And Now For Nothing Completely Different?
Jul 4, 2021
Hey folks! Just a reminder that there will be no online gathering or “And Lunch After” this week (July 4th). Blurbs for the next three weeks will come from Tim Penner, and will contain updated details on both our Sunday morning online gatherings and the weekly zoom hangout. That’s part of what the subject line is about. The rest is below.
This format that we (affectionately?) know as the blurb is usually brief. Punchy. Succinct. It feels like a good place to introduce big ideas and questions, but not the best place to explore them in depth. I want to honor that. I also want to acknowledge that we live at a moment in history where there is a LOT to process. We are trying to come to grips with the horrors colonial beliefs and the resulting systems visited upon the Indigenous peoples of this land. We are wrestling with the deep implications of the ways in which the increasingly obvious and clearly deliberate actions of church and government, both institutions many of us have been taught to categorically trust, were and are instrumental in those tragic and often genocidal practices. If we are doing the work that is ours to do, we are facing and naming some difficult realities.
Now what?
If we’re convinced of the evil (not a word I use often or lightly) that has been done in the name of God and Dominion, we might have woken up this morning wondering, “Do I put on a red shirt or an orange one today?”. Perhaps that was a concrete question to which we felt compelled to seek a concrete, actionable answer. Perhaps it’s also a philosophical or metaphorical question that points us toward further reflection on what it means to be “Canadian” (never mind “Christian”), or to live in a country we can feel proud to call home. Maybe it makes us wonder what we can do to redirect our own actions and those of policy makers toward a future that stays clear of “and now for nothing completely different”. Maybe, as we’ve been exploring together, it raises doubts about the stories we’ve been taught, both as regards religion and its institutions and democracy and the structures it supports.
In the interest of keeping us all moving toward a better, more just and equitable, more loving and beautiful future as a species and as siblings on this land, I want to encourage you to take some moments today to use that doubt as motivation to do two things:
-Hold space for a positive memory about an experience with someone “not like you”, and use that space to express gratitude. Send an email or a text, make a phone call, go full-send old-school and write an actual note (like, with a stamp and everything). But do something that forges a deeper connection in a space that is presently far too often full to the brim with strife and discord. Be the change…
-Hold space for loss and grief. Again, start with just a moment. If it grows to occupy more space than that, let it. The suffering we are being reminded of with each located shallow grave, each previously unacknowledged Indigenous child’s death, is beyond full telling, and yet one thing we can do is name it for what it is and not turn away – again. Let’s choose otherwise, and do what we can to participate in something different than a “normal” that we must never return to.
Thanks for being part of this community. I’m grateful for each companion that shares our collective commitment to exploring sometimes difficult questions. You keep me facing forward even when the path is steep and the going is difficult.
Peace,
Tim Plett