A note to friends after a virtual gathering and conversation that was layered with lament and hope:

Thanks everybody for last night’s conversation. The movie itself, the welcome presence of our less-frequent attendees, the format of Zoom, these pandemic days we’re living in – all those factors came together to make the ideas we shared late into the evening especially…important. And complex. Complex, just like these days indeed, when at best we are all trying to wrap our heads around legitimate “both/and” truths and at worst we are bombarded with conflicting information in the guise of truth that makes truth seem like an impossible attainment and even an outdated idea.

What do I mean by “both/and” truths? Simply, that life shows us over and over, when we have eyes to see, that things can be both good and bad – for things, plug in these ideas: government, “kids these days,” family, friends and other humans, technology, free speech, social distancing, time to slow down…mystery.

We talked last night about how the media is no longer (and really, was it ever?) a reliable source for truth, either as a hunter/gatherer or a distributor of it. So where do we find truth? A question as old as humanity, and one that I know we all have our answers to. Click the images for three places where Truth has found me this week. This last one especially, which I just heard this morning, seemed particularly relevant to our conversation about young adults and how they are experiencing this world. I’m going to have more to say about this artist and her art, and I know many others will too. Listen carefully to the profound words of her songs and let them speak for themselves, then listen to her NPR interview. If you can, hold off on viewing her photo and her other videos until you have really heard *her* unique voice (In the brief interview, she speaks of the “both/and” of her family legacy…)

Blessings on Truth’s search for you, today and always.

Love, Ellen