Dear Friends,

Sunday was a sort of American holiday and a day of controversy. Millions larded kitchen and dining room and coffee tables with Super Bowl-themes cakes and elaborate layered dip concoctions designed to keep you coming back for more. Millions watched men in the prime of their life smash their bodies into the field and their heads into each other. Those millions also laughed or cringed at the expensive advertising featuring mash ups of space movies or cartoon pitch people, debating what is edgy and what is passé. I still won’t be buying a Jeep or using the services of Rocket Mortgage, but those ads must yield or they won’t spend so much to make them, right? And millions enjoyed or disparaged the half-time show, where two middle-aged Latina women performed songs and dances that honored their culture heritages while attracting respect, admiration, lust, derision, contempt, and more, as well as some combination of reactions.

We have known for a half-century or more that salty and fatty foods contribute significantly to killing diseases, and yet many of us still eat those foods, perhaps because of the catchy advertising. We have known for a decade or more that a predictable consequence of playing football is traumatic brain injury, and yet the “bread and circuses” aspect of the game draws many of us, perhaps because of the way that contained violence satisfies some primal urge. We can “know” lots of things, and still make questionable choices. The facts do not necessarily change behavior.

Even if you did not watch the Super Bowl, you may now be aware that what Jennifer Lopez and Shakira were up to with their half-time show has sparked controversy about women’s bodies and what they may legitimately do in public. We live in a contradiction, where we commit to listen to victims of sexual violence and assault and also expect modesty and contained sensuality from female bodies. Perhaps we have more to learn? Perhaps we all have more to know—not about what others are doing but what causes us to respond as we do: to violence, to food, to cultural expression, to female sexuality.

Maybe our reactions are not moments upon which to act but moments upon which to reflect: What informs my sense of what is decent or appropriate? Why am I uncomfortable or affronted when I am? From reflection, we build self-awareness, we build response, we build resilience. For the call of our life as citizens and Americans in this moment is toward self-awareness about our thoughts and reactions, responsiveness to the call of inclusion and justice, and resilience to keep working and keep learning in a cycle that advances us as a human people of diverse and variety expressions.

Looking forward to the working with you for a better world, as you remember today and every day that you are loved, you are worthy, you are welcome , and you are needed. May you feel it so.

 

Blessings, Rev. Rita