Sacred Text Reading Group
Date/Time
Date(s) - 07/17/2021
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

A weekly online sacred text reading group with Amy

Using a spiritual-practice approach, in each session we will explore a different brief scriptural text in depth. The aims of the sessions are educational (learning something about the texts and traditions), spiritual/moral (discovering what the texts ask of us), and community-building (getting to know each other better). Amy will have a version of the text available to share; “bring” your own if you like. All are welcome, as are your suggestions of future texts. About half our readings so far have been those suggested by group members.

The reading for Saturday, July 17, 2021, comes from Caucasia, a coming of age novel by Danzy Senna, about a biracial girl and set in 1970s Boston. The group member who proposed it says Caucasia is “a wonderful book, written beautifully, full of very thoughtful moments. The mother is a Boston blue blood but rebels against everything she grew up with, marrying an African American, getting involved in underground Black movements; she is almost manic and driven to change the world in tangible ways. The father is from a housing project, attends Harvard and becomes an anthropology professor. He is consumed by his experiences as an African American man but his way of dealing with it is very cerebral; he theorizes and writes books. The father’s sister, Dot, moves to India in a spiritual journey but returns back to the US after many years. The excerpt is from the reunion scene between Dot and the protagonist, Birdie.”

“I watched Dot as she spoke. When I was little, I had wanted to grow up to be just like her. Now as we lay side by side, and it struck me that I was more like my father than I was like her.  I wondered if I’d ever transcend the skin, the body. If I would ever believe in something I couldn’t see. It seemed that in order to be as light as Dot, one couldn’t afford to believe in evil. Not the way my father and my mother did. They believed in evil they could see, and evil they couldn’t. Dot believed only in good. 
She was busy explaining to me her thoughts on color. “There’s skin color, eye color, hair color, and then there’s invisible color – that color rising above you. It’s the color of your soul, and it rests just beyond your skin.”

How to join:

  • Join this class from your Web browser: https://zoom.us/j/578882781, passcode: words
  • Join this class using the Zoom app: Meeting ID: 578 882 781
  • Join this class by phone: 669 900 9128 US (San Jose), Meeting ID: 578 882 781, passcode: 171919
  • Join this class by one-tap on mobile phones: +16699009128,,578882781# US (San Jose)
  • Phoning in, but not in the bay area?  Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abL8clvIYT
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