What a troubling news day yesterday was. So much bad news from Egypt, Syria, and the US of A. So much to despair over. In the midst of it, though, was this story about Antoinette Tuff, the elementary school bookkeeper in Decatur, GA who talked down a 20-year-old with an AK-47 and likely prevented a massacre. If you haven't watched the video (here's the link again), it's well worth the 16 minutes.
What calls to me in this story is the incredible spiritual power that Tuff embodies. At 6:20 she talks about her pastor's teaching recently about "anchoring in the Lord." She anchored herself during that terrifying, overwhelming moment and then acted out of a place of love and compassion. She prayed. And then she told this shooter that she loved him, that he didn't have to die, that his life could turn around. She shared her story, of hardships she'd endured in the past year, and she appealed to him to give his life another chance.
It made all the difference.
At times, I underestimate the importance of "anchoring" in the Spirit. It's so easy for my energy to go elsewhere. Often, my energy goes straight to my head, bypassing my heart. I retreat to parsing the politics and the power dynamics. I analyze. I make my judgments. None of that is wrong in itself, but Antoinette Tuff reminds me of something deeply true that I too often forget. If not grounded in Love, all the acting and thinking so often wanders astray.
What I forget, too, is the incredible power in such spiritual grounding. It is a counter-cultural power - not based in intellectual reasoning or physical force (the two holy grails of our society, you might say). She showed a power based in a connection to something larger than herself, which encompassed both her and the man with the gun who faced her. It's a power rooted in vulnerability. (Which, in all honesty, is one reason I shy away from it!) But that power moved an armed and dangerous man. It stopped a massacre.
In practice, Antionette Tuff's power was that she valued the life in front of her. We live in the age of Trayvon Martin and Oscar Grant, in a society that says it's ok to use lethal force against people who seem suspicious - let alone someone armed and ready to kill young children. Yet Tuff's vision was bigger. She looked into this man's eyes and saw someone who was ill and in need of healing - not just a "bad guy with a gun." Had the shooter instead faced hostility and gunfire, we can be sure that at least he would be dead and likely many more.
Today I am grateful for Antoinette Tuff, not only for the lives she saved, but also for the reminder of what is possible when we ground ourselves and claim authority in love.
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