new collage: black and white

"black and white"

mixed media collage (found papers, acrylic paint, glue on hardcover book board)

february 2019

gregory a. milinovich

i've been thinking a great deal about race and racism recently, reading a fantastic book by Austin Channing Brown called "I'm Still Here," and preaching a sermon on january 27th about how race divides us in our country, in our communities, and in the church.

i've been thinking about the way that my color has positively impacted my life. and how i so often so carelessly participate in a system that impacts others negatively because of theirs.

i've been thinking about justice, and that long moral arc on the universe. i've been thinking about how i've always had a soft-spot for the underdog, but have so often failed to consider my own fortunate place in a world full of underdogs.

i've been thinking about how i might be a part of changing this. of erasing some small part of the line that separates us from justice, because i will never truly be my most full and best self until you are yours.

i've been thinking about hope, and how i believe we should have it, despite the systems and powers and principalities that would promote injustice and dehumanization.

i preached about some of this on january 27th, and you can hear it here.

and i also made this collage as an expression of some of what i have been feeling and thinking. about black and white and gray. about injustice. about the systems that perpetuate it. and about hope, and my part in that, too. how i hope that i won't be overwhelmed with a feeling of helplessness. hope that i can see the others around me - i mean really see them. hope that i can learn from them, and in that holy curiosity, discover more of God's splendid array of color and creativity. hope that i won't let fear keep me from trying. hope that i will do all i can do, which is to bend my own heart along that same arc that moves towards dignity and justice for all. hope that together we can retell stories and remake relationships and revive communities and restore justice.

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