How you observe Mother’s Day matters. If it tends to be celebrated in a one-size-fits-all manner with great joy, it will be blessedly so for some. For others, it will reinforce a host of reasons why Mother’s Day is a day of mixed feelings.
Are we willing to step beyond the interfaith gatherings when tragedy strikes local communities and faraway countries, and work daily to dismantle hate and fear in personal and global ways alike? Can we embrace the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, language, religion, politics, class and other markers of difference, create peacemaking, and live out the grace to differ and be different?
In a world addicted to “go”, have you given thought to the merciful self-permission to stop or deaccelerate?
In a time where xenophobia and other forms of fear are heightened domestically and internationally, being up front and honest about our history, malevolent threads of that tapestry included, is desperately needed.
As we approach the MLK holiday, the witness and legacy of Civil Rights leaders cannot be kept in past tense and treated nostalgically in our public gatherings and celebrations common this time of year. We need persons who can speak to the nation like Dr. King, yet we need the many individuals like Rosa Parks who work for justice and fair treatment on the ground level of our local communities even more.