Buoyed

I recently subscribed to a blog about a thankful boy and momma, after hearing about it so much from people I love and trust. And because I finally remembered to do it at a time when I was in front of a computer on my own time.  A recent post was one of disappointment, post election day, and the lack of underlying sentiment in a Sunday service.  A sentiment about the values this mom's gathering promises to uphold.  We non-churchy people, who don't ascribe to or comply with any particular faith, who follow values over doctrine, were as shocked and stunned as the rest of the world on Nov. 9th  All arguments as to whether we should have been or not aside, what we're left with is what we've got--a conundrum: how do you include people in respect of one another's opinions whose practice it is to disrespect?  

Respecting someone else's opinion is for things like debating movie plots, not about whether every citizen has the same rights as a white male.  It's not my favorite standard but it drives home the point.  If you believe any other citizen--straight, non-white, different religion, disabled, different gender--should not have the same freedoms as a while male, then you need to take a good, long look at why.   

And when your faith/values community fails to speak out in exactly these terms, addressing this very point?  What then?  Lots of people have a crisis of faith community: Don't like the new pastor.  Don't agree with what edict came from Rome.  But in respect to this specific question?  When the values that drive your faith are not addressed or glossed over in a message of unity rather than pointing out the let down of the values the community purports to be based on?  I feel for her.  

I feel for her because my community responded.  And it responded precisely as I feel--as our values claim--we should have responded.  We handed out the biggest safety pins we could buy.  You need to be able to see them from afar, to be a beacon.  ​I am troubled too, but I am buoyed.  And I wear a safety pin not only as the mark of a safety zone, but as a mark of my call to action.​  This is a constant reminder of what to do, how to intervene, to speak out.  A safe zone isn't enough.  We need a No More zone.  

​I don't have a symbol of my faith--no cross, no star--but I choose this.  ​Have always chosen this.  And now, with the symbol borrowed from Brexit, I pin it on the outside every day so we can all see it.  Every. Day. 

Kindly Optimism

I've been exposed recently, through a lecture and some podcasts, to the newest generation of young adults.  Which is not to say that people 18-25 aren't a part of my normal day, as they are for anyone living in the world, but I've been specifically subjected to their collective point of view through a couple pointed circumstances.

The first was a lecture, during a Sunday morning gathering.  My place of worship is not the normal church--not a church at all really--and that's part of what attracted this young woman to our group.  So when I say Sunday morning service, I don't mean, "at church".  I mean the place where me and bunch of other people go and sit through the semblance of a standard church service program like readings, gathering words, an offering, etc.  But the community is values based rather than doctrinal so any mention of Jesus holds as much power for us as Martin Luther King or Rumi.  Being values-based was the point of her talk and the reason for her visit.  And this was one of her points.  The talk was about Millennials and their search for humanitarian rather than religious spirituality.

And it exposed me to a mind set that, although I think myself enlightened for being part of this Sunday group who is concerned with the root values rather than the dogma, was an eye-opening experience into kindness as a way of life.

I am a mixture of cynicism and optimism. I love the scathing set-downs of 19th century literature but I am also and generally an upbeat person.  So I thought.  Being grounded in literature, irony is like air.  So a sunny disposition is always paired with a foible, however small.  Being compassionate and kind is at the heart of every teaching of my Sunday gatherings and I try to follow closely.  But it's more of a call to action, a challenge to consistently remember. This young woman brought kindness as I know it to a new level.  It wasn't a personal struggle, not an epic battle to try to find commonality with enemies.  She and her generation just feel it's always better to remember to give the benefit of the doubt and that opposing opinions have value.  My struggle emerges from an evolution of Christian doctrine: love thy enemy.  Her doctrine is 1 step beyond that.  Her perception comes from seeing values as the first step, not an evolved second step.

And I speak broadly about her generation because she herself cited other published and recognized people in her global age group. 

I realized that although I think of myself as an optimist, I don't maintain the idea that world will get better and better.  I don't hold out hope that it will, believe that reality is possible.  And she does.  What's more, she's not sure how she and her fellows will get there, but they believe that the way will open for them.  And not naively.  Perhaps with unadulterated buoyancy, but not without understanding the problems of the world.  These young people are not ignorant, nor are they ignorant in their assumptions.  They did not grow up with "Do or do not. There is no try."* They know there will be setbacks and they accept this as part of the process. They are simply undaunted.  In a way that I am daily...not.  They don't see the world as kind-hearted; they know better.   But they go kind-heartedly into the world.  It's the difference between me telling my son, "Every time you don't recycle when you could have, you are ruining your future!" and her saying, "We need to reach out to people and help make recycling easier so that everyone can do it." 

*To be fair to Yoda, and his whole universe which I still love, his point was to be all in.  Make up your mind that this is what you are going to do and keep doing it until you get it.  Believe that you can and you will.  So essentially the same thing as what my lecturer believes.  It's all semantics of course, but isn't that part of the point, how the message gets delivered?  What helps to shape your mindfullness?

I like this view.  I'll expose myself to more of it.  I'll be curious to see how my pre-teen son grows into young adulthood and what optimism looks like then.