Solidarity
By Sarah Medhat I had never really stopped to think about the meaning of the word Solidarity before. In March I went to Stockholm for a training connected to the European Solidarity Corps. During the program, the twelve of us volunteers were asked to go out into the school’s backyard and choose something that, in our own eyes, represented solidarity. Then, one by one, we were invited to place what we had chosen at the moment we felt was right. Each person chose something different. Some picked twelve leaves, others picked twelve small stones, someone brought a plant pot, and someone else chose a tree branch and a rope. Everyone expressed the idea in their own way. As for me, I chose a large, strong tree trunk. At that moment, I found myself asking: "What makes something like solidarity possible in the first place?" And the answer that came to my heart was this: "Solidarity needs a strong foundation." That foundation can only be love and acceptance. When Jesus came ...