Monday Whatevers

January 3, 2022

Hello, Friend! 

It’s Monday, so… inspired by on one of my favorite bits of the Bible, let’s start every week off with a little bit of whatever’s good and noble in the world. Here are a few excellent and noteworthy things I’m seeing in the world right now. Some are beautiful, promising, and reassuring. Some are poignant, thought-provoking, and necessary. All of them add to a greater knowing of God’s presence in this world, within our humanity, and out in the great beyond. And, they all prove there’s an abundance of spectacular, breathtaking tangible and intangible cosmic matter between us. 

Please feel free to share in the comments whatever is good that you’re seeing in the world as well.  

Blessings,
Marcie

---

 A Monday Whatevers run-through of some of my favorite books I read in 2021. Just a little fair warning, some of these were written for children. But I hate to categorize and label good stories. Stories are stories, and the best ones are written for everyone. 

I hope you’ll share some of your favorite reads from 2021 as well. 

---

WHATEVER IS TRUE…
Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne by Wilda C. Gafney

Gender matters. Gender matters in the text, in the world, in the world of the text, and in the world of the translator. Gender matters to me and to countless numbers of women hearers and readers of the biblical text for whom it is Scripture. Gender matters significantly to those who have been and are marginalized because of gender, especially when it is done in the name of God, appealing to the Scriptures. And gender matters to men. Gender matters to hearers and readers of the Scriptures who are privileged to share the gender of the dominant portrayal of God, the majority of biblical characters, the majority of biblical characters who have speaking parts, the majority of translators of biblical texts, and the majority of interpreters of biblical texts. 

WHATEVER IS HONEST…
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning
by Cathy Hong

Can I write honestly? Not only about how much I’ve been hurt but how I have hurt others? And can I do it without steeping myself in guilt, since guilt demands absolution and is therefore self-serving? In other words, can I apologize without demanding your forgiveness? Where do I begin?…

Patiently educating a clueless white person about race is draining. It takes all your powers of persuasion. Because it’s more than a chat about race. It’s ontological. It’s like explaining to a person why you exist, or why you feel pain, or why your reality is distinct from their reality. Except it’s even trickier than that. Because the person has all of Western history, politics, literature, and mass culture on their side, proving that you don’t exist.

WHATEVER IS JUST…
We Are Water Protectors
by Carole Windstrom 

Earth Steward and Water Protector Pledge: I will do my best to honor Mother Earth and all its living beings, including water and land. I will remember to treat the Earth as I would like to be treated. I will treat… the winged ones, the crawling ones, the four-legged ones, the two-legged ones, the plants, the trees, rivers, lakes and the Earth with kindness and respect. I pledge to make this world a better place by being a steward of the Earth and a protector of the water. 

WHATEVER IS PURE…
Underland: A Deep Time Journey
by Robert Macfarlane 

The same three tasks recur across cultures and epochs: to shelter what is precious, to yield what is valuable, and to dispose of what is harmful. 

Shelter (memories, precious matter, messages, fragile lives). 

Yield (information, wealth, metaphors, minerals, visions).

Dispose (waste, trauma, poison, secrets). 

Into the underland we have long placed that which we fear and wish to lose, and that which we love and wish to save.

WHATEVER IS LOVELY…
Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Animals
by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

What if you could hear the world between your heartbeats? Slow down enough to deepen into trust. How can I learn the skill to tell my heart to slow down? The pressure is coming. Slow down and we will have all the air we need…

And I can live this whole life from my heart. Despite all my impatience and my fear. I can know my heart, like love knows you. Has always known. Ready? Exhale. 

WHATEVER IS GRACIOUS…
Saving Grace: Speak Your Truth, Stay Centered, and Learn to Coexist with People Who Drive You Nuts
by Kirsten Powers

Grace is giving other people space not to be you.

Grace is the original self-care. It shushes the hectoring inner critic that tells us we are too much, too little, too fat, too thin, too good, and not good enough. Grace invites us off the hedonic treadmill of relentless achievement and success, which never delivers the happiness it promises. Grace doesn’t care what size your waist is and celebrates every new wrinkle as evidence of wisdom earned. Grace shrugs at your unachieved New Year’s resolutions and teaches you to be kind to yourself, just because. Grace reminds you of the “love yourself” part of Jesus’s command “Love others as much as you love yourself.” 

Grace is amazing. 

WHATEVER IS EXCELLENT…
Race and the Cosmos (2nd ed.)
by Barbara A. Holmes 

We are seekers of light and life, bearers of shadows and burdens. We are struggling to journey together toward moral fulfillment. We are learning to embrace the unfathomable darkness where God dwells with enthusiasm that equals our love of light. 

WHATEVER IS WORTHY OF APPLAUSE…

The 1619 Project: Born on the Water
by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Reneé Watson

They say our people were born on the water, but our people had a home, a place, a land before they were sold. 

400 years ago, in 1619, our ancestors were taken and brought here on a ship called the White Lion a whole year before the Mayflower arrived. 

But before that dreadful voyage, there was a time when they did not pray for freedom. 

There was a time when they did not sing about overcoming. 

Their story does not begin with whips and chains, 

They had a home, a place, a land, a beginning. 

Their story is our story. 

Before they were enslaved, they were free. 

---

May your week be filled with whatever is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent, and worthy of praise.

Much Peace,
Marcie, BCWWF