So, tell me about your day...

I've always resonated with the idea that how you spend your days is how you spend your life--and I thought of it especially yesterday, when I had a particularly interesting, although not atypical, day in the office. I thought WES members in particular might be interested to know what a Wednesday looks like for me, so here goes: 9:30 - arrive at the office, check and respond to email, take a look at the newsletter which will need to be sent out in the next day or so; 10 - meeting with a member of staff and a community organization director, talking about how our two organizations could work together in a way to make use of WES' space and benefit both organizations and the community!; 11 - work on information the Board has requested, check email again, check in with some staff members; 11:15 - head out for a lunch meeting with a local rabbi, where we talked about possible ways for our congregations to work together; 12:45 - back from lunch, check email (phone call with a member on the way to and from lunch...but of course carefully watching the road!); 1 - meeting with a visitor to WES to talk about last week's platform and shared interests; 2 - meeting with two WES members to talk about congregational life, great conversation and one of my favorite things to do!; 3:30 - office and administrative work, like editing a lease for our downstairs space, following up with WES members on their gun safety work, meeting with the consultant who's in the office to see how the focus groups are going, and supporting the folks working on logistics for our upcoming anti-racism training; 5:15 - head out the door to pick up my kids! No evening meeting last night, so a little time in the evening on email. And that's a day in the life! What I loved about Wednesday was that it included lots of time connecting with people: with staff members, WES members, visitors, community leaders, and other clergy. I get so many ideas from those conversations, plus they're fun. Now today is another story...a few meetings and a phone call, as well as staff meeting, but I simply HAVE to clear off my desk and clear out my inbox. Wish me luck!

Adapting to Carpets

A couple weeks ago, my family went on vacation to Florida (it was great). We stayed in a condo there, and over the course of the week--and through the process of being littered with toys and books and stuffed animals--it felt sort of like home. After our week in sunny paradise, we came back to our real home. And it felt...not like home. My husband and I both noticed right away that it felt different. Bare somehow, or empty, or just a little off. After a little while, we were able to identify that the problem was that our house wasn't carpeted. Of course, our house has never been carpeted. But apparently that one week of wall-to-wall carpeting in our little Florida condo was enough to re-train our minds to see non-carpeting as empty, bare, wrong. We adjusted back quickly enough, and now our floors just look like floors again. But it got me thinking how quickly we adapt to things, how easy it is for us to be taught that something is acceptable, desirable, even mandatory. What other things in life have I adapted to? What do I think I need to own, to wear, to believe just to be normal? And what process do I go through to examine those adaptations, what trips do I take--should I take--to consider what's really essential? Just musings from my comfortable, "necessity"-filled existence.

Being and Becoming White: Resources

I'm sometimes asked, after a platform address with a lot of "teaching" in it, to share my resources. And I always say "oh, of course, I'll put them on my blog!" and then it is Sunday afternoon and I have officially lost the ability to function. Can you guess how often they make it here? So I'm putting up the major resources I'm using for tomorrow's platform tonight. Ta da! Website for traveling exhibit about race The classic essay on white privilege A great list of common "detours" (I like that phrasing, too) that lead to white guilt and denial [I didn't use this resource as much for this platform, but I think it's a good list] And two books: "The Invention of the White Race, Volume 1: Racial Oppression and Social Control" by Theodore W. Allen - great if you have, oh I don't know, a PhD and a lot of time (but it is a seminal work in this field) "What If All the Kids Are White? Anti-Bias Multicultural Education with Young Children and Families" by Louise Derman-Sparks and Patricia G. Ramsey - totally readable and engaging, I think even if you have nothing to do with young children because it just has some good background on white identity and privilege Happy resource reading!

Zen and the Art of Packing Ornaments

I love un-decorating for Christmas. I love decorating, too, putting up each sparkly ornament and ornate stocking holder. For a while, my house looks like it was taken over by the glitter-and-gold fairy, and it's a welcome spot of brightness in the cold, dark days. But just as good, in my opinion, is taking them all down. All my regular things suddenly look simple and elegant. My living room seems huge without a six foot tree in it. There's a sense that everything is back in its place, quiet and unassuming. And that's winter for me, too: not just the sparkle of the holidays, but the waiting and quiet and beautiful dark of the rest of the months. A poet calls winter a time of "pregnant negativities"--the spare architecture of the trees, showing us the house across the street that we almost never see in the summer time; the cold ground, where we just know the bulbs are gathering strength for their big showy blossoms in the spring. So I invite you, in the weeks and months to come, to look at the spaces where the decorations are not, where the leaves are not, where the sun is not. And to find in those places, too, a kind of beauty, a quiet waiting for what comes next.