Where Do We Come From? What Are We?  Where Are We Going?

That’s Paul Gauguin’s line, and the title of the painting above.  Gauguin considered this his masterpiece, and meant for it to be taken in from right to left, as the story of a lifetime.

 

But back to those questions…

My ancestors came from Germany, England, Poland, Ireland, a hundred years ago. I was born in Wisconsin, the eldest of three daughters in the exburbs. To pay the bills my father fixed Xerox machines and my mother answered phones. I attended public schools and attended Catholic mass every Sunday, with weeknight and summer CCD.  I was always reading books, often fell asleep atop my homework, and learned to speak Spanish from teachers with good German names.

I’m a religious educator, a mother, a partner, a friend, a daughter, a sister, an aunt—so many titles.

Where am I going?  That one is still being written.  But I know that my answers to these questions
influence how I interact with people and ideas, how I hear stories, and the stories I tell. Context matters.

Where do YOU come from?  What are you?  Where can we go together?

*If those questions sound familiar, perhaps you know them from our Unitarian Universalists hymn #1003 “Where Do We Come From”.  Or maybe you recall the Calvin and Hobbes strip (May 1, 1992)…