Went to church...
Zoom church today. Bill was going to talk about Rilke's Letter to a Young Artist, a series of letters where the poet reflected on his life.
Instead, after a change to talk about a minister who had died this past week, he talked about Breakfast Club, and how groups form. In the case of Breakfast Club it was unified dislike of the Assistant Principal. And how having an enemy creates cliques...
He had asked folks to share what they would write to their younger selves, and excerpts were read out during the last part of the service. I don't know who wrote what, but I do know that the authors were all straight. An old gay man writing to a younger self would not be so carefree. He, or probably a Lesbian or trans-gender elder would have very different statements. Even Ta-Nehisi Coates in "Between the World and Me" tells his son lessons which did not show up in the service.
I'm not saying Bill or the sharing members of the congregation are not aware. I am saying that their realities are not the same as my reality, nor are they the same as many others from marginalized cultures.
Oh my my.
Instead, after a change to talk about a minister who had died this past week, he talked about Breakfast Club, and how groups form. In the case of Breakfast Club it was unified dislike of the Assistant Principal. And how having an enemy creates cliques...
He had asked folks to share what they would write to their younger selves, and excerpts were read out during the last part of the service. I don't know who wrote what, but I do know that the authors were all straight. An old gay man writing to a younger self would not be so carefree. He, or probably a Lesbian or trans-gender elder would have very different statements. Even Ta-Nehisi Coates in "Between the World and Me" tells his son lessons which did not show up in the service.
I'm not saying Bill or the sharing members of the congregation are not aware. I am saying that their realities are not the same as my reality, nor are they the same as many others from marginalized cultures.
Oh my my.