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Collaboration as collusion is the focus of this episode. What happens to any of us when faced with the dissonance of choosing between a life that honors the values we hold dear, and being forced to collaborate with those in power who hold different, and heinous, self-serving, prejudicial goals?  OUTLINE 1.  This episode is based on a recent Atlantic article by Anne Applebaum "History will Judge the Complicit"2.  In World War Ii, there were many stories of people drawn into collaborating with the enemy;  and others who resisted.3.  Today's Republican Senators include collaborators (e.g., Lindsay Graham) and dissenters (e.g., Mitt Romney)4.  This spring has challenged us with, among others,  the crises of prejudice and racism.  and Earth's rising temperatures and changing climate. 5.  The pathways into collaboration and dissension are filled with small experiences that can have an accumulative effect that leads to action.6.  As you move along your path, act always with decency.QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER- Where do you see others collaborating against their morals and principles?- Where do you see this in yourself?- Where do you see others dissenting against the people who have heinous, self-serving, prejudicial goals?- Where do you see this in yourself?- Do you think the tide is turning away from racism?- Do you think the tide is turning away from environmental disregard?

KEY IDEAS:1.  Working together, science and religion offer a compelling message about climate change.  The science is clear.  Human behaviors are the primary cause of Earth's rising temperatures.2.  The Religious community is divided between conservative "dominion-ist" and progressive "stewards"3.  Presidential contender Mayor Pete Buttigieg commented last November (2019) that contributing to climate change is sin.4. This author says that polluting the air, trashing the oceans, poisoning the land is sin.5.  Both dominion-ist and stewardship positions need to be pushed past the underlying principle of controlling the rest of life on the planet to partnering with it.QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:What is your "general" definition of sin?If you prefer some other word than "sin", what would you choose?Is contributing to Earth's rising temperatures, directly or indirectly, an act of "sin" (other word)?Can sin be an attitude such as indifference?  In other words can sin be the act of doing nothing?

This twelfth episode pulls together a lesson from Kathleen Norris, a hymn from the Iona Community, a bit of sailing wisdom, and a poignant short story.OUTLINE OF KEY IDEAS:1.  Kathleen Norris tells a story about making noise together, then making silence together2.  COVID-19 has drawn the line among us between patience and impatience.3.  A new dawn is breaking over COVID-194.  The skills used to keep night watch on the seas are useful in these days5  Keep alert...watch together...wait together...the signs are emergingQUESTIONS FOR REFLECTIONWhat does noise and silence do to your perceptions and imagination?What doo you think the dawn will reveal as COVID-19 fades?Where have you seen people watching and waiting together in this time?

So far this has been a year when the words "I Can't Breathe" have been spoken in many settings, many ways.  And the national and global events of a pandemic, an economic downturn, a racist crime against a Black man, George Floyd, even the challenges of a changing climate, are all tied together.Questions for ReflectionWhat are some personal ways you have spoken or heard others say, "I can't breathe" this spring?What are the adjustments you see happening in response to the voices crying out:  in how we are hoping to respond to this pandemic and others in the future?  in how we help those most vulnerable to the economic downturn?  in what groups and governments are doing to press into and begin to change the institutional racism of our time?  in what an Earth breathing easier would look like?When this 2020 feels overwhelming, where do you find hope?

The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis has opened, one more time, the horrors of this country's deeply embedded racism and the failures of the American democracy to fulfill its vision of life, liberty and justice for all.  Is Mr. Floyd's death one more event that will fade in time?  Or is it one that is the tipping point so that we never forget the injustice of racial prejudice?The power of memory and of choosing the events we never forget is the focus of this podcast.  From the Holocaust of World War II, to the horrible violence we reap upon each other and planet Earth, the question before us:  what will each of us decide to never forget?  Questions for Reflection:- What will you not likely (never) forget from the COVID-19 pandemic?- What do you hope we, as a nation, and we, as a global community, never forget?  What are those lessons that will help us move toward a more just and peaceful world?- What are the "never-forget" communities of which you are aware?  you participate in?

Prompted by an episode of the May 17th CBS 60 Minutes broadcast, this episode focuses on some learning and directions coming out of COVID-19.  OUTLINE OF KEY IDEAS1.  Environmentalist Bill McKibbon:  Nature is ultimately in charge2.  Historian Frank Snowden:  Our response to this pandemic is built on how humans acted in previous epidemics…and…as good developments happened from previous plagues, good changes are quite possible for tomorrow3.  Author Susanna Arundahti Roy:  without a present, we have not idea of a future; among the possible permanent changes we face is to rethink our idea of touch.4.  Theologian Kavin Rowe:  facing our mortality offers the opportunity to become more fully human and the freedom to speak truth, offer love and reconcile in different ways.5.  We need the Earth to provide for us, and the Earth needs us to change our attitudes, our hearts.QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTIONDoes this pandemic offer you good opportunities?In what ways are you becoming a different person?In what ways could truthfulness, love, reconciliation offer you depth to your human experience?How do you respond to the idea that, among the deeper changes we face will be to re-think the idea of human touch?