Message from the Minister
Dear Williamsburg – We haven’t met yet in person, but it’s important for me to share a few things. We are all going to have our own reactions to the US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites, while we were in active negotiations. For some, generational trauma lives in our bones, and what just happened, and what happens next, is a very old and tragic story. We all must be vigilant in how we frame our conversations and our understandings of each other. Antisemitism is on the rise on our streets, and Islamophobia is present in our government. And, are we at war?
The fall of the previous monarchy, leading to the Islamic Revolution, was the first political/historical world moment that ever stood out to me as a child. I wasn’t yet 3, and couldn’t possibly even understand what all the big words I was hearing on the small TV in our living room meant, but I knew something huge and possibly horrible just happened. Maybe that’s why, as a kid and as a teen, I assumed if we were at risk of WW3, it would be because of our interactions with Iran. So Saturday night, as our denomination celebrated our General Assembly, I learned about our US B2 bombers heading “west.” And my heart sank. What comes next? Will there be a here, here, in the morning?
In the immediate aftermath of such a traumatizing event as we just witnessed, part of our brains crave clarity. We want someone to come out and give us all the details and facts. But this time, we don’t have that with our sitting president. I’d be troubled to find a single truthful utterance from his mouth, and I know you would be too. Brian and I have been getting into a weekly habit of listening to a podcast coming from a trusted Boston academic with a specialty in history. Dr. Heather Cox Richardson is doing history - in real time. Here is a link to a recent episode where she relates in systemic and honest detail what is what – news with a high filter of context. Just the first five minutes calmed my monkey mind down. I needed to know what was real and what was falsehood. We can figure out what to do later, but just now, will someone please just tell me what is real? And suddenly, I could self-regulate again.
As a pastor, I encourage you to stay grounded in this time. Search out trusted sources of information for restabilizing. Stay connected with each other. Authoritarianism thrives in isolation. And when I arrive in August, we’ll begin sorting out how we can deepen our ties internally, and into wider and wider circles. Expect small groups, and book groups, and occasional forums, and community meals, to help me get to know all y’all, while we each root ourselves deeper into our living faith. And if you have connections to leaders in local progressive community circles, please get ready to introduce me to them when I’m there!
In faith – Rev. Jude Geiger
Minister, Williamsburg UU