FROM THE ARTIST | LISLE GWYNN GARRITY
In 1911, Helen Todd, a leader in the women’s suffrage movement,
coined the phrase, “bread for all, and roses too,”* to advocate for
both fair wages and better working conditions for women factory
workers. The phrase took on life as a chant in textile strikes and
as a refrain for other suffragists. It expressed the heart and soul
of the movement. Bread referred to the necessities for survival—
safety, shelter, wages, food. Roses symbolized the things that are
often treated as luxuries only for the rich to indulge in—the arts,
education, nature, beauty.
In other words, women of the early twentieth century insisted that
they deserved to not only make a living; they also deserved to make
a life worth living.
In this psalm, we are reminded that God provides bread—food for
the hungry, protection for the immigrant, sight for the blind, justice
for the oppressed, freedom for the imprisoned. And God offers
roses—joy to those who find hope and rest in God. God’s justice
isn’t just about survival. God desires our thriving, too.
In this image, I depicted two hands. One reaches up in need, with
urgency. The other opens in a posture of generosity. A question
mark cuts through the space between them, inviting us to consider
who is in need of not only bread, but roses too.
Who are the hungry among us? What does it look like to feed those
hungering for beauty, for delight, for the kind of joy that leads to a
whole and holy life?
Prayer: In quiet contemplation, color in the page below, reflecting
on how the imagery illuminates what you find in the scripture and
artist’s statement. Conclude with a silent or spoken prayer to God.
* Todd, Helen. The American Magazine. Crowell-Collier Publishing Company, 1911.619
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