This past year has been particularly moving for me regarding the deaths of many wonderful people—I would even call them saints—whom I have known or worked with over the years. It began with the death of Buddhist teacher and activist Joanna Macy.
I invited you, DM readers, to develop a practice of meditating on the goodness and even holiness of people in your lives. It is healthy to honor the greatness of our ancestors, including those near to us. As one gets older (I will be 85 next month), one must expect more and more of one’s contemporaries, co-workers, and friends to pass on.
Maybe this is one reason we traditionally expect some wisdom from our elders–that they are nearer to death themselves and also to death around them. The point being that death can—no guarantees—put perspective on life. And we all can use perspective on life and its meaning and purpose at whatever age we are along the journey, whether in our twenties or mid-age or retirement/refirement time or beyond.
I was reminded of this truth again this weekend when participating in a Celebration of Life Ceremony for Aeesha Clottey at the Episcopal All Souls Parish in Berkeley, California. Many people who knew her, including some of her remaining siblings, were in attendance. She was the youngest in an African American family of 12 children who grew up in a small town in Louisiana during the pre-Civil Rights era of deep segregation. I was struck to learn that all 12 children went to college, and she got a full scholarship to the University of California in Berkeley.
Aeesha was on my board at the University of Creation Spirituality and was a special advisor to me on many occasions. She was a fierce champion of our Cosmic Mass and supporter of our YELLAWE program for inner city teenagers. She and her husband Kokomon, who was a long-time drummer from Ghana, served their community in West Oakland in many ways. They discovered the work of Jerry and Diane Jampolsky, known as Attitudinal Healing Connection, and created the Center for ArtEsteem, which brought creativity and the arts to high schools all over the Bay Area. Their daughter, Anna Harris Leamy, author of books on superheroes, which inspire many of the programs for youth, runs that impressive organization now and gave a eulogy at the service.
Aeesha and Kokomon wrote two books together based on principles from the Attitudinal Healing Connection, including Color Theory: Race is a Powerful Illusion and Eternal Quest for Happiness, and they directed healing programs, including Mindful Drumming Circles, Racial Healing Circles, The Good Neighbor Project, and Unleashing the Human Spirit Retreats.
Each Martin Luther King Feast Day, the University of Creation Spirituality (UCS) would link up with the Taylor Memorial Church on 12th Street in West Oakland and mix the church congregation and our students, faculty, and staff. It was a holy and special holiday for us all and often included a guest speaker and local musical talent. The joyful and uplifting celebration was followed by a wonderful sit-down lunch prepared by church members, where lots of interaction happened. In a couple of my brief talks on MLK day there, I composed some rap poems that I shared with the attendees and reproduced in my autobiography, Confessions: The Making of a Post-denominational Priest.
When UCS ended, Aeesha and Kokomon generously and courageously carried on the MLK project for several more years, and they especially celebrated the youth by creating awards each MLK day to honor young high school leaders in Oakland high schools. Aeesha was always thinking about ways to serve the younger generation. To be continued.
Banner Image: Matthew Fox with Aeesha Clottey, November 16, 2019. From Matthew Fox’s photo archive.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you agree that death gives us an important perspective on life? How do you fit that perspective into your everyday decision-making and living of life? How do the ancestors and deceased loved ones inspire you?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Confessions: The Making of a Postdenominational Priest, pp. 332f., 353-359, 405-416.
The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision For a New Generation by Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox
4 thoughts on “Aeesha Clottey: A Friend, Co-Worker, Champion for Love & Justice”
Many years ago, as a young man, late one night I fell into a trance and saw myself as a very old man on the verge of death. I knew in that moment I could make a wish and wished to be young again. I then awoke and saw that I was that same old man now young again. Shortly afterwards I wrote this poem that I called “Time and Direction”…
“Where am I going?”
I asked myself one day.
I smiled at this, then smiling still said
“To the grave.”
“But what will I pass?”, I asked again that day.
“Oh, this and that,”I thought
For I was thinking now,
“But nothing much”, I mused.
Then stirring on this point
I sensed that I would greatly miss
So much of life
Unless I thought about it now;
And there I sat,
A long, long time ago.
Death gives wonderful perspective: Life is important – profoundly important, and equally beautiful. We just need to remember that.
For various reasons we don’t often dwell or think about our mortality. But since this is the theme of today’s DM, and I’ll be turning 82 in January, here are a few personal thoughts/feelings about my approaching death. I feel that our Souls are immortal and that there is a spiritual afterlife as has been experienced and written about by various people who seem to be genuine and also gifted psychically about these spiritual realms. Some of these beliefs and experiences are about the reincarnation of our Eternal Souls. One example of a deceased researcher is Michael Newton, Ph.D., who founded the Michael Newton Institute whose members continue his research and service to others. So I am personally not afraid of death, and look forward to further experiences and adventures of my Soul/Spirit with others, including possible reunions with loved ones who have already passed the veil into the spiritual realms which are intimately close and connected to our physical realms. Through my recent studies of Incarnational Spirituality (revived in the writings of David Spangler, lorian.org), I am trying to be more sensitive/conscious to the spiritual beings of the subtle realms present within and around us in nature as part of our living and Sacred Mother Earth. Spiritually I am open to continued healing and transformation on my spiritual journey — Being~Becoming LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS with All ongoing Creation/Evolution in the Sacred Spirit/Flow of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT….
As I reflect on the goodness and holiness of people I see the work/play of most holy Wisdom and how “in every generation She passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God and prophets”. Wis 7: 27
Presently I am blest with the theology of Constance Fitzgerald, OCD. and many others who have dedicated their lives of holiness for our benefit and for the world. Each morning I am grateful to Matthew and his team who offer wisdom and hope in these disconcerting times….surely ‘friends of God and Prophets’.
Seventy-eight springs young, I approach death as liberation and as a welcome rest after a long journey, but also as a deep dive into a mysterious ocean. As far as my retrospection on life is concerned, I wish I could say that the world I experience today is “better” than the world I inherited, but the truth is that, through the lens of my dreams of universal brotherhood and love, it seems to have gone the other way. However, my capacity to experience awe having steadily increased along the path, when I look at the world through the lens of wonderment, I see it as “much better” and I am deeply moved and endlessly grateful to be part of this awesome Mystery. I nevertheless agree with Rilke when he asks in his 8th Duino elegy:
“Who formed us thus:
that always, despite
our aspirations, we wave
as though departing?
Like one lingering to look,
from a high final hill,
out over the valley he
intends to leave forever,
we spend our lives saying
goodbye.”
[Translated by Robert Hunter, https://rilkepoetry.com/duino-elegies/eighth-duino-elegy/%5D
Regarding our ancestors and departed loved one, John 4:38 is my long-held answer and source of gratitude: “I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from their labor.”