In this together

Put simply, we are in a perilous time, and the answer to the question “Who are we to be?” will have implications for generations to come.

 

We have a choice to make. We can answer this question with diminished imagination, by closing ranks with our tribe and hiding from our human responsibility to heal the world. Or we can answer the question of who we are to be another way: We can answer it in the spirit of ubuntu. The concept comes from the Zulu phrase Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, which literally means that a person is a person through other people. Another translation is, “I am who I am because we are who we are.”. . . With this in mind, who I will be is deeply related to who you are. In other words, we are each impacted by the circumstances that impact those around us. What hurts you hurts me. What heals you heals me. What causes you joy causes me to rejoice, and what makes you sad also causes me to weep.

                     Jacqui Lewis (quoted by Richard Rohr)

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the world is a hot mess

we are a hot mess

 

we can’t even agree why things are a mess

we just know they are

we feel it

there

at our core

in that deep place that makes us who we are

 

how did we get here?

to this place where we wonder

how shall we then live?

 

we got here by forgetting who we are

we got here by forgetting whose we are

 

we are people in relationship

with the Sacred, yes

but also with one another

 

we are connected

like it or not

for better or for worse

and when we forget that

we are in trouble

 

When we do not realize that we are all in this together

the planet, the plants

the animals

and yes, all the people

then we are in trouble

 

When we say it’s all about me

we are in trouble

 

It’s all about my country, forget yours

It’s all about my party, forget the country

It’s all about my power, forget the party

It’s all about my wealth, forget the planet

It’s all about my freedom, forget you….

 

We are in this together

We are deeply and profoundly connected

 

“What hurts you hurts me.

What heals you heals me.

What causes you joy causes me to rejoice,

and what makes you sad also causes me to weep.

 

and we will not, we cannot move forward

if we do not remember that

we cannot create healing

if we do not live that

 

we can only be who we truly are

who we were created to be

in relationship

when we are connected

when we are aware of one other

when we work together

 

like

perhaps

the parts of a body

 

when in fact we are a body

enlivened

by the presence of God

 

ubuntu