{"id":19061,"date":"2020-07-10T08:58:55","date_gmt":"2020-07-10T12:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19061"},"modified":"2020-07-10T08:58:55","modified_gmt":"2020-07-10T12:58:55","slug":"social-renewal-as-spiritual-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19061","title":{"rendered":"Social Renewal as Spiritual Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Wisdom in Times of Crisis<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Social\nRenewal as Spiritual Practice<\/strong><br>\nFriday, \u202fJuly 10, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/U3HvgoWQpVQ\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>CAC\nFaculty member Dr. Barbara Holmes points us to the interwoven nature of\nlove\u2014love of God, of self, and of neighbor. We cannot keep the Great\nCommandment without fully engaging in all three. In her wisdom, she sees this\ntime of crisis as an opportunity for a great re-imagining of our society and\nhow it might function for the good of all. Barbara says:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\npractice I\u2019m focusing on is self-love and love of neighbor. We tend not to be\nvery good at either one, but during this time of isolation, we have equal\nopportunities to rest and to heal, to love and be loved. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For\nme a spiritual practice that matters includes social renewal. Instead of\nblaming others about the state of our union, instead of blaming one political\nparty or another, we actually can reflect on our own complicity and support of\nsystems that abandoned the poor, warehoused our children in failing schools,\nand failed to provide adequate health care, even under normal circumstances. As\na spiritual practice, we can wake up to the possibility of building a new\norder. We can improvise those possibilities; try them out in the creative\nmicrocosm of a shared public life, realizing that our way of life before the\npandemic was not perfect. It could be improved so that all members of the\nsociety thrive. We\u2019ve received reports that COVID-19 is disproportionally\nimpacting communities of color. There are many reasons for this outcome,\nincluding the fact that people of color often have chronic health problems that\nmake them particularly vulnerable to the disease as a result of poverty, poor\nor nonexistent health care, and economic disparities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\nshould reconsider the contours of our national social contract. Our social and\neconomic systems work on a zero-sum game where there are winners and losers. It\ndidn\u2019t have to be that way. We have the opportunity to restructure society, so\nit works as well for the have-nots and the almost-haves as well as it does for\nthe wealthy. Do we really want a society organized to support the rich with the\ntoiling of an underclass of marginalized laborers? Do we believe that it is\nevery man, every woman for themselves, or do we want a society safety net for\nthose who have fewer options and fewer resources?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From\nan article I wrote titled \u201cStill on the Journey,\u201d I believe that as a spiritual\npractice we can imagine and create \u201ca political system responsive to the people\nand respectful of global neighbors, a health system that is comprehensive in\nscope and not profit driven, an educational system shaped by innovation,\nimprovisation, technology, and practicality.\u201d [1] The pandemic [and widespread\ndemonstrations for Black Lives] have lifted the veil from our eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Can we be honest\nnow about what is not working? Can we re-envision new options? I believe that\nwe can, if we want to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wisdom in Times of Crisis Social Renewal as Spiritual Practice Friday, \u202fJuly 10, 2020 CAC Faculty member Dr. Barbara Holmes points us to the interwoven nature of love\u2014love of God, of self, and of neighbor. We cannot keep the Great Commandment without fully engaging in all three. In her wisdom, she sees this time of [&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\/19061"}],"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=19061"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19063,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19061\/revisions\/19063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}