The Slender Sadness

"The Japanese have an expression that seems to capture the sense of pathos that is at the heart of our all too human dilemma: mono no aware, "the slender sadness. Simply by living we take life...

Treating our bodies and the bodies of others as precious stuff is not so easy, driven as we are by duty or desire, fear or confusion.

We are called to be honest about the struggle most of us face daily in living a wholesome life."
--Foreward: The Road is Your Footsteps by Joan Halifax in For a Future To Be Possible / Thich Nhat Hanh


Since reading this passage nearly a week ago I have felt the slender sadness. It is not a crushing feeling, nor a haunting one. The slender sadness I know is bittersweet, consuming, and in many ways, comforting...

I can best describe it as this.

On Thursday (Jan. 19) our law school community celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life with a commemoration program. The program consisted of two parts: a community "I Have A Dream" speech citation, and an address by Prof. Perry Wallace entitled, "Civil Rights: Openings and Challenges."

Dr. Wallace had led an impressive life. Today he is an American University Washington College of Law faculty member, specializing in environmental law and corporate governance. He claims many academic distinctions. He is probably best known, however, as a legendary collegiate basketball player. Prof. Wallace was the first black Southeastern Conference (SEC) player on Vanderbilt's all-white basketball team. He played, and he played very well, perhaps to some people's dismay, despite player and fan ire. Later he went on to Columbia's law school, and earned his law degree in 1975.

He shared this observation during his speech. Prof. Wallace attributes his cultural literacy abroad (his ability to immerse himself into new places overseas) to growing up Black during the Civil Rights Era South. His sensitivity--learned deferrence and humility--acute listening--are from his life-long experience of being a foreigner in America. He was a Black American who was estranged from his very home; he was treated as a foreigner in a familar land.

Prof. Wallace knows the slender sadness. Where he was denied the home he inevitably found elsewhere. Where there was spoiled soil, he sought the a stronger light.

His remark stayed with me while witnessing the impending Weekend Celebration here in DC. The joy around me is contagious, for which the reasons are numerous. If you stand still in the cold Washington air you can absorb the hopefulness, the happiness, the hollowness.

By hollowness I mean what Buddhists describe as one of the Three Liberation Doors--emptiness. A willingness to embrace anything that comes with the understanding that there is no separate self. We are One.

Certainly ahead of us are very difficult times, but what Barack Obama, and other hopeful people offer, as we stare into deep darkness, is an irrational courage. I am encouraged. We are as encouraged as we are afflicted. We celebrate, and we struggle, together. We are living the Dream.

Have a beautiful weekend, everyone!