Another thing that impressed me and really made me think, at the Parliament of World Religions was the “turban workshop.” It made me look closer at the issue of cultural misappropriation and flip the conversation to “What does it look like, when a community wants to share something sacred with outsiders to their faith/community?”

In part of the exhibit hall, the Sikhs set up an area where they invited individuals to come get their own turban. They explained the religious significance of the turban while winding the bright cloth around the person’s head, sending them off with the turban and a blessing to draw strength from it.

As Unitarian Universalists, I have mused, what is our “turban”? What is something that is important to us, that we could share with those who might be curious? Not to convert them, but as a gift of generosity? Is it our social witness? Is it when we share a video on Facebook of something that happened at Live Oak?

Perhaps it is when we give someone a Black Lives Matter button, or a small rainbow flag. Or maybe we need to find a way to create art or writings that we can give to others, not in an attempt to make them like us, but simply to help them in their own journey, wherever it takes them.

I’ll keep thinking on this. I hope you do, too, and let me know your conclusions.