Community of Voices
It has been said that we are Star beings in human form. We have journeyed from the Cosmos and landed here, earth-bound in a body, and given unique instructions on how to spend our time on this planet. - Asha Frost, You Are The Medicine
I still believe in summer days.
The seasons always change
And life will find a way.
Is love alive?
Is love alive?
Is love alive?
-Winter Song, Leslie Odom Jr and Cynthia Erivo
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the
end to arrest it,
And ceas'd the moment life appear'd.
All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier - Walt Whitman (as read in Dacher Keltner's Awe)
Jesus Christ Neutron Star
When a star dies, a few things can happen afterwards. A brown or white dwarf results when a smaller star dies. With massive stars, death comes as a supernova explosion, sometimes leaving behind a black hole–what I refer to as the matter-eating zombies of the universe. Other times, the supernova gives way to a neutron star, the most lively post-death star. A neutron star is a bright example of a common and cosmic truth.
A neutron star is what remains of a massive star after it dies in a supernova explosion. This remnant is the core of the once-massive star collapsed down to about 10 kilometers1. Neutron stars are wildly dense and spin at a dizzying astronomical rate. Textured similar to a smooth iron orb, it’s got an ultra-strong, rapidly rotating magnetic field2. The neutron star is powerful with it’s own life as a continuation of the story of a certain star - and yet it exists as a direct result of death.3
Now, I consider myself in the business of bringing cosmic truths down to Earth. Taking what's grand and finding ourselves in it, or finding it inside of us. This time, it proved a bit tricky.
This is not the first version I was going to write to you. And when the idea of Jesus Christ Neutron Star came to me, I was juiced about fleshing it out. In the middle of that, death kept showing up. In the lives of loved ones and strangers, death and pain kept inserting itself like an uninvited guest crashing life’s party.
I was sitting with the part of Jesus's story following his death where the disciples were hiding from the authorities and afraid for their lives. Why were they afraid? ‘Cause the authorities killed Jesus, and there was a real chance they were coming for the disciples next. The disciples' reality felt all too close to home.
Their fears of pursuit, pain, and death were the same ones I hold as a Black woman, wife, momma, and friend living in America. And I was angry.
I thought, I can't write about resurrection right now. In my efforts to point out its wonder, I mock our collective pain. I mock my own. So what's the point?
What's the point of resurrection if it's only for Jesus, while everyone else who dies stays dead? What's the actual good news?
As all this came up, I didn’t have an answer, so I let my question be. I allowed my anger her space and moved on with my day.
A friend and I were meeting about work things and detoured to gush over Billy Porter and how he showed up and showed out in this Jimmy Fallon clip in all his glory–with Patti LaBelle, no less, as a willing backup singer! We rejoiced, we rocked, we smiled and laughed. Ours was a joy that knew a secret and how to celebrate a star.
My friend paused and with a thoughtful seriousness said, I know this can feel difficult to hold but without the hard parts of Billy's story, we don't have the Billy Porter in this video.
I was stunned. I stopped, mouth open. Something inside me clicked. That's it.
When there is death, pain, and trauma, and our questions come up, the offered answers can feel too mysterious for our tangible needs–or even plain untrue. We're given a placebo–a response to our pain that's void of anything *actually* good, but it’s something hopeful in the moment.
On that Saturday in the garden, after Jesus was dead and buried, the pain of death turned the promise of life into a placebo. In the face of constant, unjust death, the answer of resurrection turned into a placebo for me too.
While I wasn’t sure how to bring this into my experience quite yet, I could still recognize the genius of Jesus in his embodiment of a cosmic principle many generations before humanity would scientifically know it: Jesus shatters the idea of "Life & Death," calling it an incomplete sentence. It's an unfinished understanding. Cosmically, it's Life & Death & Life. And this seems to be a normal reality.
Resurrection is so common among the stars, there are at least four ways the physical star has an afterlife. The body it sheds from its first life carries the seeds for the new beginnings of stars, planets, gardens, and–quite phenomenally–you and me.
Resurrection is so common that the moon has cyclical phases where light dims and returns over and over and over again. Resurrection is so common that there is a supernova remnant (from the death of a star) named the Butterfly Nebula, after an Earthly symbol of rebirth. The cosmos affirm this universal promise of Life & Death & Life.
Resurrection truly is a normal event. This commonness of resurrection doesn't make Jesus's unimportant–just particular. Bodily resurrection becomes a tangible reality in the neutron star we call “Jesus The Risen One” in this way: The massive life of Jesus went supernova, scattered life-seeds, and left behind the dense core of his embodied, lively being. In Jesus' story, we see resurrection enfleshed in humanity.
Resurrection is in Billy's story too.
The Billy Porter from the video is the resurrected Billy Porter. One who experienced the death that comes from dehumanizing tragedies and refused to let death write his whole story.
Resurrection is in my story too.
Walking through years of deep depression, debilitating anxiety, disordered eating, and more, I was not myself. Pain, disconnection, loneliness, self-hatred and distrust were where I lived, and moved, and had my being. I wasn't alive, not really. Death came to my soul and it tried to lay claim to the entirety of my story.
We say, “This is killing me” when referring to a situation or experience because it is bringing a death we can feel. It’s in our chest, in our shoulders, in our breathing and in our heart rate. In our hopes, dreams, mind and emotions, we are experiencing death in this life.
But in Jesus's enfleshed resurrection, he proclaims that death doesn't get to tell the end of our story. Not the end of mine and not the end of yours. Not in this life or whatever comes after our last breath.
Every neutron star agrees: Death will not tell the end of the story.
There is no escaping death being part of the story. But the point of resurrection is that though death may be present, it will not be the star. Jesus will be the star. Billy will be the star. You and I–we will be the neutron star of our story.
May every neutron star in the sky and on the earth remind you of this common, cosmic truth: Life outlives death. Every time.
Ritual of Connectedness
Tell (i.e. write, draw, dance, sing, share, etc.) your story as a neutron star.
What has been death to you? What elements are in the dense, core of who you are - the resurrected you?
Don’t feel like you’re story has gotten to that point yet? Look around and recount stories of the neutron stars you know in your life. Note what in their stories helps you to hope in the promise vs expect the placebo.
Two Mamas
Mamas are a special kind. I'm in the mama club and there is just something about a mama, you know? Some of you are thinking, "My mother...no thanks." I hear you and...I didn't say mother, I said mama. Just like every father ain't a daddy, every mother ain't a mama.
For me, mama applies to a mother who comes to her relationships - including the one with herself - with care. Someone who's lap you may cry in or who's kitchen table serves up good food and wisdom. Often, mamas aren't just mamas to their biological children, they are also mamas to those who may only have a mother.
Jesus' Mama Mary, I imagine, settled well into her role. As I mused in an earlier issue, like many of us Mama Mary hummed, sang, and cooed to Jesus while he was still in her belly. In his undocumented childhood years, Mama Mary was a steady presence for Jesus during awkward phases and social challenges. She was present as he started his ministry, present at his dying, and only she knows how long she lingered at his tomb.
Did she show up on Saturday at the garden? Did she sit at the table with death and grief?
At some point, Mama Mary trusted her first, Beloved, treasured, complicated son to his new mother: Mama Earth. At some point, Mary realized her role on this side of his story had ended.
A seed that died, Jesus is planted in the womb of Mama Earth. Though on Saturday it all seems wildly cruel, one may consider on Sunday that death being entombed in a garden makes sense. Where else would death go to die? Because at some point, the darkness of the tomb transfigures into the darkness of a womb. Like in any garden, the place of burial becomes the place of birth.
I tell you the truth: unless a grain of wheat is planted in the ground and dies, it remains a solitary seed. But when it is planted, it produces in death a great harvest. John 12:24, The Bible, The Voice Translation
Jesus's first birth into time and space was ushered in by Mama Mary. Jesus's second birth into time and space with eternity in tow was ushered in by Mama Earth.
And it was in a garden, just like the first human.
The First Nations Version of the New Testament Biblical text says Jesus is the "True Human"4. The True Human with two mamas: Mama Mary and Mama Earth. Two wombs that connect him to humanity and the whole of creation. Fleshy and earthy. Dust to dust.
The Rev. Dr. Wilda Gaffney uses the term "Son of Woman" when referencing Jesus. It's in a garden he also becomes Son of Earth. Jesus has two mamas, and as each birthed him, he become sibling to all children of women and all children of earth. When Mama Earth births Jesus, she confirms our biggest, most fragile hope: Yes, life really does outlive death. And yes, we really do stay connected beyond it. Life & Death & Life.
Resurrection in a garden isn't an accidental motif. The seeding of the cosmic garden only happens when a star dies. The stardust blown through space via a supernova is the beginning of the process of resurrection. As the cosmic dust gets caught up in the gravity of other entities, more stars are born, the elements for life are seeded on planets like Earth, and both human and terrestrial wombs continue the cycle.
Stardust to planetary dust, Mama to Mama.
The Sun I Must Have
I I am here Not alone but Not where I have been This is what they told me about That one day We would be separated Scattered That we had everything we needed To flourish in our new place With a new community One we were meant to be in Goodbye So here Among the moisture The humus The aerators My dryness softens and For the first time I Have the urge to Stretch? And as I do Pop, crack something Opens Me? I open and I don't just want to stretch For stretching's sake I want to stretch towards I want to go towards I grow towards The Sun I Must Have Oh please This stretch has opened in me A need A new need I have loved being tucked in Tucked away in my shell But now that my shell has Popped, cracked open I need something I didn't need before The Sun I Must Have It's above, not below So I go up, higher, further until Something else breaks Outside of me and I am Outside of what I have known Finally touched by Warmed by Fed by The Sun I Must Have Oh, hello
What Has My Attention
I LOVE SAMARA JOY. She’s just. Phew so great. Her rendition of the well-covered Stardust is *chef’s kiss*.
I knew about Gracie’s Corner, but over Easter weekend we binge-watched the videos with the kids. Gracie’s version of Twinkle Twinkle is a great reminder of who you are - kids and adults!
Have you heard this musical offering of Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise? It’s wonderful and is giving neutron star the whole song!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star
Dorling Kindersley, SPACE! The Universe As You’ve Never Seen It Before, United States, Penguin Random House, 2021, p86-87
This paragraph was added after the original publication of this issue to give better context for what a neutron star as a cosmic entity actually is.
Matthew 11:11-19, First Nation Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament
Wow, love this!