Exitus-Reditus

And the race against hate

It’s been a day.

I was sleeping so well that when I looked at my clock and saw it was 630, my first thought was “This is so great. I’m not ready for this to end.”

My second thought was “Oh no! Today’s the 5k!”.

So I sprang out of bed (speaking metaphorically), washed my face and drank a smoothie (literal), and jumped on the train (metaphorical). I rendezvoused with the son and his mother and alongside thousands of others began our “race against hate” - the annual Ricky Byrdsong 5k/8k here in Evanston.

At first, we were so packed together it was hard to pick up much pace. (My bad leg does better when I can pick up a pace). But we hung back at the turn and then made a detour to a dear friend’s mobile coffee kart. That set us at the very back of the pack, but now with coffee in hand. We saw lots of other people we love and celebrated the good work that emerged out of this horrible crime twenty-six years ago.

We have to race against hate because hate never slows down.

Then we met up with my son-in-law and granddaughter and all of us went to breakfast for Father’s Day. We were missing my daughter, who is in the hospital a mile away.

Tonight I’m plum tuckered out, but still hope to visit my daughter before bed.

Today was also Trinity Sunday. I don’t really know much about “the Trinity”. This is the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed so it’s probably a good year to brush up on all of that. I can accept that it’s a theological keystone and still be confident I’m better at reciting it than understanding or explaining it.

The only explanation that has ever had any appeal or made much intuitive sense to me was the exitus-reditus structure in Thomas Aquinas: all of creation flows forth from God as its source and returns to union with God. I find that a very comforting thought - especially when I see so much that I don’t want to ever let go of.

The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.

– Ecclesiastes 1


And so do all of us.