Smuggling Grace

Image Description: The word ‘language’ in a dictionary.

I don’t like when we compare racism to a pandemic, virus, or illness. I hear a lot of that these days.

— This can potentially deflect some of the responsibility for racism. We are building this. We are complicit in this. We do spread it in some ways, no doubt, but we do it quite actively (even if sometimes, subconsciously).

— But even more, when we make this comparison, we are co-opting the language of pandemic, virus, illness, and disability and using it as the symbol to name something as morally evil. In our language, we make associations between illness and moral failing all the time. This increases stigma.

Racism is evil. It is systemic.

It’s something different than an illness.

–Renee Roederer

I was driving around my town. With a smile on my face, some words just spontaneously tumbled out of me. “I know you,” I said, and then I smiled some more.

I spoke this to Ann Arbor, the place I’ve called home for the last six years. My car windows were down, and I took an enormous, intentional breath of air.  Then I put my arm out of the window to feel the breeze. I felt very alive.

The reality of summer called those words forth from me.
“I know you.”

I continued to enjoy the warm air, but the visual scene was most responsible for bringing those words into being. In Michigan, we have entered an aesthetically gorgeous time of year. The six month period from April to October brings continual changes in scenery.

Each week shifts as a variety of flowering trees and plants emerge, soon accompanied by the newborn leaves of trees which grow in gradual ways. After these leaves progressively paint our town bright green, they rustle in the wind for a few months and finally give us a swansong, bursting into a variety of colors as they shed their photosynthesis process and reveal the red, orange, and yellow colors hiding underneath it.

For this half of the year, every week is gorgeous, and every week is gorgeous differently.

I’ve experienced this many times in Ann Arbor, and I’ve lived here long enough to know the order of this unfolding process of change. That’s why the words tumbled out of my mouth that day in my car.

“I know you.”

I know how one set of flowers and blooming trees emerge and seem to reign for mini-era of time, only to be replaced by another set of flowers and blooming trees. It’s a beautiful procession.

I know that the daffodils,

soon give way to the bradford pears,

which soon give way to the tulips,

which soon give way to the tulip magnolias,

which soon give way to the day lilies.

This process continues to unfold.

In the midst of so much collective distress and disruption, I’m glad to observe this procession right now. It gave me an impromptu burst of joy when I spontaneously said, “I know you,” to Ann Arbor on that day.

Sometimes, we need to feel at home in the predictable changes, especially when so much is changing unpredictably.

–Renee Roederer

 

Image Description: A person holds rocks and dirt in their hands in the shape of a heart.

This summer, the Michigan Nones and Dones community is exploring spiritual values and practices, and we’re applying them to commitments of anti-racism. We’re also asking ourselves: As we think about our religious/spiritual upbringing, what did we learn about these values? What do we want to shed? What do we want to retain? What do we want to deepen or take on in a new way?

We recently held a conversation about the spiritual practice of worth. We asked, “How is dignity a spiritual practice?”

With permission, I am sharing our answers.

1) treating people and interacting with people with the worth and value they have
2) taking interest in people as individuals
3) engaging justice in a macro-way and viewing people with compassion and interest in a micro-way
4) honoring that we are created equally as an expression of God, and we are uniquely beautiful
5) respecting people as an expression of love
6) choosing to actively love everyone
7) treating people in the way they deserve to be treated — with respect and honor
8) honoring that the divine in me recognizes the divine in you
9) recognizing God in ourselves and in everyone
10) believing in shared humanity
11) loving your neighbor as yourself and recognizing their are no limits on who is your neighbor
12) caring for people with whom I disagree
13) pushing up against the cavalier attitude we have about death and harm
14) reminding ourselves of the Imago Dei in people
15) building empathy in ways that challenge us and shift us

What would you add?

—Renee Roederer

Image Description: Two cartoon birds (one red and one blue) are facing each other and looking at each other with three hearts flowing upward between them. Public domain image.

This summer, the Michigan Nones and Dones community is exploring spiritual values and practices, and we’re applying them to commitments of anti-racism. We’re also asking ourselves: As we think about our religious/spiritual upbringing, what did we learn about these values? What do we want to shed? What do we want to retain? What do we want to deepen or take on in a new way?

We recently held a conversation about the spiritual practice of worth. We asked, “How is worth a spiritual practice?”

With permission, I am sharing our answers.

Image Description: A teal square with the outline of the state of Michigan in white. Public domain image.

In a decision to use first names only, someone published my poetry last week in a newsletter, calling me,

Renee of Michigan.

I liked this because it made me feel like Julian of Norwich 😃 who through her writings, has become my fast friend this very month.

–Renee Roederer

— The poem is entitled, “For the Goal.” You can click on the link and read it.

— Here’s more information on the mystic writer, Julian of Norwich. I am really digging her.

Image Description: Two people prepare to arm wrestle. Money is on table. Public domain image.

Jason Hickel and Martin Kirk have written an article with a title that poses a direct question to us: Are You Ready to Consider that Capitalism is the Real Problem?

Are you skeptical of titles like this one? Would you be open to reading and seriously considering this article?

I think it’s becoming increasingly clear that if we cannot or will not adapt ourselves toward greater forms of cooperativism, both in the large and small scale, we will continue to greatly increase suffering.

Loving your neighbor includes caring for your neighbors’ freedom to have access to resources.

And capitalism. . . and late-stage capitalism in particular. . . ? Well, that’s an enormous loss of freedom for most of us – a loss of freedom to choose the direction of our lives, particularly as more wealth is concentrated among the few, and an enormous loss of freedom for our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to choose the direction of theirs.

I’d say we are more free collectively when we value the worth of our neighbors and their intrinsic right to live well. And we are more alive when we stop uplifting profit as the primary motive for work and unmitigated greed as the unquestioned pursuit for life, moving instead, toward a motive of sustainability at work and the life-filled pursuit of uplifting each other.

What is possible if we move toward such change?

– Renee Roederer

Image Description: A butterfly on a plant with blue and black wings. Public domain image.

I was thinking about the butterfly effect this week, and specifically, I was wondering, is that really real?

Do you know which thing I’m talking about? Sometimes, it’s also called Chaos Theory. Ultimately, it’s a realization that very small actions can lead to very large effects, particularly as they create a series of changes in large systems. The butterfly effect gets its name due to Edward Lorenz. He demonstrated that the flapping wings of a butterfly in one part of the world could ultimately lead to a tornado weeks later somewhere else. Thankfully, this doesn’t happen all the time; otherwise, we’d have tornados and hurricanes everywhere. But the point is this: Tiny, minuscule changes can create complex results in large systems.

It turns out that this theory is true.

It’s pretty astounding, actually. It means that every thing — every action, every interaction — is affecting a whole, enormous host of other things.

In a tumultuous time, don’t underestimate how positive actions can lead to large scale results. Even tiny ones have an effect. Each and every day, what we do matters. What we do this very day matters.

So what kind of change is possible, not only when we act alone, but when we act together?

– Renee Roederer

Image Description: Five post-it notes are placed in a stack, though offset so it looks like they are rotating (from back to front, pink, orange, yellow, and blue). A question mark is on the blue post-it note on top. Public domain image.

There are times when we find ourselves mulling over the very same themes in our thinking.

There are times when we feel weighed down by longstanding frustrations that rarely seem to shift.

There are times when it feels like things are stagnant or unmoving.

So. . . What if we ask a different question?

This is something that a friend of mine says often, and I really appreciate it.

What if we do that? What if we ask a new question? Could that open up new possibilities – creative pathways or new angles of relating?

Maybe that seems like a small thing, but it’s actually a large thing. Frameworks affect how we view situations, feel, and express hope.

So what if we try it? Might it open up something different?

What’s possible?

– Renee Roederer

I’m on an Avett Brothers kick this week.

Here’s another song I really love. Sometimes, people write music, poetry, or prose that can speak into a large variety of life directions. This song is like this, so may it encourage you in whatever direction you need.

“If you’re loved by someone, you’re never rejected.
Decide what to be, and go be it.”

Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise

There’s a darkness upon me that’s flooded in light
In the fine print they tell me what’s wrong and what’s right
And it comes in black and it comes in white
And I’m frightened by those that don’t see it

When nothing is owed or deserved or expected
And your life doesn’t change by the man that’s elected
If you’re loved by someone, you’re never rejected
Decide what to be and go be it

There was a dream and one day I could see it
Like a bird in a cage I broke in and demanded that somebody free it
And there was a kid with a head full of doubt
So I’ll scream til I die and the last of those bad thoughts are finally out

There’s a darkness upon you that’s flooded in light
And in the fine print they tell you what’s wrong and what’s right
And it flies by day and it flies by night
And I’m frightened by those that don’t see it

There was a dream and one day I could see it
Like a bird in a cage I broke in and demanded that somebody free it
And there was a kid with a head full of doubt
So I’ll scream til I die and the last of those bad thoughts are finally out

There was a dream and one day I could see it
Like a bird in a cage I broke in and demanded that somebody free it
And there was a kid with a head full of doubt
So I’ll scream til I die and the last of those bad thoughts are finally out

There’s a darkness upon me that’s flooded in light
In the fine print they tell me what’s wrong and what’s right
There’s a darkness upon me that’s flooded in light
And I’m frightened by those that don’t see it

I just really love this video and song by the Avett Brothers.

I love the lyrics of the song (this is what I want for us, yes!) and of course, I love these babies. I mean, look at them!

This song is such a sweetie. CC available.