Charlie Kirk: A Time for Healing
Charlie Kirk’s life and death has called forth an abundance of deeply felt responses from our country. Though I did not know of him before his passing, I now feel a sense of his beingness from many videos of him sharing his feelings, thoughts and beliefs. A few weeks ago, I lost my beloved sister, Pat. Grief is a mystery of life we often cannot comprehend until we are in it. And I am in it. I am open and seek to understand who Charlie Kirk was, with no pre-conceived ideas. Noticing the immense impact he had, not only in America, but in the world, I am witnessing the depth in people’s responses, whether seemingly negative or positive, that to me cry out as the anguish of a nation and a world in need of healing.
Part of my experience of grieving is the pain of separation from my loved one. Separation can be experienced as physical, emotional or spiritual, or all. I see our nation in crisis, as if suffering in all those ways, and that in this moment it may seem almost impossible to heal. Are we grieving more than the loss of a leader, perhaps the loss of a dream of the strength of faith and hope of unity he may have represented? Or, are we angry at the hollowness inside now, that replaced our sense of hopefulness as youth? Was our sense of national identity and belonging fractured from many years of social and political contrivances meant to control us rather than bring us together? Are we grieving separation from loved ones, friends, colleagues, or from life as we once knew it? Can we move beyond cynicism to listening and respecting each other without pre-packaged judgements? Can we heal what has been torn apart by artificial political divisions? Consider the words “One nation under God,” a promise, a trust inscribed somewhere in our collective memory.
In the inner silence invited during the memorial service for my sister and since then, I have felt the deep pain of separation, yet also a call to heal that pain as only a separation within myself rather than between us, knowing how deeply our souls are intertwined. I wonder if this could be true of our relationship to our nation as well, our essential true spirit is one of unity, “from the many, one”? Though our answers may be different, I am acknowledging there is some relationship each of us has with the country of our birth. There are multi-layered connections to our culture, our history, the heritage we are a part of, and the land itself that speaks to us as our ancestors do. Depending on our feelings of resonance with our national destiny, we decide whether or not we will evolve into “a nation of the people, for the people, by the people.”
My prayer for our nation is that now while many are grieving the death and honoring the life of Charlie Kirk, we may also grasp the opportunity for healing the deep wounding from the divisiveness we have experienced as a nation for years, and let this be a way also of honoring his sacrifice and his obvious deep love of our country. Let us come back together again to recognize and accept our differences and the variety of cultures and expressions among us, to welcome again the truth that we are still one people, and one true nation whose spiritual destiny is freedom. Freedom of the human spirit, for all people, for all time.
Sophia
9-20-25