Reply To: Sunday January 24: Beyond Opposites

Home Forums Word of the Week Sessions Sunday January 24: Beyond Opposites Reply To: Sunday January 24: Beyond Opposites

Posted by Kathleen M. Kelly on January 24, 2021 at 8:24 pm #111420

hi sister, i wrote this letter and it was printed  in pur local newspaper: the watertown times.

To. The Editor:

I appreciate the letter written by Mark Zehr and published in the Sunday, Jan. 17, issue of the Watertown Times. He expressed reticence about publicly making his opinion known, given the readership of the Watertown Times.We need to hear each and everyone who feels their views are not respected.

We all have our personal history, which provides a foundation for our later view of the world..  Could we listen to each other’s stories? We can all ask ourselves: How do I know if what I know is true? None of us knows it all, and we need to look for measurable guides for what is factual and what is not.

The “news” we consume: how much of it is factual and how much is interpretation? Could we not have actual periods when all that is reported is what happened? Where did it happened. Who did what? Who observed it? What time did it happen and for what duration, and in what sequence? The meaning of events should are addressed at a different time.

I have enduring beliefs and values, by which I judge what I experience in the world. According to Marilynne Robinson, saying my values are right and yours are wrong is like saying “my mother is better than your mother”.

Can’t we all go over and climb that little hill over there (in our mind’s eye)_ and get a God’s-eye view of the different ways of seeing things?

From Psalm 85: Kindness and truth shall meet. Would that this be so. I commit to that goal in. My own thinking and speaking.

What is in my own mind is what I project out onto the world. The world “out there” is also the world “in here” . How is what I am watching, listening to or reading contribute to the world I see and make real by my expectations?

Let us each take courage and be our best selves, just one moment at a time. Do you think you could try? Just for today? I for one, am going to start to walk my talk. Words are cheap.