Geborgenheit – Wordless
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Sitting on death row is the opposite of feeling Geborgenheit, feeling safe. Geborgenheit is a beautiful German word, old-fashioned, with so many subtleties that it takes several words to convey its meaning. It can be translated as “in the arms of the Great Mother” or “deep feeling of security” – in a mother’s safe embrace. We all yearn for it, one way or the other. We all need it, feeling protected, comfort. Geborgenheit is a sensation in my soul that is wordless. It is a feeling of wholeness. I did not know it as a child. A few years ago, I started to taste it finally. I had to practice evoking Geborgenheit till it gradually began lodging itself viscerally into my being, deeply. Some of us, perhaps many, each for different reasons, might not know basic security and trust, and my heart goes out to all of us.
Here is the story of an autistic man, named Robert Roberson who was wrongly accused of killing his infant daughter. He is on death row to be executed on October 17 in Texas, despite many US states recognizing that “shaken baby syndrome” has been discredited in the medical community. The detective Brian Wharton who helped put him on death row is featured in the video, visiting Robert in prison, confessing his terrible mistake, and movingly advocating for the abolition of the death penalty. For those of us from Western Europe after World War II, the death penalty is considered barbaric and uncivilized. In America, states murdering humans is leading to many wrongly convicted people dying, or lingering in prison cells on death row for decades. This is the barbaric side of our country. Murdering innocent people, brute and cruel.
This past Saturday, my nephew Janis, my brother’s son, turned 28 years old. I speak to him on the telephone, congratulating him for his birthday and asking several questions, which he answers mostly with a melodious single yes. In the course of our ten minutes, we keep laughing with pure joy, for no real reason. Both so grateful for our connection across the big ocean. He has a form of autism and I am endlessly happy that he lives in Germany and not here. In the NYT video Robert speaks of being “wordless” at times. Autism often makes those who are afflicted with it wordless, hence they are easily excluded and misunderstood. But there is also the positive reason for being without words. Exquisite beauty can render us speechless, as well as the embrace of a loved one.
Geborgenheit makes us wordless
These days, as new hope and energetic joy, have entered the collective mood, let us work for more justice in our country. America must find the heart to understand that every human being deserves security and dignity. But the sad and tragic reality is, that in our highly developed country, Justice is backward. Therefore – as many of you know – I have included the theme of wrongful incarceration of innocent people on my Garage Memorial Mural (started in 2020), to remind us that the practices of coerced witness testimonies, police corruption, all need a lot of reckoning and change. The death penalty needs abolition for sure. And the abolition of prisons, which I favor, is asking all of us to envision creative alternatives, like gardens, apprenticeships, schools, and monasteries perhaps. Criminalizing does not create a safe society. Come and visit to pay homage to those unjustly murdered or imprisoned by the state. You’ll find the names of those released and exonerated after 27, 36 or 48 years of being locked up, away from their loved ones. Those of us who know Geborgenheit in all its many forms have the duty to not forget those left behind bars without voices, and without any safety. Let’s move forward toward Justice.
Let’s not be wordless and passive as the Fallacy of Justice is being enacted before our eyes. So many dedicated lawyers are fighting for the wrongly convicted. This morning I woke to good news. Another innocent man walks free after 34 years. “As a nation we deserve better” the attorneys say. There had been an outrageous delay orchestrated by Missouri’s Republican attorney general. After three and a half long decades behind bars for a crime he did not commit, Christopher Dunn is finally reunited with his family!
May the times of joy begin, even when the going is rough.
Brilliant weaving of several threads in this piece: the yearning for Geborgenheit, its opposite exemplified by unjust conviction and imprisonment (most egregiously, with a death sentence), the wordlessness of the autistic and the incarcerated (and times when one leads to the other), and that Geborgenheit is beyond words. It is interesting to me that you did not experience that deep feeling of security as a child, as that is the only time in my life that I feel that I had it. I marvel that you have developed it much later via conscious practice. And yes by all means my heart goes out to all of us who do not have it, and to those many victims of injustice in this country.
ReplyDeletethank you for sharing this wonderful term and important story about Robert (just signed the petition you linked!) So many of us are lucky to have not only physical safety but the spiritual and psychological safety that is needed to be fully present with life. So many voices missing from our collective dialogue due to lack of access, persecution, suffering...
ReplyDeleteMy brother in Germany writes in response:
ReplyDeleteDear Karina,
How wonderful that, and how, you address the theme of autism. Yes, our son Janis is on the autism spectrum. That you are putting the spotlight on Geborgenheit pleases and moves me.
For Janis’ birthday party at our place, we invited 15 people who all have helped him to feel safe (geborgen) here. Friends, neighbors, the hairdresser from Iraq, the driver who has driven Janis for years to his workplace. Janis says: “I know them already for a long time, and they know me well.” With these words he expresses what you describe as Geborgenheit.
Yes, I believe, our family and also our society is richer when we are interested in people whose behaviors and looks might be different from us and seemingly difficult to explain at first. Richer when we learn to understand them and meet each other eye-to-eye level, in honesty.
Thank you for your blog.
Your brother, Matthias
Then I asked Matthias about the other celebration a few days later:
Delete“The celebration at Janis’ own place was very good. There were more professional therapeutic helpers,* and also more people his age who are looking for the same creative outlets as he does. That is good.”
* In Germany the state pays for professionally trained helpers who make it possible for people to live independently, but with assistance. These “assistants” come by every day, monitoring, and dealing with any difficulties or dramas arising. I am so glad that this way my brother and his wife can get a little more room to breathe.
Somehow I missed this beautiful testimony to our differences. I find your brother's letter so moving about Janis and his birthday. Because of my own brother, you know how deeply this touches me. As for the Garage Memorial, it shines truth after brutal truth to the world. And today, more brutal news: (9/12/24): In Missouri, a judge has just declined to vacate the conviction and death sentence of Marcellus "Khaliifah" Williams, despite the state's concession that the evidence in his case was improperly destroyed. Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied relief to Robert Roberson. I can't help but cynically think that in election years, justice matters even less.
ReplyDeleteYes, these news are horrific: denying justice, and refusing to be humane! Today was bad!
DeletePlease SIGN to STOP the EXECUTION of an INNOCENT person: https://innocenceproject.org/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-marcellus-williams-an-innocent-man/
Update on October 18, 2024:
ReplyDeleteMarcellus Williams was executed by the State of Missouri on September 24. Shame on the system. Robert Roberson got a last minute stay in Texas on October 17.
https://innocenceproject.org/robert-roberson-will-not-be-executed-in-texas-tonight/
Statement from Gretchen Sween, attorney for Robert Roberson:
“The vast team fighting for Robert Roberson—people all across Texas, the country, and the world—are elated tonight that a contingent of brave, bipartisan Texas lawmakers chose to dig deep into the facts of Robert’s case that no court had yet considered and recognized that his life was worth fighting for. He lives to fight another day and hopes that his experience can help improve the integrity of our criminal legal system. Thank you to all who have supported Robert, an innocent man on Texas’s death row.”