What are Unitarian Universalist teachings about harmony? My answer makes use of music as a metaphor. Years ago, I had to take an elective class in the humanities. I wanted an easy class, and I liked music. I had learned to play the piano and the clarinet, and I sang in a youth choir. I’ll take a music appreciation class, I thought. How hard could it be? After all, musical notes go up and down and go apart and come together. Musical pieces end when everything comes to a final harmony. Right? I discovered that while musical notes do go up and down and do go apart and come together, musical pieces end when the composer ends them. In Western classical music, often the ending is related to a final harmony, but sometimes it is not. I learned that there are different musical traditions in different cultures. I learned that there are different musical scales, different ways of playing notes, different rhythms, and different goals that composers have in mind. Dissonance can be an objective in itself. It is not inevitably a signal that final harmony is on the way. In my opinion, Unitarian Universalism does not regard harmony as an overriding goal.Justice, equity, and love are higher principles. In their service, sometimes we have to disturb harmony. Sometimes we have to shake things up, to disrupt “business as usual,” even to disappoint people who considered us to be friends and allies. In the domestic realm, for example, we must meet domestic violence with dissonance. In the societal realm, we must meet injustice with dissonance. Yet dissonance is not always the best approach. How do we know which is called for – dissonance or harmony – in domestic relationships and in society at large? It is a judgment call, and we must do everything in our power to exercise good judgment. At a minimum, developing good judgment means listening more than talking. It means not isolating ourselves but rather seeking a community to which we are accountable.
Developing good judgment means being aware of our biases and stereotypes, and it means seeking opportunities to interact with people of different backgrounds.Developing good judgment means taking reasonable risks – not taking foolish risks, but taking calculated chances and requesting feedback. In an increasingly polarized world, we must use all the tools at our disposal – dissonance and harmony – to de-escalate the many feuds within the human family. Agreeing to disagree may be the best we can do. Agreeing to disagree, ideally with respect, but in any case without violence, can be a step forward. Let us sign up for a class in appreciating different religions (as well as appreciating the music of secular people). Let us use both harmony and dissonance in the service of justice, equity, and love.