Darkness
Lightness

This past week Spring began here in the Northern Hemisphere. And to denote this changing of the seasons, those of us who celebrate the turning of the Wheel may have participated in ceremonies or rituals to honor Ostara, the Spring Equinox.

The Equinox is a day of equilibrium when the amount of daylight and the amount of darkness are of equal length. You may be familiar with the Winter or Summer Solstices, the times when it’s either the longest day as we move into summer or the longest night as we transition into winter. The Spring and Fall Equinoxes, associated with the related seasons, are the two times during the year when both darkness and light share the day equally. We have just as many hours of nighttime as we do of daytime.

And what perfect timing to talk about darkness and light. And to conclude our monthly theme of evil, putting it in relationship with good. Seems a natural conclusion to delve into these seeming opposites.

You may have noticed that the graphic on the front of your bulletin has the word evil in large font in the center with various words in a cloud around it. But did you notice that the word good is tucked neatly underneath the “v” in evil?

I wasn’t the person who developed this graphic, but I think it’s safe to assume that the inclusion of the word good was no accident.

Light and Dark
Day and Night
Spring and Fall
Summer and Winter

Up and Down
Young and Old
Fire and Water
Us and Them

Life and Death
Black and White
Right and Wrong
Good and Evil

How many things in our lives are marked in such polarities?
Are you someone who is tall or short? Skinny or fat? Rich or poor? Gay or straight? Young or old?
Are you this or are you that? Do you have this or do you have that?

There are few things in life I can say with full certainty. One is that I believe it is always possible to love more. It’s always possible to love more. We can love so deeply and so broadly and yet there exists within each of us the potential and the capacity for more Love.

Another thing that I know for certain is that there is one, and only one, correct way to position a roll of toilet paper. One way. Your laughter lets me know I’m correct.

Toilet paper should hang over the front of the roll, facing out toward you so you can easily grasp it. Under no circumstance should it droop down behind and underneath where you can’t reach it.
It’s just common sense. Everyone knows that! If you happen to foolishly disagree, then you’re wrong… because, I’m right.

You see, we can’t both be right. That’s how polarity works. If I’m right and you differ from me, then you’re wrong.
The same holds true for our differing political views or our differing religious beliefs. If I’m a Humanist and you’re a theist, then one of us must be wrong. Right?

Out-gay advocate, Ash Beckham, talks about the difference between polarity and duality in her speech, “When to Take a Stand – And When to Let It Go.” She tells the story of a microaggression she experienced while at an event with her young niece.
She describes the mental gymnastics she went through trying to decide in that moment whether to be an advocate for herself or to be a loving, supportive aunt for her niece.
Polarity insists that she had to choose between the two.

Duality, on the other hand, meant that she could do both.

Ash described the distinction between polarity and duality saying that polarity is having two parts diametrically opposed to each other. Think of two teams in a game of tug of war.
And duality is having two parts simultaneously existing together.

Did you catch that difference?
Polarity indicates diametrical opposition – it’s either this or that.
Duality indicates simultaneous existence – something can be both this and that.

Duality is the ability to hold both things as true.

I’ll use myself as an example. I am not young or old; I am both young and old. Let me explain.
In a meeting earlier this week, I noticed, much to my surprise, that I was actually the oldest person in the room, something that doesn’t happen very often here. But in that particular context, the experiences I was sharing were a tad bit dated as I conversed with these millennials and gen-Zers.
Other times, in other settings, I am one of the few, if not the youngest person in that gathered group. In those instances, I feel my age differently and am most certainly regarded as young. So I am both young and old.

And that’s not just the experience of someone in middle age.
The same can be said for you if you’re 67 years old and living in a retirement community where most of your neighbors are over 80, but your children and grandchildren rib you about being over the hill.
Or if you’re a sophomore in high school – you’re quite senior to the children in elementary school, but there are probably plenty of adults in your life reminding you of how young you are.

Duality is the ability to hold both things as true.

And as Unitarian Universalists, we do this. We hold space in our faith movement for a wide spectrum of religious and non-religious beliefs.
We share moral principles and a commitment to Love, and yet we’re quick to laud the notion that “We need not think alike to love alike.”
Jokes are even made at our expense about the length of time it takes to make decisions in UU committees because we value differing viewpoints and intellectual discussion.

For me, one of the most profound descriptions of this concept of duality comes in the form of the Yin Yang.
A perfect circle with equal parts black and white, with a kernel of each color embedded inside the other.

In Taoism, the Yin Yang is used to depict how what we might describe as opposing or contrary forces may actually be interconnected and interdependent; how they might complement one another resulting in the whole being greater than the assembled parts.

This makes tremendous sense if we think of the Universe as being One with the Tao.
Therein exists a perfect balance that employs the paradox of the simultaneous unity and duality of the Yin and Yang.

Yin is characterized as slow, soft, yielding, diffuse, cold, wet, hidden, passive, negative. Yin is associated with water, earth, the moon, femininity, and dark.

Yang, by contrast, is fast, hard, solid, focused, hot, dry, open, active, positive. Yang is associated with fire, sky, the sun, masculinity and light.

Yin and Yang – two opposing cosmic forces into which creative energy divides, each containing a seed of the other, all of it completing the whole.

So what might this mean for those of us you who aren’t Taoist? For those of us who may be less familiar with the wisdom of our own Earth-centered traditions that view good and evil, light and dark as having both challenging and beneficial characteristics? As being part of the circle, the rhythmic cycle of the seasons and of life?

Well, for starters, I want to return to my example about the toilet paper.
Clearly, I have an opinion about how toilet paper should be positioned.
And I suggested earlier that you would be wrong if you disagreed with my approach to this vital question.
And yet, because I’m using this seemingly banal illustration to talk about polarity and duality, I want to point out that there are, in fact, multiple ways to display toilet paper.
Beyond the two ways I’ve already described, hanging forward, hanging back, there are contraptions that stand upright that you put the roll on sideways. There the paper falls down along the sides. And even on those stands you can flip the roll to draw from the left or from the right.
And low and behold if the roll is left on the counter instead of being placed on the spindle. Then you can simply pick it up and take what you need.

Regardless how we approach it, the shape of a roll of toilet paper is designed in such a way that it can function properly whichever way it’s hung or set. When you spin it, the paper comes unraveled.

When we change our perspective from focusing solely on polarities, these diametrically opposed forces, and begin exploring the sense of balance that can come from duality; we can more fully experience the whole.

As a human being, you need sleep as much as you need waking hours and energy to function. Rest and activity are not the same thing, but they are complimentary to the whole of your wellbeing.

Likewise, the changing seasons are needed to balance the cycles of life on earth, from the plants growing, and flowering, and dying, and regenerating. We need the darkness and cold of winter so we can have the bountiful fruit in the summer. We need the death and compost of fall to nourish the rebirth of new life in spring.

We need the dark to recognize light and the light to appreciate darkness. Jacqui James said, “Imagine a world with only light. Or only dark.
We need both.”
We need balance.

So how do we find such balance? How do we conceptualize a whole where what seems like polarized opposites are understood as complementary parts of that whole?
How do we balance the light and the dark within ourselves?

One of the things that the image of the Yin Yang does for me is it helps me understand my own contradictions. How I, as a whole person, am comprised of interconnected and sometimes conflicting parts.

For example, I care very much about the sustainability of the environment and I also participate in a lifestyle that damages the earth. I drive a car. I try to make environmentally friendly choices like driving a hybrid, but I effectively participate in both damaging and working to restore the earth. It’s not one or the other; it’s both/and.

We as Unitarian Universalists proclaim ourselves the Love people. And for the most part, I believe this to be true. We’re here with the intention of striving toward building Beloved Community. And many of us are working diligently toward that goal.

It is also true that we fall short time and again.
This is evident in the current call to actively work to dismantle white supremacy within our own religious movement; the ongoing call that we tear down the walls of patriarchy, of cisism, of ableism.

The skit our fine folks shared at the beginning of the service introducing this year’s auction highlighted the fact that the proceeds are designated for chancel upgrades. This fundraising effort and the coming ADA-compliant improvements are the Yang to our Yin of needed accessibility.

Yesterday we witnessed, and many of us joined in, as young leaders took the lead rallying hundreds of thousands of people across the world demanding legislative and cultural change in response to gun violence and school shootings.

What’s also true is that, in the words of Khanya Mtshali, “Without the young black protesters who put their bodies on the line for justice and equality… we wouldn’t be hearing from the students who are emphatically saying #NeverAgain.”

Five years ago, Dream Defenders, a group of young black protesters, occupied the Florida statehouse for 31 days protesting not only the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer, but also demanding changes in the “stand your ground” gun laws. At that time, we didn’t see the outpouring of support and financial backing for them that the white youth in Parkland are experiencing now.

And also yesterday, while hundreds of thousands of people marched for gun reform, protests continued in Sacramento in outrage and fear surrounding the killing of Stephon Clark by police on Monday.

The call to action of Rabbi Tarfon in the Talmud: (Avot 2:21)
“It is not incumbent upon you to complete the work, but neither are you at liberty to desist from it.”

It’s both/and. It’s both rallying behind these young leaders and acknowledging the racism at play in our national response to gun violence.

It’s both the inspiring tribute of Emma Gonzalez for her fallen classmates and the naming of the erasure of black girls and women from the discussion by Naomi Wadler.

Duality is the ability to hold both things as true.

It is within the light that the external work is done, that evil is exposed, that truth becomes recognizable.
It is within the darkness that the internal work is done, that healing happens, that rebirth becomes possible.

Let there be light and let there be dark.
Let them be “balanced and reclaimed in their wholeness.”
May it be so. And Amen.

Topics: Evil