If you were around in 1970, perhaps you remember the explosion that rocked a section of Greenwich Village in New York City.  It was the result of some misfiring in a session of bomb making by members of the Weather Underground, the leading protest and revolutionary group in the American Sixties.  Only one person escaped the explosion:  Kathy Boudin.  She died last week at the age of 1978.

    Although I didn't work directly with Kathy, I had interactions with some of her comrades in the movement.  The times in which we were active was one of the most volatile points in American history.  Dozens of books have been written about it.  Yes, Kathy made some grave mistakes:  consider the debacle of the 1981 Brinks truck robbery in which two policemen were killed.  Until her dying day, Kathy expressed remorse for what happened.

    On the other hand, from my standpoint, despite the many shortcomings of the revolutionary movements of the Sixties, overall, the nation emerged as a wiser country.  Fractured, but wiser.  Too many of the leaders of these movements are now gone forever.  But their legacy lives on.  As practitioners of Kintsugi know, sometimes the best art--and living--is done in the aftermath of sundering and brokenness.  If the revolutions can teach us anything, it is that sometimes we need to challenge and dismantle and break to find the way forward.

    Bigger picture, this seems intrinsic to the idea of the Cross.  Immense destruction and pain, yes, but out of it unimaginable newness and joy.