Driving down Christopher Road in south St. Louis County on Thursday (August 23) afternoon, I was tossing around thoughts in my head as to who to pray for; what to pray for; what thoughts to write; wondering aloud what direction my mind would take on this retreat—my sixteenth year of making this retreat at the Jesuit managed White House Retreat Center.

I named many names, starting with family and friends in need of hope and prayer. I added many business friends—many of who I think of as family—and I ended with good people I have met along life’s way that simply need a little love and direction.

I figured that was enough to get me started—God would direct me further if needed.

As far as writing, surely, I would record a poem or two—a rough guess would be I have penned over 75 poems on these grounds over the past 17 years. Some worth keeping; some for the relief of my mind only.

I am also hoping to put some structure around my thoughts of writing a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly news letter tentatively titled “THE MINORITY CONNECTION” or “PEOPLE NEWS”. This would be in conjunction with my work with PEOPLE. I must say though that I typically steer clear of any topics remotely resembling work or the everyday.

Where will this weekend take me? Four days of silence; loads of free time; pondering and reflecting the norm of the day.

And so, today a direction took place. We prayed for racial healing. To be more specific we prayed for help “in the battle of today against violence, indifference, and racism.” This “Prayer for Racial Healing” was recited in unison by 87 Caucasian white men and ZERO African-American men or for that matter, any men of any minority race. I wondered if anyone amongst this group of retreatants in this historic chapel felt the meaning and the need and the purpose of this prayer as much as I did? I sure hope so.

Our world is filled with indifference; plagued by violence; and overpowered with racism. We are led by a President that preaches and promotes “violence, indifference, and racism” every day; often multiple times daily. Unfortunately for the health of our country, our President has many followers and way too few detractors. This prayer for racial healing would not fit into the vocabulary of his followers or match their thought process in any way.

I felt lost and alone after reciting this prayer today with eighty-six friends. I also felt lost, alone, sad and remorseful for our country. I wish that were not the case.

The prayer ends as follows: “Hear our prayer, O Lord, and give us the perseverance to be a voice for life, justice and human dignity in our community.”

I love that ending and may well make those words my rally cry for PEOPLE. Maybe this prayer is why I came to this retreat this year?

If we are ever going to win the war against violence, indifference and racism, we must accept each other; forgive each other; respect each other’s hopes and dreams; be kind and helpful to each other; and remember that “it is not complicated; we are all just PEOPLE.”

In my last book titled “POEMS, PRAYERS AND PROMISES—and things that I believe in,” I wrote a piece entitled “WHY DO I GO ON RETREAT?” In that piece part of the reasoning is: “I go to read things I would never read; to write things I would never write; to think thoughts I would never think; and to pray prayers I would never pray”. I did all these things in the last four days.

And so, another successful retreat and if all goes as planned all my PEOPLE friends and supporters will see benefits in the days ahead.

Thanks for supporting PEOPLE in the cause for diversity and inclusion on all work sites in the St. Louis area.