by If you visit the site where Renee Good was killed, you’ll see it is crowded with people, flowers, signs, and candles. There is the sound of weeping, quiet talking, feet crunching on ice, protestors yelling with hoarse voices into bullhorns. It all sounds like despair. It all sounds, as one of our ensemble members said recently, like prayer.
Sometimes, a crisis or a loss is so big it stops us in our tracks and makes us afraid. And then we react to fear and uncertainty in all the ways our bodies have learned to, shaped by all the other things that have happened to us or been taught to us – a vast complexity within us that others can’t know without knowing us.
History has shown that common purpose, driven solely by political loyalty, and the dehumanization of the “other side” is a flimsy and elusive kind of purpose. It leads to ignorance, isolation, degradation, and war. And war is uncontrollable. It always destroys more than its instigators intended, including them. History, most faith traditions, and personal experience teaches that only uplifting the dignity of all people might lead to a better world for everyone.
Immigration policy, as it is being carried out in our state right now, is dehumanizing and disastrous.
As we prepared this month’s newsletter, we asked ourselves what Wonderlust has to offer to this moment. We’ve been working on a play about values, about our nation’s violent struggle with its identity and purpose. The play isn’t written yet, but here are some questions we’ve been asking ourselves and others. Maybe you will find them helpful to ask – yourself, your community, your leaders.
What are your deepest values?
What experiences shaped those values?
Has there been a time when you doubted or changed your values?
What do you need or what can you offer to better live those values?
While making our play about caregivers we learned that care is the glue that fills the cracks, it’s one invisible force that helps hold us together. It is equal parts a state of mind and a labor of love. It is so tiring, so humbling, so hard. But doing it eventually brings deep wisdom and joy. Our wish is for us to not hunker down too far into isolation or succumb too far to rage; for us to find ways to keep caring, living what we believe to be true even when it’s hard, and building a better future for us all.
We are so grateful to be in community with you.