Since the coronavirus pandemic began, we’ve increased our virtual communication and decreased our in-person (embodied, incarnate) interaction with others. We’ve grown accustomed to seeing one another in “fragmented” ways — as faces without noses and mouths, or as floating heads in Zoom boxes. Even as children are vaccinated and new COVID treatments emerge, making in-person interaction less risky, we may never relate to one another as beings with bodies in exactly the same way as we did before March 2020. And, maybe, that’s not all bad. As Unitarian Universalists, we know the importance of covenanting with one another in our intellectual, emotional, and spiritual relationships, but how can we learn to covenant with one another as bodies, too? How can we hold each other accountable but also in kindness? How can we see the beauty in our traumatized bodies, and not only see the danger in them?

Featuring music by Denise Chambers and Chris Gonzales

Topics: Community