“Mami, when will the war on Gaza end?”… I know I should lie to my eight-year-old son like I used to.

Above and beyond the heartache that recent events in Iran engender among Muslims and people who are in solidarity with us, it harms what we truly and communally care about: finding creative ways to reassert who we are and what we stand for.

This essay is a backward journey to beginnings, belongings and theological political anxieties.