Regional Assembly 2022 Summary: June 10, 2022

Half Empty, Half Full or Refillable? 

At this year’s MidAmerican Regional Assembly, held virtually on April 30, CB Beal shared a number of insightful and inspirational concepts. The idiom for their talk was the glass half empty-half full idea, and that our individual perspective determines how we see what is frequently assumed to be a dichotomy. CB posed a different idea; that there is opportunity for things to change if we change our perspective – if we see the glass as REFILLABLE! For UUs this offers the opportunity for community expansion. To reject a first response of NO and embrace the chaos and creativity that comes with YES. To paraphrase Margaret Wheatly, we can’t be creative without being confused. 

What do I/we need to be well and healthy and to refill my/our glass? CB suggestions the following: 

• Knowing that others care/ that I feel love 
• To have a sense of purpose and experience the energy from taking action on that purpose 
• The capacity to be in the moment so I/we can share with others whose relationship and encouragement makes me feel whole.  

These are especially important given the challenges and hurt of the past few years! 

Another concept CB shared is “preemptive radical inclusions” and the idea that salvation in the form of human material liberation for this world is for everyone. All of us means all of us! We must understand collective care versus radical individualism and that our choosing collective care means rejecting intolerance and embracing community care. That the freedom to say whatever one thinks is counter to our principles so we must balance our individual desires with a will to ensure a place in the space for everyone. 

CB posed some questions that are worthy of contemplation by each of us: 

• What broad injustice am I committed to fighting? 
• What do I risk to make justice happen? 
• What if it requires me to change?  

My question to us: In this time of pandemic fatigue and societal challenges, how can we support each other to make change and keep our efforts refillable? 

 

Reported by Carla Williams 

 

About CB Beal 

CB Beal is a white, fat, queer, non-binary religious and social justice educator, writer, storyteller, and speaker. CB was the 2019 recipient of the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Angus H. MacLean Award for Excellence in Religious Education. They make their home in a farmhouse library loft in western Massachusetts and consult with individuals and organizations to increase consent culture, equity, and justice in the world. You can find them online at Justice and Peace Consulting.