What do you know about the Beloved Community? What does your child know? I’ll admit that what I thought I knew about the Beloved Community, and what I’d shared with my children, turned out to be woefully under-nuanced for the tasks of our times, and I’ve gratefully anticipated this theme’s opportunity to bolster–and complicate–my understanding.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. deepened and broadened the meaning of the term Beloved Community to refer to “a global vision, in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth.” (thekingcenter.org) It is a vision where the inevitability of human conflict is recognized, but a pervasive commitment to and skillfulness with nonviolence means that no conflict would lead to inequality, discrimination, or harm.

This month, we’ll explore ideas and skills we need to live and love our way into the Beloved Community, learning how we can hone those skills and personalize those ideas, and considering how we can support one another in sustaining our commitment to manifesting the Beloved Community in our lifetimes. (Not uncoincidentally, our theme for next month is commitment, so many of our ideas will bridge the season from our last month of winter on into spring.)

We encourage everyone to watch the first minute and a half of this video, taken from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1957 “Birth of a New Nation” speech, which describes the Beloved Community. And then, check out the six principles of nonviolence.  This will allow us to have a shared context for beginning our learning, play, and memory-making this month.