Posts Tagged ‘belonging|quest-magazine-2012-10’

I trust that most of you remember Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood, perhaps as well as I do. Mr. Rogers knew his neighbors—people who dropped by his home all the time to share some useful tidbit of information.

As a religious heritage bonded not by creed, confession or common prayer, but by covenant, Unitarian Universalists vow to stay at the table long enough to understand one another and mold a viable community.

It is astonishing how certain human bonds are able to transcend time and place. Early one year, my brother Chuck made contact—on the Internet, no less—with a long lost relative in Iceland.

When do you feel as if you—your opinions, your experiences, your beliefs—matter? And when do you feel as if you are marginal, that you and your life are invisible?

What are you? Are you a man? A woman? Person of color? Are you straight or gay, able or disabled, citizen, immigrant, settler? Are you legal or illegal? Do you belong here?

To be human is to belong. Belonging is a circle that embraces everything; if we reject it, we damage our nature. The word “belonging” holds together the two fundamental aspects of life: being and longing.

Whose are you? Who carries you in their heart, thinks of you, whether you think of them or not?