OOOOklahoma

My rowing teammates and I spent a wonderful  weekend in Oklahoma City recently competing in the Masters Nationals Championships. When we weren't rowing or running for cover from the several electrical storms, we were running around seeing important things in the City. We went to the National Cowboy and Western Hall of Fame, unfortunately named, since a large part of their collection focuses on Native American art and history.

I  spent a lot of time photographing a series of bronze scuptures of Native leaders. This picture of a man's fist was the best one I took. And when I got home, it reminded me of a snippet from Catherine of Siena's Dialogue, in which Catherine and God are having a conversation about justice and mercy. The narration says:

"so in obedience to the most high Father, she raised her eyes, and she saw within his closed fist the entire world. And God said "my daughter, see now and know that no one can be taken away from me. Everyone  is here as I  said, either in justice or in mercy. They are mine; I created them,and I love them ineffably." (Dialogue 18)

So I've been pondering the closed fist. Before taking this photograph, my internal words for a closed fist would have been: hard, ready to fight, closed. But Catherine's image gives me words like closeness, safety, courage, groundedness. I love these knuckles which left me feeling safe and secure, kind of like what God said.