(This post is a series of daily letters from me to my future children reporting from the emerging paradigm.)
Dear Kids:
At the beginning of the month Rev Michael Bernard Beckwith announced that the theme for June would be “History in the Making: Participant or Bystander?”
The entire June 2020 series at Agape is worth watching (each Sunday service is archived, I have a fondness for his second sermon of the day since it’s a bit longer). It’s been incredibly empowering and motivating for me.
Clearly, I reference MBB regularly on this letter series and I choose for him to be a major influence in my life. I love the call-to-arms that this theme brings, we are in a historical time and we are choosing whether we participate.
There are so many ways to show up for movements, but I really liked this sentiment my friend Ariel posted for Pride today. “Today, Pride Day, I hope I’m less racist and more ferocious than I was a year ago and I hope next year I’m less racist and more ferocious again.”
This takes learning, trying, failing, evaluating, getting better, learning trying… I repeat this frequently because “the work” of life is this. Getting uncomfortable, being afraid to screw it up, doing it anyway (or not–BYSTANDING) and continuing forward.
Someone said recently the best apology she could receive is just for the offending person to do better.
Anyway, today I wanted to reflect on being a participant (in the arena) or a bystander (being afraid, shutting down and hoping the Great Uprising goes away).
It’s scary to talk about race for fear of getting it wrong. But white feelings aren’t more important than Black lives and comfort zones of white folks is what has kept us in this place for far too long. Listen to 2 minutes by Malcolm X.
That’s why I’m focusing on building up my capacity to have the hard conversations and sharing that with other folks. Participate!
xoxo,
Mom
This blog is entirely supported by Patreon. Every dollar counts to making this work sustainable and maintaining the archives of this blog. Thanks to my awesome Patronus supporters (as my mom calls them) for co-creating with me!