Whole, Not Broken
Christopher Reeve had everything going for him. He was handsome and athletic and famous for playing Superman in the movies. He had a lovely family and plenty of money that he’d made as a movie star. Really, things could hardly have been better.
Until he was in a horse bock riding accident that damaged his spine and left him paralyzed below his neck. He couldn’t move his hands or feet, let alone play a superhero who could jump tall buildings in a single bound. He was, in a profound way, broken.
But in many other ways, he was deeply whole. He had a family who loved him and believed in him. And he found in his Unitarian Universalism a reminder that one way we can build wholeness for ourselves is by doing what we can to build wholeness for others.
So Christopher and his wife Dana dedicated themselves to trying to make life better for other people who had spinal cord injuries. They raised money to help people get things they needed like ramps and vans that could carry wheelchairs. And they raised money for research that might help people with spinal cord injuries.
Christopher Reeve eventually died from the complications of living with his injury, but his living taught a lot of people about what can be whole when things get broken.
Uncertainty and Solidarity: Reflections on Shutting it Down with Black Lives Matter
I was there on Wednesday, at the Black Lives Matter protests at the Mall of America, at the airport, and on the light rail.
I was there on Wednesday with my 12 and 7-year-old daughters.
I was there because we were there a year ago—our first visit to the mall with 3,000 of our closest friends. As my older daughter pointed out when I was wavering on my decision to go, “It’s our holiday tradition, Dad! On Thanksgiving we protest Walmart. At Christmas, we go to the mall with Black Lives Matter!”
I Had To Answer Love’s Call – Will You Answer It With Me?
It’s been two weeks since Jamar Clark, an unarmed black man, was shot in the head by the Minneapolis police. Multiple witnesses say he was handcuffed at the time of the shooting. When I first heard of this shooting, it was in a tweet from a prominent civil rights lawyer in Minneapolis, Jason Sole: “This might be the bullet that turns Minneapolis into Ferguson.”
URGENT: Release Rev. Fulgence Ndagijimana and other Unitarians Suffering Persecution in Burundi
We stand with Unitarian Universalists across the globe calling for the immediate release of the Rev. Fulgence Ndagijimana of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Burundi.
“On November 16th, the minister of the church, the Rev. Fulgence Ndagijimana, was arrested from the church at gunpoint, taken into police custody and interrogated severely, regarding the activities of his church. He was threatened with physical harm and death. At the moment he remains in custody, with other members of the church also being questioned.”
—International Council of Unitarian Universalists (ICUU)
A Prayer for Labor Day
“We’re thinking about resistance more than resilience here in New Orleans.” -Rev De Vandiver, ten year anniversary of The Flood
Here’s to all who resist!
Resist assimilation
Resist cooptation
Resist oppression
Resist ignorance
Resist consumerism
Resist the certainty of others’ diagnoses
Resist complacency
Resist numbing out
Resist the same old same old
Resist being taken advantage of
Resist the hissed whisper to be quiet, settle down
Resist what is given, and instead create what is needed.
Here’s to all who create!
Create new stories, with new life springing forth
Create laughter and tears
Create gardens and delicious meals from them
Create music and its deep companionship
Create relationships that defy labels
Create deep rootsCreate beauty
Create courageous actions
Create what will carry us to a new day.
Here’s to the new day!
May it dawn bright for all, condemning none to nightmares
May it bring hope grounded in reason to hope
May it bring evidence for hearts to trust that love is real
May it bring joy and the simple abundance of enough.
Here’s to Labor Day, to the humble imperfect work of us all.
Seen and unseen, paid and unpaid, respected and unrespected.
Here’s to our real work together
Let your anger guide you to beloved action: Join me in Ferguson
I’m angry. I’m not even sure that’s a big enough word for what I’m feeling. The rage is deep, so pervasive at times it threatens to paralyze me into inaction. I struggle against the threat of being rendered immobile by this anger every day.
This week, I braced myself for the release of another video of a heinous police shooting of an unarmed black man, this time in Cincinnati, Ohio. I must fight with every fiber of my being to stay in my body, to stay connected to my feelings and ground myself, bracing for another wave of grief and pain that feeds my deeper rage.
That’s why on August 7-10, I am responding to the call of leaders in Ferguson to show up and take collective action for racial justice on the anniversary of the Ferguson uprising. Read more →
Prayers for Chattanooga
We grieve with the families and friends of the Marines killed in Chattanooga, and we pray for the full recovery of those who were injured. We are heartsick at another incident in which gun violence took the lives of innocent victims. Read more →
Notes to a white religious leader
Notes to a white religious leader in a majority white denomination preparing to give a #BlackLivesMatter sermon:
- Nurture the hearts and souls of the congregation . . . to be able to look at the racist institutional and cultural violence that is burning all around us. To acknowledge the despair, the pain, the heartbreak, and to collectively grieve – to assume that everyone there, on some level, is grieving and to invite them into that space, rather then assume they are indifferent and uncaring, even if potentially one could assume them outwardly from their actions/inaction. We are not there to pass judgement on who we think are, but to create support for who people want to be, who we know they can be, who these times call on our people to be.
Never Turning Back
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What do you do when you need a little extra courage? You might take some deep breaths or talk with a friend, but sometimes a song is just the thing to get you in the right frame of mind to take on something that’s scary or overwhelming. “Never Turning Back” by Pat Humphries is one of those songs you might want to sing to yourself for courage. It’s the kind of song that’s easy to put in your own words for, so you could even change the words to fit your situation and sing something like “Gonna walk right past that bully, walk right past that bully, walk right past that bully. Never turning back, never turning back.”
