A New Beginning

This is the time of year in Jewish communities when people go to one another to apologize for things they have done.  It's a custom observed with varying degrees of seriousness, but a time when relationships can really be repaired if people want to do it.  I'm thinking this is something we could be doing in Unitarian Universalist communities.  After all, most of us emphasize human relationships in our spiritual practice, rather than seeking a disembodied Holy.What could be more appropriate than taking time to strengthen and soften our human connections from time to time?

Taking time to notice how you have contributed to the messes in your relationships is a good way to begin..  Me, I like to plunge headlong into the next thing, leaving behind whatever might have been mended.  But even for me, there are some relationships that don't allow that.

Here we are, all together on this planet, getting more and more numerous, ever closer together, and the awful truth is there is no exit.  If we really believe in the "Family of Humankind," the love that erases all borders, and all that, what does that mean for the way we live?  Don't we have to seek reconciliation with those we have wronged and those who have wronged us?  Personally?

And why don't we do that as a religious practice?

I'm thinking this has everything to do with our origins in Protestant Christianity.  When we stopped believing we had to be good in order to please a God who would send us to hell if we weren't, we stopped repenting and atoning.  Guilt-free religion was our gift to the world.  Let those others grovel before their stingy God, repenting, hoping for salvation from on high.  We don't do that.

But there are real reasons for us to be good and to seek reconciliation with humans --indeed, with all beings -- reasons that have everything to do with our evolved, non-Protestant theology. The short form would be to say, if there is a God, we see God in all there is, and if we are not in harmony with any part of that, we need to make it right.  If there is no God, we still know we are connected with all that is, and desire for the connectivity to be harmonious invites us to reconciliation.

Turning from destructive behaviors in relationships (including our relationship with the planet herself) is of key importance.  No need to feel guilty about it.  Just do it.  I say, let's set aside a time during the year for this and get on with it.  Any suggestions?