I am not from Cleveland. I am also not from Pittsburgh. But I have spent a decent amount of my life in both of these cities. I have observed the hate. I have seen the disdain. I know that football is a big part of it, but even granting that, I have never, ever understood why two cities that have so much in common would focus their civic rivalry so intently on one another.

But then I thought about siblings. Sometimes siblings fight and hate. Sometimes proximity and similarity makes it especially easy to focus your hate on one another. Until you grow up and realize how big the world can be, and then, hopefully, you stop hating your siblings. But that rivalry can remain for a lifetime. I think about that when I try to make sense of Cleveland and Pittsburgh––since I didn’t grow up with it, it feels like seeing family fight.

Of course, I’m thinking about this because we are joining the worship that is happening at General Assembly this week in Pittsburgh. When that sibling rivalry matures out of childhood, its often because of some large issue or need that is bigger than a family forces family members to come together. Maybe it is care for a parent, or need to find a place to live with roommates or any number of adult experiences big or small. It’s amazing that a thing like rivalry can turn into a deep bond once we realize the issues we are facing together instead of facing off against one another.

I love both of these cities and think they have in their regional experiences and circumstances a great deal to offer the rest of the country and the world––what it means to navigate an industrially-damaging environmental past, what it means to be a progressive bastion in a largely conservative state, how to evolve and grow even as populations shift and fluctuate. The invitation to go to this city and experience this place is an extraordinary opportunity to harness the energy of rivalry and develop it into a meaningful bond for UUs and, maybe, for everyone else too.

Sometimes it is hard to tap into our spiritual selves or find time to nurture our creativity and intellectual curiosity. Here is a section that reflects on some nourishing materials from around the web and related media channels in order to get us thinking, get us feeling, and get us reflecting on the lives we are living in this big world. **Some Adult/Mature Themes May Appear in Links and Other Attached Material**

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Allan T. Georgia, MDiv, MTS, PhD

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