How Surreal!

I was just reading an article that Kathy Kelly wrote for www.commondreams.org and I am reminded of my first exposure to here about two months ago. I didn’t even know who she was. “Some activist lady that is receiving an award,” they told me. I met her at a peace and social justice church. I shook her hand and we talked about my experience being a Jesuit Volunteer. She seemed shy, this woman in black tights and an outfit from the 1980’s to match. She gave the sermon that Sunday about her arrest and detainment at a prison. She spoke about the horrible realities of prison and she talked about the war in Iraq. Apparently she is an activist, because now I hear about her all the time. She was a speaker at the SOA rally, and one morning while sitting in my hotel in Georgia, sipping coffee, Kathy Kelly comes striding down the stairs. How unreal!

She begins to get breakfast just like everyone else. Sits down and mingles with people. She still has that certain shyness. I remember her, and think, “oh ya, she’s a normal person.” But is she? And then she starts passing out brownies; some special mint brownies that So and So made! How surreal!

They were good brownies too! And now I think of Kathy Kelly, the woman I met, the one who gets arrested for civil disobedience and also passes out brownies the morning before a huge protest. Amazing!