So That We and Our Children May Live

The following reflection is by Sheri. There is a version of humility that dominant culture is comfortable with. It looks like modesty, like not bragging, like saying “oh, it was nothing” when someone compliments your work. It’s a personality trait, a nice-to-have. That is not the humility the Coalition means when we name it as a sacred value. The humility we’re talking about is structural and spiritual.

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

This column is the last of a series in which I (Sheri) reflect on my family’s economic history, specifically how our family was working class in my youth but still structurally privileged. I’m hoping my family’s history illuminates dynamics related to class, race, colonialism and our present-day political moment.

My Mom and my Dad on her family farm. She was probably 17 or 18 in this photo. This column is part of a series in which I (Sheri) reflect on my family’s economic history, specifically how our family was working class in my youth but still structurally privileged. I’m hoping my family’s history illuminates dynamics related to class, race, colonialism and our present-day political moment.

My maternal grandparents’ farm that my grandmother sold after my grandfather died in 1954. This column is part of a series in which I (Sheri) reflect on my family’s economic history, specifically how our family was working class in my youth but still structurally privileged. I’m hoping my family’s history illuminates dynamics related to class, race, colonialism and our present-day political moment. Note: I also plan to bring my mother into this conversation in a later column.

Two Hundred Years in One Place This column is part of a series in which I (Sheri) reflect on my family’s economic history, specifically how our family was working class in my youth but still structurally privileged. I’m hoping my family’s history illuminates dynamics related to class, race, colonialism and our present-day political moment. Note: I also plan to bring my mother into this conversation in a later column.

Trump Country and the Trauma of Betrayal This column is part of a series in which I (Sheri) reflect on my family’s economic history, specifically how our family was working class in my youth but still structurally privileged. I’m hoping my family’s history illuminates dynamics related to class, race, colonialism and our present-day political moment. Note: I also plan to bring my mother into this conversation in a later column.

This column is part of a series in which I reflect on my family’s economic history, specifically how our family was working class in my youth but still structurally privileged. I’m hoping my family’s history illuminates dynamics related to class, race, colonialism and our present-day political moment. Note: I also plan to bring my mother into this conversation in a later column.

My Dad in his office at Owens-Illinois This column is part of a series in which I reflect on my family’s economic history, specifically how our family was working class in my youth but still structurally privileged. I’m hoping my family’s history illuminates dynamics related to class, race, colonialism and our present-day political moment. Note: I also plan to bring my mother into this conversation in a later column.

First, my apologies that I’m not Sarah bringing you another chapter of “Peacekeepers/Truthbringers.” I know many of you have been enjoying her serialized novel; the remaining chapters are coming this fall. Stay tuned. In the meantime, I’ve been doing enough reflecting on my family’s economic history that I find I have several columns’ worth to share. Some of what I discovered surprised me.