Are We Brave Enough to Listen?
Are we brave enough to listen? Like many of you, my mind is a mush of sorrow and anger, anxiousness and horror. Every word now feels impossibly inadequate. I keep listening to this agony because closing our ears is betrayal.
Turn off the news they say. But how can one witness unprecedented violence and pain - children and families,
Palestinian and Israeli - and turn away?
Perhaps, God, you are calling us, in this moment, to decenter ourselves, holding compassion for the hurting without abandoning our resistance to empire. You weep with the wounded, the forsaken.
Last night, as our daughter Nai lay sleeping, her heart and breath moving in rhythm with mine, I thought of Palestinian and Israeli mothers and fathers, aching to feel the beat of their children’s hearts once more, and grasping at the emptiness of air.
Dehumanization legitimizes
destruction.
Dehumanization creates
an endless loop of us against them.
Dehumanization diminishes
the light within us.
Until every voice is unheard.
Until cruelty is called courage.
Until love is mocked, and hate embraced as holy.
Until apathy annihilates
the human spirit.
Until only in similarity
can we see sacredness.
Are we brave enough to listen while unpacking the ways we are complicit?
Are we willing to tear
down the walls within us
that call vengeance
freedom?
When we see others as the enemy, we risk becoming what we hate. When we oppress others, we zend up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity in others. - Bishop Desmond Tutu
Currently Learning From -
Middle Church (our house of worship) who is leading the Lean into Peace discussion series (online). You can watch past talks here.
Jewish Voices for Peace
Linda Sarsour, Palestinian organizer, activist and author
Standing Together English
Shane Claiborne
Radical Visionary Collective
Valerie Kaur