‽istis reclaims neighbours
and neighbourhoods (weekending May 22nd 2021)
In a week when:
·
a move from a small village seemed finalised
·
when violence continued in streets and markets and
amongst those who live close to each other (and perhaps not so far from here in
possibility) and most held their breath, held on, wept, and hoped for the fire
to cease
·
when recall brings to the fore place names such as Belfast
and Rwanda, Sri Lanka and Sudan, Yemen and Syria[i]
and the (shamefully) many, many forgotten or missed
…‽istis ponders:
§ sectarianism
§ past events
unforgotten and unforgiven
§ the
exercise and demand of privileges by the majority or the multi-capitalised
(financial, social, resource-full, political)
§ processes
of minoritizing, demonising, blaming, excluding, exploiting or oppressing of
the others
§ holding
on to and highlighting more that divides than unites ‘us’.
And ‽istis is grateful for the warp
and weft of the everyday, the local, the stuff of life; is grateful for the
sharing of events and experiences that are joyful, painful but mostly just humdrum (the
moment taken again to chat about the weather, a social lubricant whether it is
raining or not!)…
Above all, ‽istis is grateful for knowing
and being known by a large percentage of the small number of people ‘nearby’,
in the neighbourhood and with whom a ‘space’ is shared…
And, with a promise to keep in touch and to return, ‽istis is also grateful that ‘here’, with these neighbours, we found a way - and (given their occasional curtain-twitching ways) there has not been too much to hide!
So, knowing and being known – mostly a privilege; perhaps, possibly, maybe also an antidote?
©
Pistis
NB: further reflections and comments linked to
this week’s theme and past blog
entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily
indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’:
@Pistis_wonders
