I love this expression. It appears above the door of Moore Hall where it has reminded us of our better selves for over 50 years. I have co-opted it to be at the end of all of my emails, and I often wonder how my friends on Wall Street react when they read it. I suspect that they are a little jealous that I am in a position where I can include this gem every time I write an email. It is poetic and graceful and - even though it is a quote that originates in a slightly different form from early Quakers in the 17th Century - it is utterly modern.
It is also deep. To “let” is to affirm, to drive, to make happen. It is an act of free will. It is a decision. It is a choice. To Let Your Lives Speak is not passive. Letting Your Life Speak is not a default mode. It is muscular. It is a statement that is written in an ink made of power and determination. It is indelible. It is more permanent than a tattoo. More real than a piercing. It is entirely human. To “let” means that you got out of bed, ate breakfast, saw what was around you and, by golly, decided that your tiny amount of infinite Light could be channeled in such a way as to make everything just a little bit better. Maybe not today but some day. Actually, maybe today. Yes, today.
“Lives Speak,” to me, has a touch of the mystical. Lives Speak suggests a sense of magical realism; of objects doing something that they aren’t expected to do, aren’t really designed to do. Tongues speak. Tongues speak words and words can be reliable and true, but they can also be misleading and false. But when we let our Lives Speak it means that we are getting out of the way, we are allowing the Spirit within to manifest itself. We are letting the Light shine. Our Light shine. This is not human, it is divine. It is divinely human.
This is why I love the expression Let Your Lives Speak. We are human, and we make efforts, and we make choices, and - a good bit of the time - we are clueless and, occasionally, lost. And yet. We are human, and we each have a great natural talent within that Quakers (and many others) call Light, and when we make an effort, a human effort, and, AT THE SAME TIME, recognize the Light within, we step forward and, occasionally, our lives are illuminated. Our Lives Speak. This is the border between finite and infinite. This is where we find the membrane between earth and sky. This is where we discover new worlds that seem old and old worlds that seem new. This is our motto at Sandy Spring Friends School.