Let us take a small breath. This podcast marks a year, 52 weeks, of doing these weekly conversations, sometimes with others, sometimes just Holly & Bill. A whole year. Many things have fallen away, many others have arisen. We’ve wanted to speak to these moments, and we’ve tried to do so as we experience them. It is a feeling of building the boat as we sail it.

There is so much excitement and hope around getting to share space together, but there is also a sense of vulnerability. Jon Meachum, biographer and speaker, said Americans haven’t been this divided since right before the Civil War. We are in a time of unrest, disturbance…which could also mean we are in a time of depth, of possibility. Disturbance begets creation; depth begets new awareness. Catherine Keller calls this a tehomic theology, or a theology of becoming. Tehom is Hebrew for the “Deep” or “Abyss,” the primordial waters of creation. From these murky waters—which were the exact opposite of nothing—everything emerged.

We are looking forward to being in “the deep” with our class, both virtually and in person, as we wade through what is to come.

A few recommendations and tidbits from this episode:

Check out Brené Brown’s podcast, Unlocking Us with Austin Channing Brown, author of I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

Bill opened with “Where I Come From” by Sally Fisher:

We didn’t say fireflies
but lightning bugs.
We didn’t say carousel
but merry-go-round.
Not seesaw,
teeter-totter
not lollipop,
sucker.
We didn’t say pasta, but
spaghetti, macaroni, noodles:
the three kinds.
We didn’t get angry:
we got mad.
And we never felt depressed
dismayed, disappointed
disheartened, discouraged
disillusioned or anything,
even unhappy:
just sad.

Holly closed with this one by Rebecca Elson:

“Dark Matter”
Above a pond,
An unseen filament
Of spider’s floss
Suspends a slowly
Spinning Leaf.

Thank you. Thank you for sticking with us, for all this time.