REsources for Living
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As someone who grew up Unitarian Universalist, I have to admit that there are some disadvantages to being a UU kid. There are advantages, of course, like being able to celebrate holidays from a variety of different religions, but there are definitely drawbacks. Mostly these problems come when someone asks you, on the playground maybe, what church you go to. It’s hard enough just getting people through the ten syllables of Unitarian Universalist. But if you manage that task then the inevitable follow-up question is: “What do you believe?”
I happen to think that’s kind of an unfair question, especially to put on, say, a fourth-grader. If you say you’re Methodist or Baptist or Jewish nobody asks you what you believe. They have a category in their head to put you into, and they just leave it at that. Now, their assumptions about what you believe might be totally wrong, and I’m sure there is not one nine-year-old in 100 who could tell you the difference between what a Presbyterian and an Episcopalian believes, but the point is that no one feels they need to ask.
But if you’re UU there’s not only the long, awkward name to get through, there’s also the uncomfortable fact that people don’t know what mental box to put you in, so they ask about what you believe. Which leads you to the equally uncomfortable fact that your religion doesn’t tell you what to believe, which really messes with people’s idea of religion in general. And beyond even that, if you’re going to actually answer the question then you need to have figured out for yourself what it is that you believe, and how to say it, which is hard enough for a grown-up, and a real uphill climb for a child.
Turn the Principles Upside Down
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One night before going to bed a farmer was standing a few steps in front of his house, meditating over the many troubles that had beset his livestock. “I cannot imagine why the cattle do not get better,” said he out loud to himself. “I will tell you,” said a squeaky little voice close by him. The farmer turned in the direction of the sound and saw a tiny little man, looking very angrily at him. “It is,” continued the wee man, “because your family keeps on annoying mine so much.” “How is that?” asked the farmer, surprised and puzzled. “You are always throwing the slops from your house down the chimney of my house,” said the little man.
How It Happens
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After presenting my first workshop at the 2011 General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association, I decided to reward myself by purchasing a gold chalice necklace, which I’ve been wanting for a while. I went to the exhibit hall to one of the jewelry vendors, where the artist kindly walked me through the dazzling display of options. I found a small, delicate gold pendant on a beautiful chain, and when she fastened it around my neck and I looked in the mirror, I fell in love.
I decided to buy it, even though it was three times what I’d originally been planning to spend. As she prepared to take my credit card, I added the cost of the pendant and the chain and asked for confirmation of the total. She, clearly impressed with my mental arithmetic abilities, responded, “That’s right. I don’t want to stereotype, but you’re some kind of Asian, right? So, math is, like, in your DNA?”
I was rendered temporarily speechless.
Welcome to Cell No. 9
One Today – Poem by Richard Blanco
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One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores,
peeking over the Smokies, greeting the faces
of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth
across the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies.
One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a story
told by our silent gestures moving behind windows.
From Your Minister – July 2014
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I love acknowledgments pages, and award acceptance speeches, and other public expressions of gratitude where people spell out how their individual success is interconnected with the gifts of other people. And it occurs to me that, rather than going through all of the struggle of writing a book or making a film or performing a song, I can use this column right now for my own acceptance speech, to offer thanks.
For what? You ask. For my life!
REsources for Living
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One of the most exciting things about growing up is that you can do more and more things by yourself.
Babies are totally dependent on others. (There’s not much that a person who hasn’t yet learned how to locate their hands can do on their own.) But before long babies generally learn to roll themselves over, and sit up, and crawl and walk and run and before you know it they have grown into people who can ride a bike or make their own dinner or get a job.
The Sun Shines Not On Us…
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The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us. Thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing. The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls, and every bird song, wind song, and tremendous storm song of the rocks in the heart of the mountains is our song, our very own, and sings our love.
By John Muir (1838-1914), from his journals
The Faith of a Trapeze Artist
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The word “faith” doesn’t occupy the same place of prominence in Unitarian Universalism that it does in some religious traditions. For many of us, faith has become synonymous with blind acceptance of particular religious beliefs, as in: Jesus died for my sins; God created the world in six days; Noah survived a flood in an ark; a talking snake hoodwinked Adam and Eve.
For most Unitarian Universalists, indeed for most people who live in the modern world and think with modern understandings, such beliefs are neither intellectually tenable nor morally acceptable. Faith defined as religious belief is what Mark Twain was getting at when he said, “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.”
