For many of us United Church Homes’ blog readers, I suspect Juneteenth is a relatively strange word. It was only four years ago that then President Joe Biden signed legislation making it a federal holiday.
While the day commemorates the end of slavery, the actual date recognizes the day when the Emancipation Proclamation was finally announced in Texas in 1865. Lincoln’s decree freed more than three million enslaved people! But it took those two and a half years--without the wonders of internet--to get the word to the confederate slaves and slave owners in Texas.
Historians tell us that the news was greeted with disbelief, shock, prayer, feasts, singing, and dancing. Since then, the day has been celebrated with other titles such as Black Independence Day, Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day, Celebration Day, and Juneteenth National Independence Day.
Our United Church Homes’ family represents a vast community of experience and memory. Of course, in spite of our years, none of us has personal experience with the original Juneteenth event.
Reflection on the Legacy of Slavery
But we all experienced May 25, 2020, when--after the murder of George Floyd--the Black Lives Matter movement and other organizers presented a petition to make Juneteenth a national holiday. That effort launched a transformation of Juneteenth from an African American holiday to a national moment for reflection on the legacy of slavery and systemic racism.
When he signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, President Biden commented: “Juneteenth marks both the long, hard night of slavery and subjugation, and a promise of a brighter morning to come…(a day to) celebrate progress and grapple with the distance we’ve come but the distance we have to travel.” (quoted from the Encyclopedia Britannica)
Why am I writing so many words about Juneteenth? There are several reasons, among them my recent attendance at Alumni Day at Heidelberg University, my alma mater.
On the Saturday before writing this article, the operative word in speeches and on streetlamp banners throughout the campus was “opportunity.”
What a great word for each of us, as well. There are so-called looming factors for each of us--age, health, circumstances which dictate much of what we do. But through them all, “opportunity” is always there.
Speaking Out About the Common Good
Advocacy for the values which make our human relationships never goes away. We may no longer be interested in or able to participate in marches, street protests, or appearances at city hall meetings. But we have opportunity among friends, family, and others around us to speak about the common good, to keep open the possibilities of “a brighter morning to come.”
Perhaps that is the unique gift we each have, given the wealth of experiences we “older adults” own. Our contribution to the welfare of whatever community in which we reside, to the goings-on around us, has immeasurable value. We are not to be overlooked as “old timers” somehow wedded to reminiscing about the old days.
Wisdom, Thoughtfulness, & Patient Listening
We are Juneteenth folk, on a journey of opportunity to bless our days with wisdom, thoughtfulness, and patient listening, while being able to offer another well-considered perspective.
Opportunity is endless. The Collins English Dictionary offers this definition:
a favorable, appropriate, or advantageous combination of circumstances or a chance or prospect.
Not to miss the “opportunity” available to us these high-tech days, someone asked AI what the term means. AI responded “Opportunity refers to a favorable set of circumstances that allows for the possibility of achieving something beneficial or advantageous. An opportunity is often seen as a chance for advancement, success, or improvement in…networking…or innovative ideas…”
The door, to borrow another phrase, is wide open for us abundantly living older adults to keep on keeping on, to persist in making a difference among our colleagues and wherever we might find ourselves.
Such keeping on is quite different from the advice of that age-old play on words about a piano tuner named Oppornockety, who refused a second chance to tune a piano. Remember that one? “Oppornockety only tunes once.”
More than a Onetime Gift
Consider opportunity to be more than a one-time gift; it is a mandate--to use again and again all the experiences of our years and all the insights of our lives--for the growth of a more humane, just, and peaceful world!
As I look back over this blog about Juneteenth and opportunity, I realize it sounds like a sermon. And that reminds me that Juneteenth is the 65th anniversary of my ordination.
It is also the anniversary of being the only male in the past five years to write occasional blogs for United Church Homes. That has been a pleasure--dare I say “opportunity”--for which I am grateful but which I now relinquish to the new male writer whose first blog you will read next month.
May each of you, dear readers, use all your opportunities to help craft a culture of hope, justice and peace wherever you are.
Shalom!
For Reflection (either individually or with a group)
Read the blog. Read it a second time, maybe reading it aloud or asking someone else to read it aloud so you can hear it with different intonation and emphases. Invite the Divine to open your heart to allow the light of new understanding to pierce the shadows of embedded assumptions, stereotypes, and ways of thinking so that you may live more abundantly. Then spend some time with the following questions together with anything or anyone who helps you reflect more deeply.
- Why is it important to reflect on the “legacy of slavery and systemic racism”?
- When have you been given an opportunity by another person?
- What actions can you take this summer when gathering with friends or family to support the “growth of a more humane, just, and peaceful world”?
Download a pdf including the Reflection Questions to share and discuss with friends, family, or members of your faith community small group.
Editor’s Note: United Church Homes is extremely grateful to Rev. John Gantt for using his writing gifts in support of this blog for the past five years. Next week, we will be sharing John’s very first blog, “Muse and Musician Celebrate Gratitude”.
Courtesy of The Center for Abundant Aging, advocating for a just, inclusive society conquering ageism;
delivering education and resources to transform how we think about elderhood; and
cultivating the riches of Abundant Aging through transformational collaborations.
Blog: Copyright 2025, Rev. John Gantt, All Rights Reserved. Photo designed by Freepik.
