My beloved friend Angel Wall likes to remind people that she loves them just as they are, just because they are. “I love you because you breathe,” she says. Her love is simply because the people around her exist–it is inherent to their being. I have always found this to be a profound and beautiful statement of theology. -Michael Tino (CLF)
How have you experienced love given to you simply because you exist?
What does it mean to recognize someone’s inherent dignity? How does it change our behavior towards others to begin with the understanding that they have dignity?
What does dignity mean to you?
“We declare that every person has the right to flourish with inherent dignity and worthiness.” – from the proposed language for UUA Article 2, “Equity”
What does it mean to you to flourish?
“All the work we must do in order to make this a better society serves as a tribute to our great ancestors and a gift to future generations…. There’s still work to do and we will have to make sacrifices. If we want humanity to survive we must transform our society for the better.” -Sergio H., a CLF member incarcerated in Texas
What is your gift to future generations?
“Prison can be a tomb
or a womb
A cocoon of transformation,
the darkness
becoming a metamorphosis.
A triumph born of adversity,
giving no counsel to the fear.”
-from a poem entitled “Transformation,” by Gary F., a CLF member incarcerated in South Carolina
