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Tonight I am waiting for my friends, fellow pilgrims to India, to arrive home from India. Their flight from New Delhi, the same flight I took over a week ago, was supposed to arrive at 5:15 this morning at O’Hare in Chicago. When they did not call this morning for a ride here from the bus station I called the airlines to find out that their plane was delayed for over 15 hours and they would be arriving at O’Hare around now, 10:30 PM. I was with them three weeks ago when we were delayed for 7 hours in New Delhi on the plane due to fog on our flight to Hyderabad, the beginning of our pilgrimage. Waiting in an airport or plane seems to be becoming a more commonplace experience these days.
I learned many years ago that learning how to wait is an important thing to learn. I have experienced that, outside of air travelers, the persons who wait the most are the poor. I can remember waiting in long lines with persons for basic community services, shelter, food and health care.
Waiting is particularly difficult in America when we have a keen sense of being on time. In India and many other countries when things usually do not start on time, waiting is just accepted as part of life. People read, relax, pray while they wait. Persons in other countries know that worrying about being on time or waiting really does not change much, but can increase anxiety and suffering. A gardener or farmer must learn how to wait gracefully, for the right time to plant, water and to harvest.
Today I placed on the www.nonviolentworm.org a memorial page for my friend Jim Harney, a member of the Milwaukee 14 who died from terminal cancer just before our pilgrimage. I am thinking a lot about Jim these days as I put pictures on the Pilgrimage of Peace web page, since Jim was a photojournalist. As a photojournalist he documented in pictures and words the undocumented, the poor, and immigrants who often came to the USA looking for a livelihood. Working with the marginalized and undocumented, Jim learned a lot about waiting.
When I first met Jim in 1968 he was an intense and passionate person in a rush to do justice. When we renewed our friendship a few years ago he was still intense and passionate but had a calm and peace about him. When he found out that he was to die he made the most of his waiting, organizing a march in solidarity with the undocumented in Maine and attending a celebration of his life for his life.
Waiting always comes to an end. I just heard from my friends and fellow pilgrims that they have arrived at O’Hare airport and will be here in a few hours. Also I just saw an email notice that my longtime teacher and friend Fr. Robert Purcell S.J., the person who taught me the most about waiting, has died. I remember once waiting a long time outside of his office to see him. The first thing he asked me is what I did while I was waiting for him. Fortunately I had just learned about the Jesus Prayer and a breathing exercise and happily told him that I had been practicing it while I waited.
Father Purcell S.J. was the person who taught me speech and how to write an observation diary, something that has carried over to this Diary of the Worm. Fr. Purcell, 89, had been sick and waiting to die for a long time. Although his body was very weak his mind remained strong. The last time I visited him at the nursing home I brought him a copy of one of my daily observations in this diary, the one about the Blessed Trinity and A Worm. He was proud of me, as he was of all of his students. There is much more I can say about Fr. Purcell but that will have to wait. Right now I must get ready to wait for my fellow pilgrims.
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