I continue the vocation I’m living out here and which I find so meaningful?
Lots of questions, to be sure.
I trust that I already have within me the answers to these questions. I just need to create the environment – the sacred time and space – for these answers to emerge.
Quieting, centering, aligning
To this end I’ve decided to cultivate a season of listening in my life. What that looks like on a practical level is the designating of time in my day within which I still my mind in quietness, center myself in loving awareness of the Divine Presence within and around me, and align myself with the flow of this presence. I really do trust that I need do nothing else; that the sacred, God, the Universe, the Living Light, the Beloved One – whatever name you want to call it – will do the rest.
My calling is to simply open myself to the flow of the sacred and allow this loving, transforming energy to guide my thoughts and actions. Intrinsic to this willingness on my part is my declaration to this Divine Presence that I am willing to see things differently, to change my perspective on anything and everything in order to be guided into a life of ever-deepening oneness with the flow of the sacred within and around me.
I feel that this type of willingness should be the constant living prayer of each and every one of us. Sure, different words can be used – traditional religious words, metaphysical words, whatever. But I trust that for all of us, the spiritual task is to be open to and welcoming of God in and through our lives, here and now. That being said, it seems that for me at this particular time in my life, the call to do this is especially powerful and especially clear.
One way I’m embodying this “season of listening” is by spending 5-10 minutes each morning in the Center of Reflection and Renewal at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. This is where I’m currently working. Yes, normally I’m based at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, but I’ve switched places with the Palliative Care chaplain at Abbott for the winter, which works well for both of us. Both hospitals are within the Allina healthcare system, so such a switch is possible. In fact, you may recall I was at Abbott for part of last summer; and back in 2017-2018 I did my chaplain residency here.
Abbotts’s Center for Reflection and Renewal is a beautiful space to engage in the process of awakening mentioned above – quieting, centering, aligning – so as to attune myself to the “still small voice” within, the discerning voice within, and, in doing so, find grounding and balance in preparing for my work day as the hospital’s Palliative Care chaplain. It’s work which, as I’m sure you can imagine, has its share of demands and challenges.
But for at least five minutes or so every morning, I surrender to God all thoughts of such demands and challenges. I walk the Center’s labyrinth, visualize myself at one with God, and feel myself aligned with the flow of transforming love and light that is God.
And I trust that such openness on my part will and does make a difference as I leave the peace and quiet of the aptly named Center of Reflection and Renewal and go about my day.
I also trust that this morning practice will guide me in listening for – and to – the answers I seek in my life at this time.
As an admirer of American actor André Holland, I was happy to learn that his latest film received high praise earlier this month at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival.
Titled Exhibiting Forgiveness, the film has been described as a “powerful story of an artist forced to reconnect with his abusive father.” It’s also being lauded as the “striking debut” of artist-turned-filmmaker Titus Kaphar.
Following is an excerpt from David Canfield’s Vanity Fairreview of Exhibiting Forgiveness, a film which Canfield contends serves as André Holland’s “acting master class.”
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Titus Kaphar is used to a person taking in his art for, on average, about 27 seconds. The decorated contemporary painter has his work displayed in museums around the world, typically hung on gleaming white walls for passersby to stop, take a look, form an opinion, and move on. “Maybe they’re disinterested, maybe there’s something that was distracting them, whatever – the reality is, they don’t know where the work comes from,” Kaphar says. “They don’t know what the work is rooted in.”
He’s been thinking about this especially as he prepares to unveil his first feature film, Exhibiting Forgiveness (bowing at Sundance on Sunday), a memoiristic drama which provides that very context. “Being able to engage with the viewer over a two-hour period is not something that, as a painter, I get,” he says. “Film allows us to talk about before and after.”
One senses over the course of Exhibiting Forgiveness, an emotionally exhilarating debut layered with striking visuals, that Kaphar is a quick study. He had no conception of how to make a narrative feature coming into this. The movie originated as a sort of private documentary project, drawn from Kaphar’s difficult upbringing and his actual, recorded conversation with his father after 15 years of estrangement. He wanted to explain where he came from to his sons, to reveal himself to them through his art. Those conversations reignited memories. The memories led to writing. The writing inspired new paintings. And the paintings ultimately informed the final film, a fictionalized – if still profoundly personal – story of a successful artist named Tarrell (André Holland) who, upon a return visit to his hometown, is forced to confront the father, La’Ron (John Earl Jelks), who failed him as a child. In turn, he faces down his own artistic identity.
“Not every single moment in this film comes from life, but every single moment in this film is filled with truth,” Kaphar says. “Fiction really gave me the freedom to tell a lot of truth.”
A lot of that truth comes from Holland, who gives a career-best performance in the kind of showcase role he’s long deserved. Best known for lauded supporting turns in The Knick and Moonlight, he brings an astounding vulnerability to Tarrell, a result of his close collaboration with Kaphar. He’s matched by two Oscar nominees at the top of their game in a warm Andra Day as his musician wife, Aisha, and a ferocious Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as his conflicted mother, Joyce [pictured above with Holland’s character Tarrell]. But Holland is never more riveting than when opposite theater veteran Jelks, embodying a recovering addict struggling to grasp the havoc he’s wrecked. One particularly intimate scene, which Kaphar says is near-verbatim to an actual encounter in his life, overwhelmed the director as he watched his star in action.
“André’s delivery was so extraordinary, it broke my heart – these are things that I have experienced,” Kaphar says. “Watching him deliver those lines hit me so hard that I had to leave the set for half an hour, because I could not stop crying.”
Holland and Kaphar first connected through a mutual friend, Moonlight’s Oscar-winning scribe Tarell Alvin McCraney. The director always knew this was the guy for his movie. After receiving the script, Holland was immediately on board, and went up to New Haven, Connecticut, to spend time with Kaphar in his art studio. “We fell for each other as artists,” Holland says. “He had seen some of my work and was excited to see me take on something that was a bit larger in scope, and that was challenging in different ways – which is also something that I’ve wanted for some time too. It was a gift to me to get a chance to do it.” Kaphar gave his actor total access; he didn’t hold back in revealing the deepest personal inspirations, even those not seen in the film, that drove a singular exploration of childhood trauma.
“It touched that thing in me that made me go, ‘Yep, I want to be a part of this,’” Holland says. “I don’t want to forget that feeling. I got it when Moonlight came along, and I got it with this project.”
. . . Holland still remembers what was going through his head the first time he visited Kaphar’s studio, after reading a draft of Exhibiting Forgiveness. “I was gobsmacked by just the scale, the detail, the beauty of the work – and then was terrified thinking about, How in the world am I meant to replicate any version of that?” he says. On day one, Kaphar tasked Holland with mixing paints. He demonstrated how to hold brushes. He showed him how to make marks on canvas. Holland’s fears around replicating the work of a renowned artist were matched by his dedicated approach to the craft. He’s the kind of actor that won’t, can’t fake it. He needed to be a full-time student, and went step by step. “We were learning all the way up until the last day,” Holland says.
Kaphar hasn’t shown many people that documentary he was working on that initially led to Exhibiting Forgiveness, that opened the artistic dialogue about his reunion with his father. But he did show it to Holland, the beginning of a long, active, intensely intimate collaboration that you sense, in conversation, remains ongoing. “Derek Cianfrance, my producer and mentor on this film, said to me, ‘One of the most important things that you can do as a director is choose people you trust, and let them be great’ – that’s primarily what I did,” Kaphar says. “What did I feel comfortable with? Almost nothing. None of this is familiar. But there were so many times where I was on set, watching André engage with other members of the cast and completely forgetting to yell cut, because he’s that enrapturing.” Based on Holland’s performance, there’s a director with good instincts.
Above: André Holland, from left, Titus Kaphar and John Earl Jelks attend the premiere of “Exhibiting Forgiveness” at the Eccles Theatre during the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, January 20, 2024, in Park City, Utah. (Photo: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Above: The cast of Exhibiting Forgiveness with the film’s director Titus Kaphar. From left: John Earl Jelks, Andra Day, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Titus Kaphar, and André Holland.
It’s day four of five for us, and it started early – really early – as today is the actual day of the New Hampshire primary.
As volunteers with Marianne’s campaign, Kate and I had signed-up to do electioneering at all five polling places in Salem, the New Hampshire town where we’re staying. And so starting at 6:45 a.m., we stood outside our first polling site holding signs that read, “Marianne Williamson for President 2024.”
Now, unless a voter comes up to us and initiates a conversation, we can’t by law engage with them, other than by saying “Hello” or something like, “Thank you for voting today.” Our primary purpose (no pun intended) was to remind people that Marianne is on the ballot and thus is someone for whom they can vote.
Above: Of course, we weren’t the only people holding signs outside polling places today. There were folks electioneering for the major candidates of both parties – Donald Trump and Nikki Haley on the Republican side; and, along with Marianne, Dean Phillips on the Democratic side.
There were also folks in support of President Joe Biden (a Democrat), even though he is not on the ballot. These folks were holding signs encouraging Democratic and Independent voters to be part of a “write-in campaign” for Biden. (For a lively discussion by Briahna Joy Gray and Robby Soave on the Biden write-in campaign, and how it might backfire and embarrass the president, click here.)
While electioneering, Kate and I were in regular contact with Marianne's campaign headquarters as it was possible that Marianne herself might stop by certain polling sites throughout the day. As it turned out, she was kept busy for much of the day doing interviews with various media outlets, including a great 15-minute interview with the progressive news show Democracy Now!
Above: Winning over a Trumpster! . . . The canine variety at least.
But seriously, throughout the day Kate and I had some very meaningful conversations with Trump supporters. Most of them politely told us that they "like a lot of what Marianne says" but that they couldn't bring themselves to vote for a Democrat.
Overwhelmingly, Joe Biden was the number one target of Trump supporters with whom we spoke. Indeed, their disdain for Biden bordered on the pathological. And of course, everything of which they accuse Biden – his age, cognitive state, corruption – can just as readily be applied to Trump. And in the case of corruption, provenly so. That they could no see this was both perplexing and disturbing, and reconfirmed for me the cultishness of Trumpism.
Above: Standing with two Trump supporters at the last polling place Kate and I electioneered today.
Left: Kate with Greg, a Biden supporter.
Greg shared with me that he was not happy that Biden was running; that ultimately a progressive like Marianne Williamson should lead both the Democratic party and the country. Yet with Trump the likely Republican nominee, Greg felt that it was only Biden who could defeat him. This was a refrain I heard from a number of Biden supporters, but it’s not one supported by the current polling data which has Biden either neck-and-neck with Trump or losing to him.
Following are excerpts from Isabella Murray’s ABC Newsreport on the Democratic challengers to Biden. Entitled, “Biden Has Two Primary Challengers in New Hampshire: How Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson Are Campaigning,” this article was published late this afternoon.
In the final days of campaigning for Republicans ahead of their closely watched presidential primary in New Hampshire on Tuesday, two Democratic candidates have been trying to make their own kind of splash – similarly traversing the state in a race where their leading opponent is notably absent.
Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and author and speaker Marianne Williamson are challenging incumbent President Joe Biden for the 2024 Democratic nomination.
They each face a steep challenge, as Democrats at nearly every level of the party – from the national committee to state leaders – have rallied behind Biden while polling shows neither Phillips or Williamson has gotten much momentum with voters.
That hasn’t deterred them, though, even as a protracted dispute over scheduling has technically rendered New Hampshire’s primary results irrelevant for actually winning the presidential nomination.
Biden also declined to campaign in the state or be listed on the primary ballot because of the calendar fight between the state and the DNC – but Phillips and Williamson have been trying to use New Hampshire as a launching pad for their own candidacies.
. . . Williamson, who entered the race in March 2023, has held over 200 events across over 300 towns in the state. She’s been in New Hampshire for 17 straight days, participating in over 85 events just this month.
She told ABC News' Jonathan Karl last year that “I don’t see myself as running against Joe Biden. I see this campaign as challenging a system.”
Williamson has expressed optimism in the message she’s been able to relay to New Hampshire voters – an “economy of hope and opportunity” and an overhaul of health care and environmental wellness, among other issues, as her campaign website states.
“I feel when I speak to audiences, I feel heard and I feel this enthusiasm for our message. Getting out to enough people is hard. I don’t have the multimillion-dollar ad campaigns. We don’t have those kinds of resources,” she said in an interview with ABC News.
“New Hampshire will decide,” she continued. “If my numbers are high enough and I have the money, I’ll be going on to the next state. If not, I will hold my head high, proud of the messages that we gave and what this campaign stood for.”
. . . Williamson, in her final pitch to voters on the night ahead of primary day, said “we need fundamental economic reform and that’s really where America is today. Joe Biden . . . really wants to help people. He wants to help people survive what is inherently an unjust economic system. I want to end the injustice. It’s not enough to just help people.”
Melinda LaBarge, a Williamson voter from Keene, has hinged her support for the candidate upon that economic message, especially when compared to Biden’s approach, she said.
“She’s right when she says the system as it is is not going to disrupt itself. And the economic inequality in our country that she’s speaking about, I believe is probably our biggest issue that I do not feel President Biden or President Trump are addressing,” LaBarge said at a Williamson event in Hooksett on Monday.
Despite the picture painted by the polls, [both Phillips and Williamson] are insistent that there’s a path for them to break through in the largely independent state.
“I have a number, I have a general number,” Williamson said of the expectations she has for her performance on primary night, nodding when asked by ABC News if she was looking for a finish in the double-digit range.
“But you know, it’s interesting – when I’ve talked to people over the last few days, so many people haven’t even decided who they’re voting for yet,” Williamson said, though she noted that she wasn’t distinctly targeting undecided voters over Democrats. (Independent voters can cast ballots in either the Republican or Democratic primary.)
David Fine of Portsmouth is a volunteer for Williamson and has been working for the campaign since July. He, too, said that one of the largest barriers to her success is name identification, despite her previous presidential run.
“Name recognition for Marianne is weak, was weak and it’s still pretty weak. But I think it’s going to change in a few days . . . we got so many undecided people, this thing here could turn,” he said at one of Williamson’s events in Portsmouth.
Above: Marianne Williamson at her campaign headquarters in Manchester, New Hampshire – Tuesday evening, January 23, 2024.
When Kate and I arrived at the campaign office for the scheduled election results watch party, we immediately sensed the heaviness in the room.
The mood was somber and some of those present were crying. We soon ascertained that results were coming in, and it was clear that Marianne’s campaign was not getting the results that she – or any of us – was hoping for.
What would this mean for the future of the campaign? No one seemed to know.
At one point I found myself alone with Marianne. I told her what a great job I thought she’d done with the Democracy Now! interview earlier in the day. I also shared that I wished that they and other media outlets had started covering her campaign months ago.
“Yes,” she said sadly, looking beyond me and the room, “where were they?”
I gently brought her back to the moment by saying, “You know, one of my favorite prayers of yours is ‘A New Day,’ from Illuminata. I love how it speaks of the ‘beauty, light, and possibilities’ that each new day brings; how in the midst of uncertainty and disappointment, a new day offers us the ‘chance to begin again, free from the limitations of yesterday.’”
She looked at me intently, her eyes conveying a dawning awareness of what it was I was trying to convey.
“Yes,” she said with a smile, “I think I need to read that one again.”
In time, Marianne and members of her core team (including Rep. Jonah Wheeler) convened an impromptu strategy meeting (above), one which they soon expanded so as to include all of us in the room – about 25 people in total.
Marianne openned this larger gathering with a prayer-from-the-heart. She then proceeded to invite comments, questions and perspectives from all of us who were sharing with her what felt like a sacred space. Powerful statements of love, respect and gratitude were shared, and Marianne listened and responded with candor, grace, and humility. It was a profound and moving experience, and one that I will always remember.
In time, Marianne brought our discussion to a close. Then, rising from her seat, she suggested we all go and kick-back at a nearby bar. Refreshments, she said with a smile, would be on her.
