{"id":18598,"date":"2020-02-14T09:38:47","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T14:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=18598"},"modified":"2020-02-14T09:38:47","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T14:38:47","slug":"stardust-and-a-devine-spark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=18598","title":{"rendered":"Stardust and a Devine Spark"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Ways of Knowing<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Stardust and A Divine Spark&nbsp;<\/strong><br>\nFriday, February 14, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nBJYxPN8qIA\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>In her book <\/em>Race and the\nCosmos<em>, Dr. Barbara Holmes\npresents a new way for us to address oppression by recognizing who we are and\nthe commonality we share as members of the human race. When we encounter other\nways of knowing, we may find ourselves discomforted and even distressed by the\npain that our nation, our church, or even we ourselves have caused others.\nToday, I want to offer a perspective that can lead to healing and wholeness,\ninstead of our too ready defensiveness. Holmes writes:<\/em> &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So much has\nchanged since Dr. King expressed [in \u201cLetter from a Birmingham Jail\u201d].\n&nbsp;his hope for a \u201cnot too distant tomorrow\u201d of radiant human mutuality. . .\n.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the\nclouds of race and racism in American continue to loom, threatening and\ndangerous. . . . The ghosts of oppression are shape-shifting into new forms and\nexpanding their territory. . . . Despite the apparent advances of women, people\nof color (POC), and the LGBTQIA+ community, racism, violence, xenophobia, and\nanti-immigrant tropes seem to be on the rise.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although this is\na discouraging reality, I am convinced that a community-called-beloved is\npossible. This is an admittedly fragile possibility, but it is not a utopian\ndream. I believe that people of good will harbor a persistent hope that our\nplanet can be a place of belonging for all its inhabitants. To view the world\ndifferently is to recognize the delusions that we have willingly embraced and\nadmit our own complicity in the empowerment of systems of oppression.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In America, we\nhave encoded the languages of equality, freedom, and justice into our myths of\nnational \u201cgoodness,\u201d yet we remain infatuated with power and privilege. Also,\nwe support corrupt and rapacious political and economic systems that prey on\nthe vulnerable. It will take a shift in language and purpose to free us from\nthis limited and materialistic view of human potential.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps the\nlanguage of science, cosmology, and physics can help us to see our plight and\nour opportunity. . . . [With] chaos in our social systems, we are in such dire\nneed of vision, imagination, and love of neighbor that this rhetorical\nexperiment is worth a try. Currently, we are using language to disguise our\ncommonalities and exacerbate our differences. Narratives about POC often emphasize\ninherent inferiority and criminality, when the truth is that all of us embody\nstardust and a divine spark with cosmic origins.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We come from mystery and\nreturn to it at the end of the life journey. What a gift to be on earth during\nan era when the universe is making itself known to and through the human race.\nWe are part of an unfolding that is ongoing, yet, around the planet, people and\nsystems are in crisis and we don\u2019t seem to know what to do. . . . Perhaps the\nfirst steps require that we free ourselves from negative stereotypes and\nrecognize our common cosmic origins.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ways of Knowing Stardust and A Divine Spark&nbsp; Friday, February 14, 2020 In her book Race and the Cosmos, Dr. Barbara Holmes presents a new way for us to address oppression by recognizing who we are and the commonality we share as members of the human race. When we encounter other ways of knowing, we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18598"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18599,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18598\/revisions\/18599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}