Logan Jimenez wanted a commemoration you could touch -- something that would make a powerful visual for people urging their members of Congress to support a ceasefire in Gaza.
He’d seen others use a huge jar of rice to represent the Pentagon budget, while a vastly smaller jar portrayed our tiny budget for international peacebuilding.
“That’s what got my wheels turning,” Logan says. “I like the idea of a necklace because, for a lot of cultures, necklaces symbolize unity and love. It’s one circle that’s connected. All of our lives are connected.”
Active with other Friends on FCNL’s Western Iowa Advocacy Team, Logan bought thousands of beads and started stringing them together. The beads’ different colors represent the deaths of Palestinian adults, Palestinian children, Israeli adults and Israeli children. The vast majority represent the nearly 15,000 people who have died in Gaza, more than one-third of whom are children.
Still, it was very important for Logan to include the Israelis who were killed by the Hamas attack on October 7. “For me, it’s reflecting on the lives of everyone in the conflict, not just one side.” He adds, “I just hope the families of people killed know there are people who care, outside of their homeland -- that they’re not forgotten or hated.”
On November 9, Logan and a dozen others visited with Rep. Zach Nunn’s staff in Des Moines. The necklaces complemented the powerful stories which Friends and friends shared with Rep. Nunn’s chief of staff.
On November 13, Logan and 20 others joined in AFSC’s National Day of Action by visiting with staff for Sen. Chuck Grassley and Sen. Joni Ernst. Friends from around Iowa gave many reasons why their senators should support an immediate ceasefire.
With numbers so large, making these necklaces takes a lot of time. On the night before Thanksgiving, Logan and four other Des Moines Friends – Linaja Mikalonis, Peter Clay, Patti McKee (active with Trinity Las Americas UMC) and I – gathered at Friends House in Des Moines for what we dubbed “beading for worship.”
Unprogrammed Friends aren’t known for sacraments, but there we were, breaking bread (granted, in the form of pizza) while sharing our reflections. It took us three hours to string together 9000 beads, still just a fraction of the number of people killed.
Stringing the beads took a certain amount of spirit and concentration – if you tried to go too fast, you couldn’t do it. Each bead felt meaningful in a way that numbers in the thousands can’t. Each life, lost separately, was now joined in one necklace.
We thought about the pain of losing even one family member or close friend due to natural causes. How much more devastating would it be to face so much needless death?
What’s next?
Logan said he now has three sets of beads. One will go to FCNL’s headquarters in DC, where they’ll have a life of their own, accompanying advocates as they visit their members of Congress. Another set of beads will fly around the country to other Friends who are calling for a ceasefire, either with members of Congress or at community events.
The third set will stay in Des Moines, attending rallies and vigils to help remind people that each bead is a life that we’ve lost prematurely. These may include indoor silent vigils with a focus on urging Congress to see that the recent ceasefire be made permanent. “There won’t be speakers,” Linaja says. “We’ve found a lot of comfort in silence during these times, and sometimes words themselves have further injured some people.”
Our life is love
In an earlier email to Friends, Logan shared these words from Our Life is Love: The Quaker Spiritual Journey by Marcelle Martin:
"As they paid attention, they became painfully aware of their conscious and unconscious collusion with the deception and oppression built into the structure of their society. They saw that their participation in certain social norms and practices caused them to be false and inauthentic."
Logan’s beaded necklaces remind me of what George Fox wrote in 1650 -- that Friends are called to live "in the virtue of that life and power that take away the occasion of all wars." May we continue to support each other as we strive to lead lives committed to truth, peace, justice, and love for all.