Six New Things – Week of October 28, 2024

Election Day is six days away. Post-Election America is seven days away. Strengthen folx’ sense of belonging and community as you tackle key topics intergenerationally – add a little humor so everyone is met with truth and grace.

For Election Day intensive, see last week’s post, here.

ONE

Affirm individuality and friendship, compromise and grace with Huck and Loona (Beaming), which, ‘equips children to embrace their uniqueness and communicate with others for healthy relationships that help them grow and thrive’.

Usher adults into healthy relationships with Loving Corrections (AK); author adrienne maree brown, ‘knows we need each other more than ever, and offers a practice for holding collective power, righting wrongs, and generating true belonging’.

Extend belonging to those most in need with The Shape of Joy: The Transformative Power of Moving Beyond Yourself (Broadleaf), which invites us, ‘to find ways to cultivate joy, community, and meaning in our lives’.

Find related resources in our Healthy Boundaries, Current Events & Movements, and Cultivating Gratitude & Joy lib guides.

TWO

Healthy relationships and healthy communities are essential to a healthy nation. A healthy perspective on history doesn’t hurt, either. Develop awareness in all generations with simultaneous readings:

  • Inspired by real events and set in 1942, Nazi-occupied Northern France, Freedom’s Game (Reycraft), ‘tells a courageous story of friendship, sacrifice, and the resilience of hope’ – for Littles.
  • Based on real events and the experiences of real people, Shadow on the Mountain (Amulet) contains photos, maps, and archival material that offers tweens and teens peer-perspective on resistance efforts in early 1940s Nazi-occupied Norway.
  • For adults open to learning, The Dragon from Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany (Beacon), relates the story of Sigrid Schultz, ‘one of the earliest reporters to warn Americans of the rising threat of the Nazi regime’.

Find more on Hope & Resilience and Politics & Social Structure in our lib guides.

THREE

Are we willing to name hard truths and learn from our past – even when the truth is haunting?

Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch (Metropolitan) reveals the disturbing, ‘history of the use of food in the United States… as a weapon of conquest and control’.

Lest we believe history doesn’t repeat itself, take a gander at Progressive Christianity’s, Faith & Democracy: Confronting White Christian Nationalism Panel Discussion.

As you come to grips with Christian Nationalism’s power in the US, get inspired to stand up to it by That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America (Bloomsbury), ‘the inspiring story of a Louisiana librarian advocating for inclusivity on the front lines of our vicious culture wars’.

Discover more Social Justice resources in our Agriculture & Food, Christian Nationalism, and Banned Books lib guides.

FOUR

Historic efforts to create an autocracy are based on assumptions that only the right strongman can ‘save’ a nation from perceived threats – within and without – and ‘save’ people from their own power-defined ‘inadequacies’.

Let’s remind our Littles that everyone makes mistakes and mistakes are not evil. Let’s encourage our Littles (and ourselves) to offer and accept grace – so we can get more comfortable with the messiness inherent to any and all communities (and countries). Fail-A-Bration (Dial) is a ‘party to celebrate failures’ that ‘finds joy in trying and learning, even if you don’t succeed’.

Find more on Raising Confident Kids in our lib guide.

FIVE

If the congregation is ready to move on, already, toward blessed and Beloved Community, you might conjure visions of a more hopeful future with, The End Is the Beginning: Revelation, Hope, and the Love That Lit the Stars (Broadleaf), which, ‘cuts through the echo chamber of rapture-haunted apocalyptic anxiety with a clear picture of God’s persistent love for all that was, and is, and will be’, as it invites us to stand, ‘in the face of a Christian mechanism fueled by fear to reclaim a message of promise and persistence. With equal doses hope and humor…’

Find more Adult Apocalypse/Justice/Revelation-based Bible Studies in our lib guide.

SIX

Pair our new perspective on failure with hope and humor and you get… opera!?!

Here’s a shameless (nepotistic) plug for my sister’s and brother-in-law’s opera company: Lyric Opera of the North is celebrating its 20th Season with a new libretto to Mozart’s Impresario (written by Duluth local Jeff Madison) and a world-premier written specifically for this celebration, Circe on Superior. Both short, one-act operas celebrate the joy of ‘making music with friends’ as we manage the hilarious chaos of community. My beloved niece joins two peers in featured roles, so it’s a family affair with me backstage as quick-change wardrobe assistant (!). Come join the celebration and get in a few laughs: Friday, November 1 at 7:00 PM and/or Sunday, November 3 at 3:00 PM at The Depot in Duluth. Learn more and get tickets here. I’d love to see you at the opera!!

‘Opera happens because a large number of things amazingly fail to go wrong.’ – Terry Pratchett