Many years ago, I came across a photograph and reflection from theologian Elizabeth Johnson that I have had on my computer desktop ever since. Both photo and reflection come from a talk that Johnson gave to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) when she was given an award recognizing the leadership she has exercised in the ministry of theology.¹

Johnson took this particular photograph of a wall defaced by graffiti, on a street in Cape Town, South Africa, on August 2, 1987. She notes that the photo’s context is political: the apartheid system was in effect; Nelson Mandela was still in prison; the government had declared a state of emergency; troops patrolled the streets; and danger was in the air.

“Supporting the violent status quo an unknown hand, no doubt white, had used thick black paint to scrawl this graffiti: HANG MANDELA! Someone else, probably with a darker hand, had come along and penciled the word ‘on’ between the two painted words.”²

As Johnson notes, this simple preposition on “completely subverts the message! To see the resilience of the human spirit under threat of harm (the pencil writer could have been arrested), to watch how an imaginative person turned a curse into a blessing – this has humbled, delighted, and inspired me ever since.“³

Johnson says that she keeps this photo on her desk at Fordham University, and uses it “to encourage students who hit a rough patch in their studies or their lives. A number of alums now sign off their emails with this little preposition.”

I keep the photo and reflection on my computer desktop for the same purpose of encouragement.

In face of the many challenges that today rise to meet me/us on multiple fronts, I carry this disruptive preposition deep in my heart. To have the imagination to be able to see hope in situations of violence and oppression, and find simple ways of subverting that status quo is an important practice for our time

That kind of creativity, that kind of ability to see alternatives in situations where alternatives often seem impossible, are what give new hope and create new paths. New paths that lead us towards more just relationships, and towards forgoing violence, can connect us in new and deeper ways, and turn us away from the multiple brinks our human species face.

As Johnson says: “In the spirit of the poor woman Mary singing for joy in God her Savior who puts down the mighty from their thrones and fills the hungry with good things – ON!”

And I too continue to say wholeheartedly: ON.