"be transformed"

[I'm going out for coffee so these are jumbled thoughts on transformation---a very Fairy Tale–summer topic.]

BELOW: "The Birth of Pegasus and Chrysoar" by Tyler Miles Lockett

I'd looked up the Birth of Pegasus this spring.
In Greek myth, Pegasus is born out of the blood from Medusa's head, cut off by Perseus. Because... omg it's too complicated.

I wasn't consciously thinking of that story when I collaged a woman flying/leaping out of flame this week. Look who's joined her on my desk this morning.

The horse had been part of the Rat Mischief Parade on July 4 at the Japanese/Peace Garden (which has a commemorative bridge to Hiroshima). The book Hiroshima had been donated to work this week. I'd picked it up as part of my Re-Read project. It'd affected me deeply when I was thirteen, the year I also read Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five--ditto--about the US bombing Dresden.

I don't want to see the movie Oppenheimer, but the topic is part of my life. My mother was eleven when the US dropped the atom bomb--she says it shaped her life. (She left the family when I was thirteen--that was some year. Luckily, besides reading books about bombing, I'd found Star Trek re-runs on our little b&w TV.)

Fairy tales and myths and religion are full of things changing form.
It's as if all things conspire to trans-form...

"Be transformed", Paul the apostle says.*
The call to CHANGE, to align yourself with a higher truth, is key to the story.
"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."
________________

I was angry at E.D. and disgusted with his lack of a creative, helpful response to my coworker in need. But I have to deal with people who cause harm all the time--(and sometimes that person is me).
How does, how might that go?

"it's the harm that I'm interested in transforming"

Years ago a friend was talking to me about her work with domestic violence, and linking it to Israel & Palestine. "I'm interested in oppression," she said---and then stopped herself.
"No," she said. "I'm interested in liberation."

This week, I also picked up a donated copy of We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transformative Justice (2021) by Mariame Kaba. I opened it this morning, and the first thing I saw was this exchange:

Autumn Brown, Q:
When did you decide to staring working with those who have caused harm?

Mariame Kaba, A:
"I've always worked more with people who have been harmed than caused harm. My work was rooted in supporting survivors, mainly because I myself am one. And my orientation has always been toward addressing harm, wherever it is.
However I can intervene in a way that's supportive, that's really what I care about.
It didn't really matter whether it was the person who caused harm or the person who has experienced harm––
it's the harm that I'm interested in transforming."

___________________

*Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is God's good, pleasing and perfect will."

--Letter to the Romans from Paul, Romans 12:1-2, NIV