Thank Rob Eller Isaac who used this poem in his address to the SKSM alum this past GA.
The Way It Is
~ William Stafford ~
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.
How good it is to be together with all of you- people who care about our Universalist Heritage, who tend it and preserve it for coming generations. This faith we cherish we call a “living tradition” because it is not static, but grows and changes over the generations. As Lewis B. Fisher noted in 1921 “Universalists are often asked to tell where they stand. The only true answer to give to this question is that we do not stand at all, we move.” [Howe, p. 96]
And truly Universalism has moved and changed radically over these past 200 years, but still our strong sense of identity and pride remains. What is the thread that we Universalists follow? Over those 170 years of Universalism before the merger with the Unitarian tradition, there were only 3 professions of faith adopted by the whole body of Universalism. The first was passed in Philadelphia in 1790. Then in 1803 The Winchester profession was passed and served our movement for many years. In 1899 the “Boston Declaration” affirmed the Winchester profession but lifted up 5 essential principles of UU faith, and finally in 1935 the Washington Declaration was a substantively new re-statement for the 20th century. This statement remained through merger with the Unitarians in 1961, and in fact was printed in the front of the Sheshequin congregation’s hymnals, and the avowal was repeated each Sunday as part of this congregation’s regular liturgy for many years. Today I would like to take a close look at these statements and see if there are threads we can follow as we move.
The first thread I want to follow is the idea of restoration, of “final harmony with God.” When I describe Universalism to my neighbors or to our children, this is one of the main ideas I mention- that Universalism grew in response to a prevailing belief that some folks would be saved and others would not- in fact that some folks had been elected for salvation and others never had a chance. So we find in the articles of faith from 1790 that Jesus will “Restore the whole human race to happiness” and that the Holy Ghost will “Reconcile the hearts of the children of men to God.” (The language in all of these historic professions is not inclusive in terms of gender, so we will notice that and be grateful of how far we have come).
In the 1803 Winchester profession is a shorter, tighter statement without so much detail about the nature and work of Jesus and of the holy spirit, but great consistence with the statement that God will “restore the whole family of mankind to holiness and happiness.” It is this Universalist notion of restoration and reconciliation that reminds me of the story of our two rivers this morning- the idea that all are worthy and that in the end all are coming to the same place. And that in that final destination all are joined as one.
Later, in the 5 principles of the Boston Declaration, we find this idea with only a poetic change of language in the 5th principle “The final harmony of all souls with God.” What I think is interesting is that the Boston Declaration spells out so clearly “The certainty of just retribution for sin.” Some of you will remember the great restorationist controversy of the 1820s which caused a great rift in our faith- would all souls reach that ocean of one-ness right away when they died, would death itself would destroy any sin of the soul, or would there be a period of punishment or of the soul before they could reach that ocean? So we see clearly in 1899 that the official party line is that there must be “just retribution” as surely as there will be final harmony. This also reminds us that the idea of sin is very much part of this tradition. This is a theological tradition that doesn’t gloss over our failings and the harm we do to one another.
But the huge change comes in the language of the Washington Declaration. Evil is right there in the statement, but the idea of restoration and final harmony has a radically new face. We are now talking about establishing the Kingdom of God. It doesn’t say something about individual souls entering the Kingdom of God, or being restored to the Kingdom of God, but “the power of men of good-will and sacrificial spirit to overcome evil and progressively establish the Kingdom of God. It also says that a common purpose of our convention will be to “co-operate in establishing the kingdom for which [Jesus] lived and died. This is a huge shift of focus. We are not even going to mention the fate of souls after death, our primary concern is now to co-operate to progressively establish the Kingdom of God.
The notion of establishing a Kingdom of God intertwines the thread of final harmony with another thread we find in even the earliest of Articles of Faith in 1790- the section on “Good Work” in which we promote a holy, active and useful life. So at our very beginning there was clarity that your restoration to happiness functioned independently of your good works, which were separately important. In the Winchester profession we say that ‘believers aught to be careful to maintain order and practice good works; for these things are good and profitable unto men.” You see, the idea that our good works, our effort has any impact on the establishment of the Kingdom of God doesn’t appear until the 20th century, even though the earliest statements of Universalist common ground always included the urge to good works, and a social conscience. But here in 1935 is the moment in history where the two ideas come together into one. Today we almost never talk about the final disposition of the soul, there is still a thread which connects us back to that idea, the thread of ultimate reconciliation and restoration, and the thread of our social conscience and the value of good work. These two twine together as establishing the Kingdom of God. Today in our principles we call this thread “The goal of world community, with peace, liberty and justice for all,” but we also have something of this in our seventh principle in our “respect for the interdependent web of existence of which we are all a part;” instead of seeing separate rivers flowing towards one ultimate ocean, we are learning to see the whole of the water cycle here and now.
Not all things follow in an unbroken line from the days of our formation. For example, our sense of where truth comes from has changed dramatically. The Philadelphia Articles are quite clear that “We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to contain a revelation of the perfections and will of God, and the rule of faith and practice.” This was hardly changed in the Winchester Profession. In the Washington Declaration there is a dramatic shift. All reference to scripture is removed and instead they avow their faith in “the Authority of truth known or to be known” and in what might be called the Liberty Clause of the Washington Declaration it says of all our previous avowals “They are commended not as tests but as testimonies to the free quest for truth that accords with the genius of the Universalist Church.” And though there had been a liberty clause from the very beginning (removed during a period of orthodoxy in 1870-1899) the sense of the earliest clauses were generally “you don’t have to say these exact words, but just adhere to these general principles” In 1899 those principles were summarized:
The universal Fatherhood of God
The spiritual authority and leadership of His Son Jesus Christ:
The trustworthiness of the Bible as containing a revelation from God
The certainty of Just retribution for sun
The final harmony of all souls with God.
It was really only that last statement that differentiated Universalism from its more orthodox neighbors. But now in 1935, we are talking about a free quest for truth, the authority not of the bible but of “Truth known or to be known” No longer is all truth about the will of God to be found only in the scripture. There is truth yet to be known. Revelation is not sealed. Looking only at these avowals, the source of truth is almost unrecognizably transformed between Philadelphia and Washington.
Now, because I’m a little bit of a mystic, my favorite words in the Philadelphia Articles of 1790, “We believe in One God, Infinite in all his perfections; and that these perfections are all modifications of infinite, adorable, incomprehensible and unchangeable… Love.” Wow. All the perfections of God are aspects of God’s love. The Winchester profession says it more simply “there is one God, whose nature is Love.” Granted we are not all theists here today, we are atheists and agnostics. But can we have faith in love? That’s a serious question I’m putting to you. You don’t get to adulthood without having your heart broken, without encountering hatred and violence in the world.
“Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.”
Can we have faith that at some ultimate, some fundamental level, love is under girding and supporting life? The Philadelphia Articles of Faith say “We hold that the love of God… is the best means of producing obedience …and promoting a holy, active and useful life.” Do I believe that I want to express that fundamental love in the actions of my life? when I ask myself a very practical question “If I believed that God was unchangeable love, and that the way I could love God Back was through a holy, active and useful life, do I have faith that that if people acted out that faith, this would be a better world?”
Then in 1899 in the Boston Declaration, in that list of principles which must be professed … love is missing. Take a look at those 1899 principles, where did the love go? I just felt my heart sank when I noticed that. As if the thread had been broken. And I was delighted to reassured that in 1935 love came back it says “we avow our faith in God as Eternal and All-conquering Love.” But now look at the seven principles of Unitarian Universalism on the back of your order of service. Where is the love? Such a powerful statement in 1790, and the word love does not appear at all in our principles today. We find the goal of world community which connects to the thread about reconciliation, about establishing the kingdom of God. We also see that free and responsible search for truth and meaning, which is that thread of revelation which took a left turn in the 1930s. But where is love? Here is where I think it is hiding. I think it is hiding in the inherent worth and dignity of every person, and in the interdependent web of existence. I think those two principles show a faith that all of creation is holy and worthy, but our current principles stop short of saying we are worthy of love. We are two cynical and jaded to use the same word we see on hallmark cards for how the universe needs and values us and is connected to us. How the universe loves us, because love is its nature. Perhaps we have lost our faith in love.
Now if you look at the six sources you will find love again. We turn to our prophetic women and men who confront structures of evil with the transforming power of love. We turn to the Jewish and Christian teachings by responding to God’s love and by loving our neighbors as ourselves.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Of all the threads we follow, I think this is the most important. We have to hold on to love, or we will be lost. I don’t care about truth, or being restored to harmony with God if the truth is that God is capricious and judgmental with a bad temper. The biggest leap of faith we as Universalists can take is the faith that love is in the very nature of things, in the very web of life. You can imagine my righteous indignation, and feeling even of betrayal when I thought we had lost hold of this thread during the merger of Unitarian and Universalist. And then I came across a photo I had take at this year’s General Assembly, a Giant banner in front of the convention center reading “Standing on the Side of Love.” Because we Unitarians and Universalists have sponsored an advocacy campaign whose mission is “Harnessing Love’s Power to Stop Oppression”
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
I was so relieved and grateful to find the thread again. To know that whatever work we do in our own community, in our own church to stop oppression is a way of holding on to that thread. There is so much that has changed about our Universalist faith over these past centuries, but at its core something remains the same. Something those early American Universalists expressed as they came together back in 1790 still provides guidance and connection for us today. And that is faith in love, and the ultimate harmony of all beings.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
The Ethics of Lunch (August 16, 2009)
Is it peculiar that I seem face my greatest ethical dilemmas while standing in the grocery store? Yet it would seem I’m not alone, because UUs from around the nation have voted to take a closer look at the ethics of eating for a 4 year period as our Study Action Issue. We are a strongly ethical faith but lacking the dietary laws of some of our neighbors, we crave an ethical framework to support us as we make the perilous journey down the grocery store aisles.
Just a few generations ago people knew what to eat- it was guided by what crops had done well, what grew best on their land and what season it was. Today changes in food technology have removed this natural feedback loop which constrained our hunter-gatherer ancestors, and our ancestors who lived on a family farm. Now when I go to the grocery store the only feedback factors are the cost of the consumer goods, the effectiveness of packaging and my desire. Yet we know that the true cost of our food is not represented in its retail cost, so the feedback loops which have historically connected me to the food chain have been broken, and it takes a considerable act of consciousness to be an ethical eater.
So lets pull apart some of these tangles and see what grounding UU provides for our ethical framework. Our UU principles encourage us to: remember our interconnection (which leads us to consider the impact of our eating on animals, the eco-system, our carbon-footprint, and even the war for oil in a food system based on oil) and to remember the worth and value of every person (which reminds us to consider the justice of food distribution, and justice for those who harvest our food.). I also want to invoke the Native American vision to remember 7 generations in our decision, believing that what my son feeds his children is a valid ethical guiding post. I also would like to recommend the Buddhist encouragement toward compassion. Says the Dali Lama : “ For a Buddhist practitioner, the goal is to develop this genuine compassion, this genuine wish for the well-being of another, in fact for every living being throughout the universe." [from The Compassionate Life]
So though we don’t have the benefit of the chapters and verses of dietary laws in Leviticus, these principles can help us tease out a few ethical guidelines. And I want to start with one of the thorniest ethical dilemmas- meat. Most of us have heard that statistics about the inefficiency of meat as food- that it takes fare more of the sun’s energy, more grain, more water to create a meal which contains meat than one without.
For these reasons, and because their compassion for all sentient beings has so moved them, many UUs have become vegetarians. But for a variety of reasons, this is not a choice all of us are ready or able to make. So I offer a more inclusive guideline that strict vegetarianism- (1) eat less meat. This means that for each meal where we do not include meat, or each time we take a smaller portion of meat than we are accustomed to, we are making a positive difference in our eco-system, and in the world food system.
For those of us who choose to eat meat, we still have more choices to make. The meat in most super market aisles and at most restaurants is currently part of a system that is not humane to the animals, and that creates toxins for our environment. Friends of mine decided a few years ago that they were only going to eat meat if they could know that the animals were treated humanely, and in a way that reduced the load on the environment. They’ve been building up their homestead over the past few years, and now have a whole flock of chickens, turkeys and ducks. They have goats for milk, and recently found two calves on Craig’s list who they are raising for meat. When they purchase animals for meat in the past, the do the butchering themselves, so that they can be assured that they are butchered in a humane way. These women love animals- they care dearly about not only their dogs and finches and rabbits, but also these animals who they raise for eggs or milk or meat. This is a strong ethical place to stand; I am constantly impressed with the courage of their convictions.
Because even when we buy meat that is “grass fed” or “free range” we don’t’ really know what that means. Michael Pollan in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma exposes not only the seedy side of the meat industry, but his surprise on his visit to industrial organic farms that the “free range” chickens have only a marginally better existence than the conventional ones, despite the cute pictures of happy hens we see on the shelf at the store. Of all the choices I make when I shop for food, I feel best about the eggs I buy from my friends, because I know those chickens, I have seen where they live, and I know how deeply my friends care about the earth and about their animals. So I offer a second guidelines: (2) where possible, know your farmers. Visit the places where your food is raised. What you witness with your eyes and ears and nose will tell you much more about the compassion and ethics with which your food is raised than any USDA label on a product in the supermarket
Let’s move to something easier, like carrots. We all feel pretty good about eating carrots, still we remember with gratitude that these carrots are living beings too, and we live because of them. When you buy a carrot you don’t have to read an ingredient list to check for MSG, it is exactly what it purports to be- it looks like a plant root and tastes like a carrot. It is at the bottom of the agricultural food chain (it eats compost and sun and in turn is eaten by animals) and it is also at the bottom of the industrial food chain (it can be processed into those cans and boxes and listed as an ingredient in fine print on the side. When you eat a fresh carrot it is a very efficient conversion of the sun’s energy, and all the nutrients are still just the way the carrot grew them. It’s good for you and good for the earth. This is our 3rd guideline: (3) eat as low as possible on the food chain. This is just common sense. Corn is healthier for you and for the earth when it is still on the cob than when it has been processed into either a hamburger or into puffs. The less processing a food has endured, the more nutrients it retains- not just the ones listed on the side of the box, but other more subtle nutrients that scientists are only just discovering are necessary for healthy life. Eating less processed food is not only healthier, it’s also cheaper- you can buy 5 pounds of rice for the cost of a couple of “Lunchables”. This is partly because you are not paying the marketing cost of your rice, which doesn’t have to run commercials during Saturday morning cartoons to convince us to buy it. My 5 pound bag of rice, and my bunch of carrots together has way less packaging than said Lunchables, which reduces your footprint further both in terms of less packaging to end up in landfills and petroleum needed to make the plastic packaging in the first place.
But even though you are eating a carrot, there are still ethical dilemmas. Just because carrots don’t come with a list of ingredients doesn’t mean they aren’t full of chemicals or drenched in fossil fuels. For industrial agriculture grows carrots in a way that includes bonus chemicals that may or may not be safe for you and your children, and are definitely not safe for the water supply downstream from the conventional farm where chemicals were used. Because of these concerns, our fourth guideline is “buy organic produce whenever possible”. (our 4th guideline).
Here’s the tricky part- Just because you’ve found yourself a raw carrot stamped with the USDA organic seal, still doesn’t mean that it isn’t produced in a fossil-fuel intensive green house gas producing way. If your organic carrots are from Venezuela, they are not carbon neutral. So our 5th guideline is “eat local”. This is my favorite, because this is one where I have a lot of choices and control. When I grow cucumbers in my backyard I know exactly what chemicals were applied and the 8 foot walk out to pick them is not only carbon neutral but good for my soul. I think planting a few foods in our own yard or in a container on our balcony is one of the most enjoyable ethical acts I know. Because not only do you have a very light footprint, but you learn so much about the life cycle of your plants, and the cycles of seasons. This is practically a religious practice as far as I’m concerned. But if your yard is as small as mine, this is not subsistence farming, this is mostly just for the joy of picking a cucumber off the vine and serving it for dinner. The next best thing is to get your produce from your neighbors: stopping at the roadside stands, visiting farmer’s markets.
If you do a web-search for Farmer’s Markets nearby, you find our own Andy Fagan as the contact for the market in Muldoon Park on Monday Evenings. You find that Small Castle Farm in Ulster is our local member of the PA buy fresh Buy local network, and I pass any number of farm stands on my way to and from church. Another option is Community Supported Agriculture, where members pay a share of the cost of growing vegetables to the farmers at the start of the growing season, and receive a box of fresh vegetables here at the church once a week. Buyers clubs and Community Supported Agriculture shares not only make sure you have a steady stream of locally grown produce into your home, but it also provides a reliable source of income to small farms at a time when our national legislative bias towards agribusiness makes it hard for small farmers to persist.
By supporting local agriculture, we not only reduce our carbon footprint, but we also preserve the beautiful open spaces we love about this part of the world, and we provide food security for our community by ensuring that local farmers grow a diversity of food people could eat for substance instead of just cash crops. A friend who was driving cross country recently said the worst produce she saw on her whole trip was in an agricultural area in Iowa, because they grow only commercial grade corn and soy which are cash crops, and all the food those farmers eat has to be imported from other parts of the world. Now anyone who’s tried to grow a fruit or vegetable knows that some foods just don’t grow in some places. We are just never going to find local coffee, or local oranges. But Apples, zucchini, maple syrup, honey, corn, these we have in abundance. This brings us to our next precept:
The 6th guideline for ethical eaters is to keep studying and learning. We study and learn not only by reading but by observing- arrange a visit to your local farm or bakery. Watch the cucumbers grow in your own back yard. Sadly most of our food comes from a pretty opaque system. It’s crazy that we live in a time when, as Pollan ponders: “What am I eating, and where in the world dit it come from?” Not very long ago an eater didn’t need a journalist to answer these questions.” It was only through his writing did I learn that grass fed beef is healthier for us and for the environment than corn fed beef, or learn that the USDA organic label permits additives and synthetics such as ascorbic acid and Xantham Gum (Pollan p. 156) Reading and an inquiring mind is how you find out that “natural flavors” can mean that corn has been broken down and processed in test tubes until it tastes like grape. That what “free range” means anything from hens raised in tight quarters in a barn with a door that is unlocked for 2 weeks of a chicken’s life, to the hens you see running across the street sometimes as you drive through your neighborhood. This is how you find out that most of the farm workers who grow the food in California have to constantly fight for safe and sanitary conditions as they work, and are not even close to a living wage.
And your reading and study will inevitably bring you to our 7th guideline- justice for those who grow our food, and for all who are hungry. I want to devote a whole service later this year to issues of food and social justice, but for today I just want to remind us that this is why we Started our “Feed a Friend” project because we noticed that fresh foods are not always as available to folks living in poverty, and we also contribute foods that are grown the most ethical way we know how, locally in small gardens without industry or chemicals.
But already this is too many guidelines to juggle when you are standing in the aisle of your grocery store, or racing past a farm stand as you are late to work. My friends who are building up their homestead and milking their own goats twice a day have taken several years to get where they are, including a cross continental relocation. So start where you are (as the Buddhists say). Decide what is most inspiring to you and set your intention to change the patterns of your daily life, weaving them in a new pattern. As we enter the harvest season, perhaps you could choose one new thing on your path to ethical eating. It could be something as simple as buying only locally grown corn. On your path you may learn which local farmers grow corn, which tastes the best, which is more convenient to your commute, and when your local corn season is. Or you could decide to make lunch a vegetarian only meal, knowing it will take some time to learn what new foods you like to make for lunch, and how you will shop differently to make that possible. Or you could decide to arrange a farm tour or apple picking trip for you family and friends. Once you have incorporated one new ethical pattern in your life, you will know something new about your self and your world, and maybe what next step you are ready to take.
Changing patterns and habits takes time and energy and a clarity of intention. Part of the reason we buy processed food is because it is easier and less time consuming than buying raw local foods. Getting all your food at one store is easier than picking your own apples at a local orchard. But as Albus Dumbledore said in The Goblet of Fire: "Soon we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy." So give yourself encouragement to do the right thing- find a way to enjoy the beauty and balance of a fresh organic carrot, or corn picked that same day, or time spent in the garden watching cucumbers grow.
Finally, whatever you sit down and eat- do so in a spirit of gratitude, grateful not only to the plants and animals whose lives nourish you, but to the farmers and workers and truck drivers who brought you each meal. Eat mindfully, whether you are eating carrot or cheese puffs, because conscious, mindful eating will help you feed the senses and the soul as you feed your body, and is the first step towards reconnecting with our selves and the interconnected web of which we are all a part.
Just a few generations ago people knew what to eat- it was guided by what crops had done well, what grew best on their land and what season it was. Today changes in food technology have removed this natural feedback loop which constrained our hunter-gatherer ancestors, and our ancestors who lived on a family farm. Now when I go to the grocery store the only feedback factors are the cost of the consumer goods, the effectiveness of packaging and my desire. Yet we know that the true cost of our food is not represented in its retail cost, so the feedback loops which have historically connected me to the food chain have been broken, and it takes a considerable act of consciousness to be an ethical eater.
So lets pull apart some of these tangles and see what grounding UU provides for our ethical framework. Our UU principles encourage us to: remember our interconnection (which leads us to consider the impact of our eating on animals, the eco-system, our carbon-footprint, and even the war for oil in a food system based on oil) and to remember the worth and value of every person (which reminds us to consider the justice of food distribution, and justice for those who harvest our food.). I also want to invoke the Native American vision to remember 7 generations in our decision, believing that what my son feeds his children is a valid ethical guiding post. I also would like to recommend the Buddhist encouragement toward compassion. Says the Dali Lama : “ For a Buddhist practitioner, the goal is to develop this genuine compassion, this genuine wish for the well-being of another, in fact for every living being throughout the universe." [from The Compassionate Life]
So though we don’t have the benefit of the chapters and verses of dietary laws in Leviticus, these principles can help us tease out a few ethical guidelines. And I want to start with one of the thorniest ethical dilemmas- meat. Most of us have heard that statistics about the inefficiency of meat as food- that it takes fare more of the sun’s energy, more grain, more water to create a meal which contains meat than one without.
For these reasons, and because their compassion for all sentient beings has so moved them, many UUs have become vegetarians. But for a variety of reasons, this is not a choice all of us are ready or able to make. So I offer a more inclusive guideline that strict vegetarianism- (1) eat less meat. This means that for each meal where we do not include meat, or each time we take a smaller portion of meat than we are accustomed to, we are making a positive difference in our eco-system, and in the world food system.
For those of us who choose to eat meat, we still have more choices to make. The meat in most super market aisles and at most restaurants is currently part of a system that is not humane to the animals, and that creates toxins for our environment. Friends of mine decided a few years ago that they were only going to eat meat if they could know that the animals were treated humanely, and in a way that reduced the load on the environment. They’ve been building up their homestead over the past few years, and now have a whole flock of chickens, turkeys and ducks. They have goats for milk, and recently found two calves on Craig’s list who they are raising for meat. When they purchase animals for meat in the past, the do the butchering themselves, so that they can be assured that they are butchered in a humane way. These women love animals- they care dearly about not only their dogs and finches and rabbits, but also these animals who they raise for eggs or milk or meat. This is a strong ethical place to stand; I am constantly impressed with the courage of their convictions.
Because even when we buy meat that is “grass fed” or “free range” we don’t’ really know what that means. Michael Pollan in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma exposes not only the seedy side of the meat industry, but his surprise on his visit to industrial organic farms that the “free range” chickens have only a marginally better existence than the conventional ones, despite the cute pictures of happy hens we see on the shelf at the store. Of all the choices I make when I shop for food, I feel best about the eggs I buy from my friends, because I know those chickens, I have seen where they live, and I know how deeply my friends care about the earth and about their animals. So I offer a second guidelines: (2) where possible, know your farmers. Visit the places where your food is raised. What you witness with your eyes and ears and nose will tell you much more about the compassion and ethics with which your food is raised than any USDA label on a product in the supermarket
Let’s move to something easier, like carrots. We all feel pretty good about eating carrots, still we remember with gratitude that these carrots are living beings too, and we live because of them. When you buy a carrot you don’t have to read an ingredient list to check for MSG, it is exactly what it purports to be- it looks like a plant root and tastes like a carrot. It is at the bottom of the agricultural food chain (it eats compost and sun and in turn is eaten by animals) and it is also at the bottom of the industrial food chain (it can be processed into those cans and boxes and listed as an ingredient in fine print on the side. When you eat a fresh carrot it is a very efficient conversion of the sun’s energy, and all the nutrients are still just the way the carrot grew them. It’s good for you and good for the earth. This is our 3rd guideline: (3) eat as low as possible on the food chain. This is just common sense. Corn is healthier for you and for the earth when it is still on the cob than when it has been processed into either a hamburger or into puffs. The less processing a food has endured, the more nutrients it retains- not just the ones listed on the side of the box, but other more subtle nutrients that scientists are only just discovering are necessary for healthy life. Eating less processed food is not only healthier, it’s also cheaper- you can buy 5 pounds of rice for the cost of a couple of “Lunchables”. This is partly because you are not paying the marketing cost of your rice, which doesn’t have to run commercials during Saturday morning cartoons to convince us to buy it. My 5 pound bag of rice, and my bunch of carrots together has way less packaging than said Lunchables, which reduces your footprint further both in terms of less packaging to end up in landfills and petroleum needed to make the plastic packaging in the first place.
But even though you are eating a carrot, there are still ethical dilemmas. Just because carrots don’t come with a list of ingredients doesn’t mean they aren’t full of chemicals or drenched in fossil fuels. For industrial agriculture grows carrots in a way that includes bonus chemicals that may or may not be safe for you and your children, and are definitely not safe for the water supply downstream from the conventional farm where chemicals were used. Because of these concerns, our fourth guideline is “buy organic produce whenever possible”. (our 4th guideline).
Here’s the tricky part- Just because you’ve found yourself a raw carrot stamped with the USDA organic seal, still doesn’t mean that it isn’t produced in a fossil-fuel intensive green house gas producing way. If your organic carrots are from Venezuela, they are not carbon neutral. So our 5th guideline is “eat local”. This is my favorite, because this is one where I have a lot of choices and control. When I grow cucumbers in my backyard I know exactly what chemicals were applied and the 8 foot walk out to pick them is not only carbon neutral but good for my soul. I think planting a few foods in our own yard or in a container on our balcony is one of the most enjoyable ethical acts I know. Because not only do you have a very light footprint, but you learn so much about the life cycle of your plants, and the cycles of seasons. This is practically a religious practice as far as I’m concerned. But if your yard is as small as mine, this is not subsistence farming, this is mostly just for the joy of picking a cucumber off the vine and serving it for dinner. The next best thing is to get your produce from your neighbors: stopping at the roadside stands, visiting farmer’s markets.
If you do a web-search for Farmer’s Markets nearby, you find our own Andy Fagan as the contact for the market in Muldoon Park on Monday Evenings. You find that Small Castle Farm in Ulster is our local member of the PA buy fresh Buy local network, and I pass any number of farm stands on my way to and from church. Another option is Community Supported Agriculture, where members pay a share of the cost of growing vegetables to the farmers at the start of the growing season, and receive a box of fresh vegetables here at the church once a week. Buyers clubs and Community Supported Agriculture shares not only make sure you have a steady stream of locally grown produce into your home, but it also provides a reliable source of income to small farms at a time when our national legislative bias towards agribusiness makes it hard for small farmers to persist.
By supporting local agriculture, we not only reduce our carbon footprint, but we also preserve the beautiful open spaces we love about this part of the world, and we provide food security for our community by ensuring that local farmers grow a diversity of food people could eat for substance instead of just cash crops. A friend who was driving cross country recently said the worst produce she saw on her whole trip was in an agricultural area in Iowa, because they grow only commercial grade corn and soy which are cash crops, and all the food those farmers eat has to be imported from other parts of the world. Now anyone who’s tried to grow a fruit or vegetable knows that some foods just don’t grow in some places. We are just never going to find local coffee, or local oranges. But Apples, zucchini, maple syrup, honey, corn, these we have in abundance. This brings us to our next precept:
The 6th guideline for ethical eaters is to keep studying and learning. We study and learn not only by reading but by observing- arrange a visit to your local farm or bakery. Watch the cucumbers grow in your own back yard. Sadly most of our food comes from a pretty opaque system. It’s crazy that we live in a time when, as Pollan ponders: “What am I eating, and where in the world dit it come from?” Not very long ago an eater didn’t need a journalist to answer these questions.” It was only through his writing did I learn that grass fed beef is healthier for us and for the environment than corn fed beef, or learn that the USDA organic label permits additives and synthetics such as ascorbic acid and Xantham Gum (Pollan p. 156) Reading and an inquiring mind is how you find out that “natural flavors” can mean that corn has been broken down and processed in test tubes until it tastes like grape. That what “free range” means anything from hens raised in tight quarters in a barn with a door that is unlocked for 2 weeks of a chicken’s life, to the hens you see running across the street sometimes as you drive through your neighborhood. This is how you find out that most of the farm workers who grow the food in California have to constantly fight for safe and sanitary conditions as they work, and are not even close to a living wage.
And your reading and study will inevitably bring you to our 7th guideline- justice for those who grow our food, and for all who are hungry. I want to devote a whole service later this year to issues of food and social justice, but for today I just want to remind us that this is why we Started our “Feed a Friend” project because we noticed that fresh foods are not always as available to folks living in poverty, and we also contribute foods that are grown the most ethical way we know how, locally in small gardens without industry or chemicals.
But already this is too many guidelines to juggle when you are standing in the aisle of your grocery store, or racing past a farm stand as you are late to work. My friends who are building up their homestead and milking their own goats twice a day have taken several years to get where they are, including a cross continental relocation. So start where you are (as the Buddhists say). Decide what is most inspiring to you and set your intention to change the patterns of your daily life, weaving them in a new pattern. As we enter the harvest season, perhaps you could choose one new thing on your path to ethical eating. It could be something as simple as buying only locally grown corn. On your path you may learn which local farmers grow corn, which tastes the best, which is more convenient to your commute, and when your local corn season is. Or you could decide to make lunch a vegetarian only meal, knowing it will take some time to learn what new foods you like to make for lunch, and how you will shop differently to make that possible. Or you could decide to arrange a farm tour or apple picking trip for you family and friends. Once you have incorporated one new ethical pattern in your life, you will know something new about your self and your world, and maybe what next step you are ready to take.
Changing patterns and habits takes time and energy and a clarity of intention. Part of the reason we buy processed food is because it is easier and less time consuming than buying raw local foods. Getting all your food at one store is easier than picking your own apples at a local orchard. But as Albus Dumbledore said in The Goblet of Fire: "Soon we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy." So give yourself encouragement to do the right thing- find a way to enjoy the beauty and balance of a fresh organic carrot, or corn picked that same day, or time spent in the garden watching cucumbers grow.
Finally, whatever you sit down and eat- do so in a spirit of gratitude, grateful not only to the plants and animals whose lives nourish you, but to the farmers and workers and truck drivers who brought you each meal. Eat mindfully, whether you are eating carrot or cheese puffs, because conscious, mindful eating will help you feed the senses and the soul as you feed your body, and is the first step towards reconnecting with our selves and the interconnected web of which we are all a part.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Deconstructing Gender (May 31, 2009)
By the time a child is ready for kindergarten, it knows some basic things. It usually knows colors and shapes, it knows how to use a bathroom and put on a jacket. It knows the days of the week and the seasons. And it knows gender. It knows from a visit to any children’s clothing store, that there are girls, who like pink and purple and flowers and sparkly things, and there are boys, who like blue and red and trucks. I didn’t understand how well we were teaching this lesson until my son wore his brand new Dora the Explorer shoes to church. For those of you who have not had preschoolers in your home for the past few years, Dora is a cartoon about a little Latina girl who goes on adventures with her backpack and her monkey friend Boots, teaching children Spanish words and sequencing. Dora is not a particularly effeminate character, being an explorer and all, but whoever is in charge of her licensing has decided to put her image on only the most frilly, flowery, pink and purple sparkly clothing, for sale only in the “little girls” department. And this first time my 2 year old son wore his brand new Dora sneakers to church, a UU church mind you, one of the preschool girls raised by very progressive parents announced in a shocked voice “those are girl shoes!”
It makes you wonder. Why do we even have segregated clothing departments for boys and girls? At that age the sizes and shapes of the kids are pretty much the same. We as a society have invested a lot in our gender sorting system. I think of all the time toddlers spend trying to fit the circle and square and triangle blocks into their sorting toys, and realize that gender feels a lot like that. Government forms ask us to check “male or female.” Public restrooms ask us to sort ourselves “girls and boys” We need to know which of those 2 holes each of us fits into, and which hole everyone around us fits into. And what happens when you run into a star, or a hexagon? In western society, violence happens. People who cross gender lines tell stories of being hit by a parent, beat-up on the playground, beaten by police in a raid. There is something about this binary gender-sorting system of ours that is so basic, so deeply held, taught so early and reinforced all our lives, that deconstructing gender feels as scary to some folks as asking “what if there is no God?”
In our culture- women have fought to enlarge their the size of the slot they were sorted into. They had to fight for such basic rights as the right to own property and to vote, the right to be free from violence in their own home. The generations of women today have fought to have access to many things which had previously been rigidly held in the male sphere- the right to study and challenge the intellect, to pursue careers in science, math, ministry, finance. They fought for the right to play football and run the marathon in the Olympics. And in entering the traditionally male spheres, they gained the right to wear clothes that did not encumber climbing a mountain, or serving in the armed forces, or running for president. Whereas a generation ago, woman could be arrested for “impersonating a man” if not wearing at least 3 pieces of woman’s clothing, the lines have blurred significantly. If I put on a pair of trousers or work boots today, no one is going to blink an eye.
But folks whom the doctor called “boy” filling out the birth certificate seem to have a more restricted realm of self expression. When a man puts on a skirt, or a little boy wears Dora Sneakers, is still a dangerous moment in our culture. It seems to be socially normative even in young hip shows like “Heros” to make fun of a male character for being nurse, or for staying at home as a full-time parent. And women’s role is still constricted as well- we know what challenges face a woman who decides to run for president.
So I’m guessing just about everyone in this room has bumped up against the rules of their “gender” at one time or another in their life. I preached a service about gender several years ago, and lead off with the theme song from the progressive 70s musical “Free to be you and me” which reminds us that
“There’s a land that I see
Where the Children are free.
And I say it ain’t far
To this land, from where we are.
Every boy in this land
Grows to be his own man.
In this land, every girl
Grows to be her own woman.”
And my heart sank as my dear colleage got up speak, and told her story about how as a little boy he didn’t want to grow up to be his own man, and how he grew up to be her own woman. I had thought my vision of gender roles was quite progressive, but it left a dear friend out in the cold. As much as I chafe at the restrictions of the gender I express, Leslie Feinberg writes: “Those of us who cross the cultural boundaries of sex and gender are paying a terrible price. We face discrimination and physical violence. We are denied the right to live and work with dignity and respect. It takes so much courage to live our lives that sometimes just leaving our homes in the morning and facing the world as who we really are is in itself an act of resistance.” (This is from her landmark book Transgender Warriors, which I am proud to say is published by our own Beacon Press.)
Feinberg was the author of one of the readings we heard today- talking about how she could not pass as either male or female as she tried to get a job. Gender expression is more than whether your shoes came from the boys department or the girls department, it is more than which box the doctor checked off on your birth certificate. For those of us who have the privilege of having a gender that’s easily read, a gender that agrees with the one on our birth certificate, we don’t question the doctor’s authority to make that call. All you need to do is check under your diaper, or check your chromosomes. But while biology tells us something- it doesn’t tell us everything. Did you know that some folks are born with xxx or xxy or xo chromosomes? Folks are born with ambiguous bodies. The doctor makes a choice, and sometimes even changes the body of a newborn to make sure it fits through one of the sorting holes. And sometimes, for example, a baby with male chromosomes will not produce or process the testosterone necessary to change a fetus (we all start out female) into the shape of a male baby. And sometimes the testosterone will kick in during adolescence, creating an apparent gender shift as the adolescent body develops.
So some aspect of this sorting process is not biologically determined but culturally determined. And not every culture has the same gender system as we do. I read recently that one indigenous culture recognizes 49 genders. While that seems pretty rare, many communal cultures recognize the “two-spirit”, one who holds in some way the spirit of the female and the male. This expression sacred in many tribes, a position of honor and power. Theologically this makes perfect sense to me, because a “two-spirit” overcomes the duality of the world, representing the one-ness of all things. It is also true that magic and power can be found at the crossroads- at the intersection of things, at the edge of thought and belief. Says Holger Kalweit (quoted in Gender Outlaw) “Holiness means feeling many –all – spheres of existence within oneself.” How much richer would our society be if we could embrace the unique wisdom and experience of those who inhabit gender in different ways. You will not be surprised to hear that the Two-spirits were singled out for colonial violence when European settlers came to these shores.
So how can we turn the tide away from violence and discrimination towards a wider embrace that acknowledges one another’s experience and wisdom? With what images can we use to engage gender beyond the preschool sorting boxes? Call to mind the yin-yang symbol, the black and white representing the male and female principles, and the yin holds the yang within itself, and the yang holds the yin within itself. But still we are stuck in dualism- good and evil, black and white, male and female.
One could also imagine a continuum from male to female, with each person their own unique shade of grey. But we are still stuck in a binary system. Male on one end and female on the other. You know, when I print the front of this order of service, I can choose to print it in greyscale, like our black and white continuum, or I can choose to print in full color. You can’t tell from looking at the shades of grey which pane of glass is red or yellow, because Red is not a shade of grey, it’s red. I wonder if we could ever allow ourselves that fullness of gender expression in this culture.
When we listen to one another we hear about the toll it takes on some souls to fit into the binary shape sorter. We hear the voices of folks who feel like circles even when the world tells them they are squares, and we heard from folks that just don’t get why they have to choose one or the other, when their lived experience is something radically different- a star perhaps.
Now Unitarian Universalists have a long history of listening to the voices of folks who feel oppressed by societal structures. And we are not just talking here about the right to freedom of expression, which I’m pretty sure is given to us under the constitution. But we are talking about the right to employment and housing without discrimination. We are talking about the right to fair treatment under the law and a right to a life free of violence. Both Pennsylvania and New York legislatures are currently looking at Bills that would prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or expression in employment, housing, credit and public accommodations. The New York State Assembly passed a bill (A. 5710) on May 14. HB300 is a Pennsylvania bill in process with a similar intent, but it remains to be seen whether either will become law.
This is another chance for UUs to be on the leading edge of thought and leaders as a religious movement. But to do that, we each need to do our own work first. Each of us needs to ask ourselves: what makes me think I know my own gender? What makes me think I know the gender of my friends, of the people I pass on the street? How do I feel when I don’t know someone’s gender? Why? Is there any part of my own expression that I limit because I am afraid of what will happen if I transgress a boundary? Why does anyone even care if a little boy wears Dora the Explorer shoes? Folks who self-identify as “trans gendered,” that is, crossing through the boxes and lines that make boundaries around gender, challenge us to think in a new way about these structures in our society who oppress us all. Says author and performance artist Kate Bornstein:
“Like other border outlaws, transgenderd people are here to open some doorway that’s been closed off for a long long time. We’re gatekeepers, nothing more.”
Because of these gatekeepers, we don’t have to figure this out on our own- there are wonderful writers and thinkers and artists expanding the field of gender theory, and we have our friends and family, each of who has their own way of inhabiting and expressing their gender, each of whom has a story to tell.
May ours be a faith that continues to question the assumptions of our culture, especially when those assumptions result in violence or discrimination. And may we raise our children to know, that we will love them and watch over them, whether their role model is Dora the Explorer or Bob the Builder, or a hero in a new shape and color that opens a new door for us all.
Primary Sources:
Kate Bornstein. Gender Outlaw. New York: Routledge, 1994.
Leslie Feinberg. Transgender Warriors. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996.
Joan Nestle, Claree Howell, Riki Wilchins eds. GenderQueer. New York: Alyson Books, 2002.
Service Readings taken from:
Marlo Thomas & Friends. Free to be you and me, Philadelphia: Running Press, 1997.
Peggy Orenstein. "The Hillary Lesson: What Her Candidacy Has Taught Our Daughters" The New York Times Magazine May 18, 2008
Tom Chiarella "What Is a Man?" Esquire April 6, 2009.
Andrea U'Ren. Pugdog, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001.
It makes you wonder. Why do we even have segregated clothing departments for boys and girls? At that age the sizes and shapes of the kids are pretty much the same. We as a society have invested a lot in our gender sorting system. I think of all the time toddlers spend trying to fit the circle and square and triangle blocks into their sorting toys, and realize that gender feels a lot like that. Government forms ask us to check “male or female.” Public restrooms ask us to sort ourselves “girls and boys” We need to know which of those 2 holes each of us fits into, and which hole everyone around us fits into. And what happens when you run into a star, or a hexagon? In western society, violence happens. People who cross gender lines tell stories of being hit by a parent, beat-up on the playground, beaten by police in a raid. There is something about this binary gender-sorting system of ours that is so basic, so deeply held, taught so early and reinforced all our lives, that deconstructing gender feels as scary to some folks as asking “what if there is no God?”
In our culture- women have fought to enlarge their the size of the slot they were sorted into. They had to fight for such basic rights as the right to own property and to vote, the right to be free from violence in their own home. The generations of women today have fought to have access to many things which had previously been rigidly held in the male sphere- the right to study and challenge the intellect, to pursue careers in science, math, ministry, finance. They fought for the right to play football and run the marathon in the Olympics. And in entering the traditionally male spheres, they gained the right to wear clothes that did not encumber climbing a mountain, or serving in the armed forces, or running for president. Whereas a generation ago, woman could be arrested for “impersonating a man” if not wearing at least 3 pieces of woman’s clothing, the lines have blurred significantly. If I put on a pair of trousers or work boots today, no one is going to blink an eye.
But folks whom the doctor called “boy” filling out the birth certificate seem to have a more restricted realm of self expression. When a man puts on a skirt, or a little boy wears Dora Sneakers, is still a dangerous moment in our culture. It seems to be socially normative even in young hip shows like “Heros” to make fun of a male character for being nurse, or for staying at home as a full-time parent. And women’s role is still constricted as well- we know what challenges face a woman who decides to run for president.
So I’m guessing just about everyone in this room has bumped up against the rules of their “gender” at one time or another in their life. I preached a service about gender several years ago, and lead off with the theme song from the progressive 70s musical “Free to be you and me” which reminds us that
“There’s a land that I see
Where the Children are free.
And I say it ain’t far
To this land, from where we are.
Every boy in this land
Grows to be his own man.
In this land, every girl
Grows to be her own woman.”
And my heart sank as my dear colleage got up speak, and told her story about how as a little boy he didn’t want to grow up to be his own man, and how he grew up to be her own woman. I had thought my vision of gender roles was quite progressive, but it left a dear friend out in the cold. As much as I chafe at the restrictions of the gender I express, Leslie Feinberg writes: “Those of us who cross the cultural boundaries of sex and gender are paying a terrible price. We face discrimination and physical violence. We are denied the right to live and work with dignity and respect. It takes so much courage to live our lives that sometimes just leaving our homes in the morning and facing the world as who we really are is in itself an act of resistance.” (This is from her landmark book Transgender Warriors, which I am proud to say is published by our own Beacon Press.)
Feinberg was the author of one of the readings we heard today- talking about how she could not pass as either male or female as she tried to get a job. Gender expression is more than whether your shoes came from the boys department or the girls department, it is more than which box the doctor checked off on your birth certificate. For those of us who have the privilege of having a gender that’s easily read, a gender that agrees with the one on our birth certificate, we don’t question the doctor’s authority to make that call. All you need to do is check under your diaper, or check your chromosomes. But while biology tells us something- it doesn’t tell us everything. Did you know that some folks are born with xxx or xxy or xo chromosomes? Folks are born with ambiguous bodies. The doctor makes a choice, and sometimes even changes the body of a newborn to make sure it fits through one of the sorting holes. And sometimes, for example, a baby with male chromosomes will not produce or process the testosterone necessary to change a fetus (we all start out female) into the shape of a male baby. And sometimes the testosterone will kick in during adolescence, creating an apparent gender shift as the adolescent body develops.
So some aspect of this sorting process is not biologically determined but culturally determined. And not every culture has the same gender system as we do. I read recently that one indigenous culture recognizes 49 genders. While that seems pretty rare, many communal cultures recognize the “two-spirit”, one who holds in some way the spirit of the female and the male. This expression sacred in many tribes, a position of honor and power. Theologically this makes perfect sense to me, because a “two-spirit” overcomes the duality of the world, representing the one-ness of all things. It is also true that magic and power can be found at the crossroads- at the intersection of things, at the edge of thought and belief. Says Holger Kalweit (quoted in Gender Outlaw) “Holiness means feeling many –all – spheres of existence within oneself.” How much richer would our society be if we could embrace the unique wisdom and experience of those who inhabit gender in different ways. You will not be surprised to hear that the Two-spirits were singled out for colonial violence when European settlers came to these shores.
So how can we turn the tide away from violence and discrimination towards a wider embrace that acknowledges one another’s experience and wisdom? With what images can we use to engage gender beyond the preschool sorting boxes? Call to mind the yin-yang symbol, the black and white representing the male and female principles, and the yin holds the yang within itself, and the yang holds the yin within itself. But still we are stuck in dualism- good and evil, black and white, male and female.
One could also imagine a continuum from male to female, with each person their own unique shade of grey. But we are still stuck in a binary system. Male on one end and female on the other. You know, when I print the front of this order of service, I can choose to print it in greyscale, like our black and white continuum, or I can choose to print in full color. You can’t tell from looking at the shades of grey which pane of glass is red or yellow, because Red is not a shade of grey, it’s red. I wonder if we could ever allow ourselves that fullness of gender expression in this culture.
When we listen to one another we hear about the toll it takes on some souls to fit into the binary shape sorter. We hear the voices of folks who feel like circles even when the world tells them they are squares, and we heard from folks that just don’t get why they have to choose one or the other, when their lived experience is something radically different- a star perhaps.
Now Unitarian Universalists have a long history of listening to the voices of folks who feel oppressed by societal structures. And we are not just talking here about the right to freedom of expression, which I’m pretty sure is given to us under the constitution. But we are talking about the right to employment and housing without discrimination. We are talking about the right to fair treatment under the law and a right to a life free of violence. Both Pennsylvania and New York legislatures are currently looking at Bills that would prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or expression in employment, housing, credit and public accommodations. The New York State Assembly passed a bill (A. 5710) on May 14. HB300 is a Pennsylvania bill in process with a similar intent, but it remains to be seen whether either will become law.
This is another chance for UUs to be on the leading edge of thought and leaders as a religious movement. But to do that, we each need to do our own work first. Each of us needs to ask ourselves: what makes me think I know my own gender? What makes me think I know the gender of my friends, of the people I pass on the street? How do I feel when I don’t know someone’s gender? Why? Is there any part of my own expression that I limit because I am afraid of what will happen if I transgress a boundary? Why does anyone even care if a little boy wears Dora the Explorer shoes? Folks who self-identify as “trans gendered,” that is, crossing through the boxes and lines that make boundaries around gender, challenge us to think in a new way about these structures in our society who oppress us all. Says author and performance artist Kate Bornstein:
“Like other border outlaws, transgenderd people are here to open some doorway that’s been closed off for a long long time. We’re gatekeepers, nothing more.”
Because of these gatekeepers, we don’t have to figure this out on our own- there are wonderful writers and thinkers and artists expanding the field of gender theory, and we have our friends and family, each of who has their own way of inhabiting and expressing their gender, each of whom has a story to tell.
May ours be a faith that continues to question the assumptions of our culture, especially when those assumptions result in violence or discrimination. And may we raise our children to know, that we will love them and watch over them, whether their role model is Dora the Explorer or Bob the Builder, or a hero in a new shape and color that opens a new door for us all.
Primary Sources:
Kate Bornstein. Gender Outlaw. New York: Routledge, 1994.
Leslie Feinberg. Transgender Warriors. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996.
Joan Nestle, Claree Howell, Riki Wilchins eds. GenderQueer. New York: Alyson Books, 2002.
Service Readings taken from:
Marlo Thomas & Friends. Free to be you and me, Philadelphia: Running Press, 1997.
Peggy Orenstein. "The Hillary Lesson: What Her Candidacy Has Taught Our Daughters" The New York Times Magazine May 18, 2008
Tom Chiarella "What Is a Man?" Esquire April 6, 2009.
Andrea U'Ren. Pugdog, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Is That All There Is? (May 3, 2009)
When Universalism was born, the raging debate was who was going to hell, and who was going to heaven. As you may recall, the Universalists thought that everyone had an equal chance at heaven, which lead to a debate a couple generations later about whether everyone went right to heaven when they died, or whether folks who had done really bad things had to spend some time in hell or purgatory to work off their bad karma before being restored to God.
Have you noticed that we only talk about this when we are learning our Universalist history? No UU has yet to ask me whether I thought he or she was going to heaven or hell. So what happened? How did the theological debate that birthed our movement become a historical artifact?
That old debate about whether we all would ultimately be reunited in heaven comes under the rubric of eschatology, which comes from the Greek roots meaning “the study of last things”. Many of our neighbors have an apocalyptic eschatology, believing that a final battle between good and evil is coming. When you hear about the rapture, you are hearing about a particular eschatology. But when we describe contemporary Unitarian Universalist thinking we have to stretch that word a little bit. Because we are not so much interested in talking about the end of the world- in fact Rev. Rebecca Parker says for us Eschatology means “Where we are coming form and where we are going.”
When we describe contemporary UU thinking we get to use the impressive phrase “realized eschatology” which means that the realization, the culmination of everything is in this present time and place. Folks from the Christian tradition who hold this kind of eschatology believe that when Jesus said that "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:14). Jesus was not talking about an apocalyptic scenario, he was saying “the kingdom of God is right here, right now.”
That’s quite a different frame for reality, isn’t it? Think about how you might spend the coming week if you knew that your whole life was leading up to a battle between good and evil at a time of apocalyptic destruction of life as we know it. Now think about how you might spend this coming week if you thought “heaven and hell are both here around me right now, and if I’m ever going to get to heaven, I’m going to have to look for it or create it in this world right here.” If you have a realized eschatology then there are 2 courses of action that seem pretty urgent.
First, we have got to start putting our attention into the here and now. The Buddhist tradition is one that takes seriously this living in the present moment. Even when you are stuck in traffic. Even when you are scrubbing the shower floor. A the Buddha said “
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment”. Buddhists believe that the present moment contains the seeds of all things, including liberation from suffering, and enlightenment. So instead of looking for enlightenment or for glorious reward in some future life, we search in this reality for heaven- cause we know it’s around here someplace. And many have proposed that, it’s hiding in plane site. Matthew Fox, the excommunicated Catholic Priest, says that it is crucial for us all to develop a sense of awe and wonder, to see the divine in the world around us. It’s not too hard to find as spring really gets going and the tiny budding leaves have that special young green color, and the whole diversity of the plant kingdom seems to have come together to create a symphony of color. Those of you who have grandchildren also know right where to look for a glimpse of heaven. It is also an idea that mystics from many generations have written about. Author and mystic Richard Jefferies tell us the same thing:
“It is eternity now. I am in the midst of it. It is about me, in the sunshine, I am in it as the butterfly is in the light laden air. Nothing has to come, It is now. Now is eternity, Now is the immortal life.”
This ties in with our emerging UU pneumatology- (study of the spirit from the Greek root meaning breath) That the spirit of god resides in the natural world, in all living things. This Pneumatology came into our movement in the transcendentalists in the 1900s who showed us that the world is sacred. But sometimes it leads me to wonder, with the great Peggy Lee:
Is that all there is, is that all there is?
If that's all there is, my friends, then let's keep dancing
Because not everything we see in our daily life looks like heaven on earth. Frankly, some of it looks like hell. Sometimes it’s hard to have any sense of awe and wonder at all after catching a glimpse of the evening news. Isn’t there anything we can do to create the kingdom of God besides “be here now?”
We call ours a “living tradition.” this means that we believe in Continuous Revelation. We don’t generally hold that Moses was the last prophet. We don’t think there will ever be an end to truth that newly emerges into our consciousness. We also believe in Co-creation- which is to say we believe that God is not the only one creating the world- we are all working together day by day, whether we know it or not. We believe in evolution- not only in biology but in all the living growing changing aspects of our world. Things change and grow and live. And we have a role to play in this. Says Mesle, a Process theologian “But we have hands and God does not. Or rather, when hands are needed, God must rely on the hands of creatures to do that work” (Mesle p. 14). So in this eschatology the “end” of the world, that is to say the “purpose or outcome” of the world is right here among us, we have work to do.
And I think the kind of evolution we believe in is changing. As Rebecca Parker so beautifully articulated in here 2002 address to LREDA, our 19th century eschatology took Evolution to mean: “Onward and upward forever” but for generations that lived through world war one and world war 2, they realized that things weren’t necessarily getting better and better. Sometimes things get worse.
People responded in different ways to the tragedies of the 20th century. Some turned to nihilism in the face of those tragedies- that nothing has meaning. But a concurrent theological movement, process theology, was also emerging. This takes what we have observed motion through evolution and other scientific processes, and makes that the center of theology. Process Theologians hold that God is a process not a static unchanging being, God is motion. Some say “God is a Verb” This means that we can tell Peggy Lee “That’s not all there is” Something new is always unfolding, and we have a role to play in that unfolding. Says Processes Theologian Mesle: “For better or worse, each decision of each creature plays some role in the world’s process of becoming” (Mesle p. 62)
Change is linked to the deepest roots in our theology. The Latin phrase “semper reformanda” or “always being reformed” has been used by protestant churches for centuries to remind themselves that they must always be in the process of reformation. A new twist on the phrase: “Reformatus est semper reformandum” means “reformed yet always needing reformation”. Doesn’t that sound like something the UUs would have come up with? But it is an idea we share with many protestant churches. Ours is a living changing tradition in a living evolving world.
Our Unitarian Universalist eschatology has come a long way from our early history. A Revealed Eschatology allows us to focus our attention and our action in the world around us, instead in an apocalypse to come. A revealed eschatology holds in it two courses for being in the world- they give us 2 different senses of where we might direct our attention as we move through our daily life. Do we find the awe and wonder of our present moment, or do we see the flow of change and lend our hands to guide that change in the direction of life and love? In my own life and practice I think that both are crucial, and that there is a time and a place for each. A friend of mine who is Jewish Reconstructionist says this is part of what Sabbath is for her. That on one day a week we set aside the work of co-creating the world, enjoy the created world as it is. On the Sabbath “The world does not need to be changed.” It is ours to appreciate. But whether we are in the still waters of reflection and appreciation, or the rapids of life’s evolutionary flow, it is for us to use the powers of our hands, our hearts, our attention to seek heaven, enlightenment, the realm of God in this very world we now inhabit.
Primary Sources:
Process Theology, C. Robert Mesle, Chalice Press St. Louis, 1993
A Theology of Religious Education, Rebecca Parker, Delivered at LREDA Fall Conference 2002.
Have you noticed that we only talk about this when we are learning our Universalist history? No UU has yet to ask me whether I thought he or she was going to heaven or hell. So what happened? How did the theological debate that birthed our movement become a historical artifact?
That old debate about whether we all would ultimately be reunited in heaven comes under the rubric of eschatology, which comes from the Greek roots meaning “the study of last things”. Many of our neighbors have an apocalyptic eschatology, believing that a final battle between good and evil is coming. When you hear about the rapture, you are hearing about a particular eschatology. But when we describe contemporary Unitarian Universalist thinking we have to stretch that word a little bit. Because we are not so much interested in talking about the end of the world- in fact Rev. Rebecca Parker says for us Eschatology means “Where we are coming form and where we are going.”
When we describe contemporary UU thinking we get to use the impressive phrase “realized eschatology” which means that the realization, the culmination of everything is in this present time and place. Folks from the Christian tradition who hold this kind of eschatology believe that when Jesus said that "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:14). Jesus was not talking about an apocalyptic scenario, he was saying “the kingdom of God is right here, right now.”
That’s quite a different frame for reality, isn’t it? Think about how you might spend the coming week if you knew that your whole life was leading up to a battle between good and evil at a time of apocalyptic destruction of life as we know it. Now think about how you might spend this coming week if you thought “heaven and hell are both here around me right now, and if I’m ever going to get to heaven, I’m going to have to look for it or create it in this world right here.” If you have a realized eschatology then there are 2 courses of action that seem pretty urgent.
First, we have got to start putting our attention into the here and now. The Buddhist tradition is one that takes seriously this living in the present moment. Even when you are stuck in traffic. Even when you are scrubbing the shower floor. A the Buddha said “
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment”. Buddhists believe that the present moment contains the seeds of all things, including liberation from suffering, and enlightenment. So instead of looking for enlightenment or for glorious reward in some future life, we search in this reality for heaven- cause we know it’s around here someplace. And many have proposed that, it’s hiding in plane site. Matthew Fox, the excommunicated Catholic Priest, says that it is crucial for us all to develop a sense of awe and wonder, to see the divine in the world around us. It’s not too hard to find as spring really gets going and the tiny budding leaves have that special young green color, and the whole diversity of the plant kingdom seems to have come together to create a symphony of color. Those of you who have grandchildren also know right where to look for a glimpse of heaven. It is also an idea that mystics from many generations have written about. Author and mystic Richard Jefferies tell us the same thing:
“It is eternity now. I am in the midst of it. It is about me, in the sunshine, I am in it as the butterfly is in the light laden air. Nothing has to come, It is now. Now is eternity, Now is the immortal life.”
This ties in with our emerging UU pneumatology- (study of the spirit from the Greek root meaning breath) That the spirit of god resides in the natural world, in all living things. This Pneumatology came into our movement in the transcendentalists in the 1900s who showed us that the world is sacred. But sometimes it leads me to wonder, with the great Peggy Lee:
Is that all there is, is that all there is?
If that's all there is, my friends, then let's keep dancing
Because not everything we see in our daily life looks like heaven on earth. Frankly, some of it looks like hell. Sometimes it’s hard to have any sense of awe and wonder at all after catching a glimpse of the evening news. Isn’t there anything we can do to create the kingdom of God besides “be here now?”
We call ours a “living tradition.” this means that we believe in Continuous Revelation. We don’t generally hold that Moses was the last prophet. We don’t think there will ever be an end to truth that newly emerges into our consciousness. We also believe in Co-creation- which is to say we believe that God is not the only one creating the world- we are all working together day by day, whether we know it or not. We believe in evolution- not only in biology but in all the living growing changing aspects of our world. Things change and grow and live. And we have a role to play in this. Says Mesle, a Process theologian “But we have hands and God does not. Or rather, when hands are needed, God must rely on the hands of creatures to do that work” (Mesle p. 14). So in this eschatology the “end” of the world, that is to say the “purpose or outcome” of the world is right here among us, we have work to do.
And I think the kind of evolution we believe in is changing. As Rebecca Parker so beautifully articulated in here 2002 address to LREDA, our 19th century eschatology took Evolution to mean: “Onward and upward forever” but for generations that lived through world war one and world war 2, they realized that things weren’t necessarily getting better and better. Sometimes things get worse.
People responded in different ways to the tragedies of the 20th century. Some turned to nihilism in the face of those tragedies- that nothing has meaning. But a concurrent theological movement, process theology, was also emerging. This takes what we have observed motion through evolution and other scientific processes, and makes that the center of theology. Process Theologians hold that God is a process not a static unchanging being, God is motion. Some say “God is a Verb” This means that we can tell Peggy Lee “That’s not all there is” Something new is always unfolding, and we have a role to play in that unfolding. Says Processes Theologian Mesle: “For better or worse, each decision of each creature plays some role in the world’s process of becoming” (Mesle p. 62)
Change is linked to the deepest roots in our theology. The Latin phrase “semper reformanda” or “always being reformed” has been used by protestant churches for centuries to remind themselves that they must always be in the process of reformation. A new twist on the phrase: “Reformatus est semper reformandum” means “reformed yet always needing reformation”. Doesn’t that sound like something the UUs would have come up with? But it is an idea we share with many protestant churches. Ours is a living changing tradition in a living evolving world.
Our Unitarian Universalist eschatology has come a long way from our early history. A Revealed Eschatology allows us to focus our attention and our action in the world around us, instead in an apocalypse to come. A revealed eschatology holds in it two courses for being in the world- they give us 2 different senses of where we might direct our attention as we move through our daily life. Do we find the awe and wonder of our present moment, or do we see the flow of change and lend our hands to guide that change in the direction of life and love? In my own life and practice I think that both are crucial, and that there is a time and a place for each. A friend of mine who is Jewish Reconstructionist says this is part of what Sabbath is for her. That on one day a week we set aside the work of co-creating the world, enjoy the created world as it is. On the Sabbath “The world does not need to be changed.” It is ours to appreciate. But whether we are in the still waters of reflection and appreciation, or the rapids of life’s evolutionary flow, it is for us to use the powers of our hands, our hearts, our attention to seek heaven, enlightenment, the realm of God in this very world we now inhabit.
Primary Sources:
Process Theology, C. Robert Mesle, Chalice Press St. Louis, 1993
A Theology of Religious Education, Rebecca Parker, Delivered at LREDA Fall Conference 2002.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
What is Money For (April 26, 2009)
Money is hard thing for people of conscience to talk about. If we value economic diversity in our midst, how can we talk together when money is distributed unequally among people? We are afraid of being judged for being rich, we are afraid of being judged if we are poor. But our church has covenanted to be a place where we provide a forum for liberal religious expression in an atmosphere which encourages spiritual growth and ethical living. And money is a fact of our lives - the tool our culture uses to account for the trade of goods and services. We cannot truly understand ourselves to have examined the ethicality of our lives without thinking and talking about it.
Money is a part of the fabric of our society. In its most basic form, it helps us trade of a dozen eggs for a jar of jam. But it has become something very abstract. I’ve heard a dozen radio interviewers trying to explain how mortgages are bundled and about credit default swaps, and I feel like we have wandered very far away from eggs and jam. Our sense of money has become ungrounded in this culture. So it is up to us as part of our inquiry into living an ethical life that we must each individually figure out what money is for.
Everyone makes choices about how they will spend their money. Some are made at major crossroads- like what rent you will pay for your new apartment, or what your car payment will be, or whether or not to have children. Other choices are made on a daily basis- can I afford the free range eggs? Do I need a new sweater? Any time we take out our wallet or our checkbook, we have to ask ourselves questions about what we value most as we choose how we will spend our money.
There’s a funny thing that happens when we realize that choices are being made, and that we have made different choices than our friends or neighbors. We question our choices. Maybe I am afraid that you are judging me for making the choice I made, since you chose differently. It’s easier not to notice or admit to ourselves that choices are being made: we let them just kind of happen. This is part of what got many Americans into the financial bind we are in now. But as a community of seekers, I hope that together we can think about these things. That we can think about our values, and how we put those values into action in our lives. Because whether we are aware of it or not, our money helps us express our values in the community, and indeed helps shape our community, for good or for ill.
Right now, when so many of our family budgets are changing, and our financial futures are uncertain, is a particularly important time to have this conversation. If our income has changed, it changes how we express our values, it changes the choices we make. And so it has the potential to change our self-understanding. For folks whose sense of self has gotten tangled up with who they are as a consumer, (and that’s most of us here in America) this can be a frightening, confusing time. If we are used to working, and are suddenly out of work, or under employed, or taking a cut in pay, we suddenly realize how much of our sense of our self was tied up with the work we do, and the resources we bring home. Our culture tells is in subtle and not-so-subtle ways that “you are what you buy” and “the value of your work is reflected in how much you make.” The influence of these messages may surface only now as the economy is depressed. So it is up to us as a community of faith to remember that we are not workers, we are not consumers, we are not rich or poor, we are much more than that. We are miracles of evolution and biology, we are living souls, unique and precious.
And if our economic health has been shaken, so much more we must strengthen the other layers of our being. Our relationships with one another, our support for our eco-system, our integrity, our compassion, our agency as change makers in this society, our love of beauty, our creativity. This is a moment when we are all learning how much more there is to our selves than that part of us which is bound up with money. It is also time for us to strengthen our core values, knowing that our values, our ethics, our integrity need not be weakened by this weakened economy.
For example: I had gotten into certain habits in the grocery store. I tried to buy paper products made from recycled paper. I tried to buy free-range chicken, and cage-free eggs. But now that we are trying to make our grocery dollars go farther- I recently stood there in the poultry aisle for 20 minutes weighing the ethics of my impending purchase. I made the hard choice that I was going to buy the conventional chicken for $2.50 a pound instead of the free range chicken for $10 a pound. But I also affirmed that I would support local farmers whenever I can, buying eggs laid in Tompkins county, with preference to those laid in my friends back yard by chickens I have met personally. Was that the only choice I could have made? No. I could have given up my yoga classes and still have purchased the free range chicken. I could give up eating meat. My choices is not perfect- I don’t deceive myself that I made the only possible choice. You might have made a different choice. And that might be part of why we are reticent to talk about these things.
By looking at our financial choices, we learn something about what our values really are. While talking with the young folks in our Coming of Age Program about values few weeks ago, we defined values this way:
Is this something that's important to you?
Do you feel good about this being important to you?
Would you feel good if people you respect knew that this was important to you?
Have you ever done anything that indicates that this is important to you?
Is this something you would stand by even if others made fun of you for it?
Does this fit in with your vision of who you are?
Take a moment right now to list some of your core values. You can do it in your head, or jot it on the back of your order of service.
[pause]
Now here is what money shows us. My story about agonizing in the poultry aisle shows me a few things about myself and my values: Yoga is important to me, Animal rights are important to me, shopping local is important to me and the environment is important to me. Think of your checkbook register or your bank statement. What appears there? How closely does it match that list of values you just made? Are the values that your checkbook illustrates different?
Our work as people of faith is to create as much coherence and integrity as possible between what we value and how we live. Notice how personal a choice that is. I can’t tell you what your values are, or how to do the complicated calculus of weighing those choices in the grocery store. But sometimes by talking together we get the courage to make tough choices, or we receive new information, or a new perspective that helps us choose. For example, a friend pointed me to the Union of Concerned Scientists list of the 10 most important things we can do to save the planet. They put buying organic produce right there at the top. So we are recommitting to our local CSA farm this year. Not all our purchase this year will be socially conscious, but our friend helped us clarify our values and choose something we think is important to focus our resources on.
But social consciousness is not our only value, is it? Sometimes what we see looking at our checkbook is that certain expenses that don’t appear on our list of values appear there with surprising regularity. Columnist Dayana Yochim writes for the “Motley Fool” series “Fiscal fitness 2009” and confesses:
“I spend $1.62 many mornings just to get my fix from the Subway soda fountain. I do so even knowing that I could save $1.37 a day -- $27.40 a month -- by buying a can out of our 25-cent pop machine at work. It may seem like a wasteful expenditure to most, but a fountain soda -- particularly from a machine calibrated to deliver that perfect mix of carbonation and syrup -- is my guilty pleasure. And I'm not going to give it up anytime soon.”
As Yochim was tracking pork in her family budget she just couldn’t bring himself to cut this item, so instead she budgeted for it, and cut out $30 a month of other things that just didn‘t bring her the same joy as that fountain soda. It reminded me that joy, play, fun, taste are values too. This is important because one of the things that goes wrong when people budget, is that they make a budget so ascetic that it sends them screaming into the mall to assuage their feeling of deprivation. A wise friend once said “My parents raised me to believe I could have it all, they just didn’t tell me I couldn’t have it all at once.” Maybe this month I make a special gift to the food bank, and next month I take my Husband out to dinner. I don’t feel guilty at all when I go see a favorite band play. ‘Supporting Local Music” is a proud member of my list of top 10 values, and I’m willing to give up other things to do it.
Of course there are other was to express our values that don‘t require money. If “good food” is a value, we are lucky to be part of a religious community with some awesome cooks! A potluck here is as good as eating at many restaurants. If protecting the environment is a value, one of the best ways you can help is to fly less and drive less- and that doesn’t cost anything. Remember that saving the environment is not at its core about being able to buy the latest eco-chic product. When we “reduce, reuse, recycle” it is good for the planet and for our checkbook.
Neither our changing economic landscape, nor our changing family budget take away our ability to make a difference in the world: each of us still has gifts to offer. Our story this morning about the magic pomegranate is a beautiful reminder from the Jewish tradition that we each have something special to give, and much as the gifts of all three brothers were needed to save the princess, each of us is called to find and cultivate our gifts. The story reminds us that all of our gifts are needed as we come together to create a community of compassion and integrity.
It calls to mind another story taken from the Christian scriptures:
It begins when Jesus “sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the multitude putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came, and put in two copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury, for they all contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living.” [Mark 12:41-44]
Whether rich, poor, or somewhere in between, we have the opportunity to contribute the way this widow did, with a felt generosity that will ripple into the way she lives her life. This is why as a community of faith, we are called to see beyond the hard numbers to the heart, the soul of each gift. Said the treasurer of a congregation I worked with years ago: "nobody else knows what goes on in your home and your heart."
The occasion of our stewardship campaign gives us the opportunity to think about money on the level of the soul and heart. This is particularly important in a culture that respects wealth and commerce above all. We must be fundamentally about something different in our sanctuary here. We must value the giver more than the gift. Our principles teach us to honor a diversity of gifts that mirror an economically diverse and inclusive community.
Going back into the story, I like the fact that this translation says the widow gave “her whole living” which invites us to see the wholeness of the gift. It calls to mind the people in this congregation who give hours each week to see our books are balanced. Those who stand by our front door each week making sure all who come to worship are greeted with a friendly smile. I think of the outpouring of generosity for the two families our congregation adopted this winter for the holiday season, and the pies and turkeys we shared over Thanksgiving. I am moved by each volunteer who leads our young children upstairs on a Sunday morning to help them on their own search in this world, and those who drove and cooked and slept on a cement floor so that our teenagers could honor their passing out of childhood in a special way. “Her whole living” reminds me of the people who carry the values of this church out into their jobs, their parenting, their gardening.
No matter how big or small your purse, money is only one of many tools for creating a life of integrity and generosity. But still it is part of the fabric of our society. So let us use it consciously as an expression of our deepest values, let it speak what we intend it to say. Let it speak the wholeness of our living.
Money is a part of the fabric of our society. In its most basic form, it helps us trade of a dozen eggs for a jar of jam. But it has become something very abstract. I’ve heard a dozen radio interviewers trying to explain how mortgages are bundled and about credit default swaps, and I feel like we have wandered very far away from eggs and jam. Our sense of money has become ungrounded in this culture. So it is up to us as part of our inquiry into living an ethical life that we must each individually figure out what money is for.
Everyone makes choices about how they will spend their money. Some are made at major crossroads- like what rent you will pay for your new apartment, or what your car payment will be, or whether or not to have children. Other choices are made on a daily basis- can I afford the free range eggs? Do I need a new sweater? Any time we take out our wallet or our checkbook, we have to ask ourselves questions about what we value most as we choose how we will spend our money.
There’s a funny thing that happens when we realize that choices are being made, and that we have made different choices than our friends or neighbors. We question our choices. Maybe I am afraid that you are judging me for making the choice I made, since you chose differently. It’s easier not to notice or admit to ourselves that choices are being made: we let them just kind of happen. This is part of what got many Americans into the financial bind we are in now. But as a community of seekers, I hope that together we can think about these things. That we can think about our values, and how we put those values into action in our lives. Because whether we are aware of it or not, our money helps us express our values in the community, and indeed helps shape our community, for good or for ill.
Right now, when so many of our family budgets are changing, and our financial futures are uncertain, is a particularly important time to have this conversation. If our income has changed, it changes how we express our values, it changes the choices we make. And so it has the potential to change our self-understanding. For folks whose sense of self has gotten tangled up with who they are as a consumer, (and that’s most of us here in America) this can be a frightening, confusing time. If we are used to working, and are suddenly out of work, or under employed, or taking a cut in pay, we suddenly realize how much of our sense of our self was tied up with the work we do, and the resources we bring home. Our culture tells is in subtle and not-so-subtle ways that “you are what you buy” and “the value of your work is reflected in how much you make.” The influence of these messages may surface only now as the economy is depressed. So it is up to us as a community of faith to remember that we are not workers, we are not consumers, we are not rich or poor, we are much more than that. We are miracles of evolution and biology, we are living souls, unique and precious.
And if our economic health has been shaken, so much more we must strengthen the other layers of our being. Our relationships with one another, our support for our eco-system, our integrity, our compassion, our agency as change makers in this society, our love of beauty, our creativity. This is a moment when we are all learning how much more there is to our selves than that part of us which is bound up with money. It is also time for us to strengthen our core values, knowing that our values, our ethics, our integrity need not be weakened by this weakened economy.
For example: I had gotten into certain habits in the grocery store. I tried to buy paper products made from recycled paper. I tried to buy free-range chicken, and cage-free eggs. But now that we are trying to make our grocery dollars go farther- I recently stood there in the poultry aisle for 20 minutes weighing the ethics of my impending purchase. I made the hard choice that I was going to buy the conventional chicken for $2.50 a pound instead of the free range chicken for $10 a pound. But I also affirmed that I would support local farmers whenever I can, buying eggs laid in Tompkins county, with preference to those laid in my friends back yard by chickens I have met personally. Was that the only choice I could have made? No. I could have given up my yoga classes and still have purchased the free range chicken. I could give up eating meat. My choices is not perfect- I don’t deceive myself that I made the only possible choice. You might have made a different choice. And that might be part of why we are reticent to talk about these things.
By looking at our financial choices, we learn something about what our values really are. While talking with the young folks in our Coming of Age Program about values few weeks ago, we defined values this way:
Is this something that's important to you?
Do you feel good about this being important to you?
Would you feel good if people you respect knew that this was important to you?
Have you ever done anything that indicates that this is important to you?
Is this something you would stand by even if others made fun of you for it?
Does this fit in with your vision of who you are?
Take a moment right now to list some of your core values. You can do it in your head, or jot it on the back of your order of service.
[pause]
Now here is what money shows us. My story about agonizing in the poultry aisle shows me a few things about myself and my values: Yoga is important to me, Animal rights are important to me, shopping local is important to me and the environment is important to me. Think of your checkbook register or your bank statement. What appears there? How closely does it match that list of values you just made? Are the values that your checkbook illustrates different?
Our work as people of faith is to create as much coherence and integrity as possible between what we value and how we live. Notice how personal a choice that is. I can’t tell you what your values are, or how to do the complicated calculus of weighing those choices in the grocery store. But sometimes by talking together we get the courage to make tough choices, or we receive new information, or a new perspective that helps us choose. For example, a friend pointed me to the Union of Concerned Scientists list of the 10 most important things we can do to save the planet. They put buying organic produce right there at the top. So we are recommitting to our local CSA farm this year. Not all our purchase this year will be socially conscious, but our friend helped us clarify our values and choose something we think is important to focus our resources on.
But social consciousness is not our only value, is it? Sometimes what we see looking at our checkbook is that certain expenses that don’t appear on our list of values appear there with surprising regularity. Columnist Dayana Yochim writes for the “Motley Fool” series “Fiscal fitness 2009” and confesses:
“I spend $1.62 many mornings just to get my fix from the Subway soda fountain. I do so even knowing that I could save $1.37 a day -- $27.40 a month -- by buying a can out of our 25-cent pop machine at work. It may seem like a wasteful expenditure to most, but a fountain soda -- particularly from a machine calibrated to deliver that perfect mix of carbonation and syrup -- is my guilty pleasure. And I'm not going to give it up anytime soon.”
As Yochim was tracking pork in her family budget she just couldn’t bring himself to cut this item, so instead she budgeted for it, and cut out $30 a month of other things that just didn‘t bring her the same joy as that fountain soda. It reminded me that joy, play, fun, taste are values too. This is important because one of the things that goes wrong when people budget, is that they make a budget so ascetic that it sends them screaming into the mall to assuage their feeling of deprivation. A wise friend once said “My parents raised me to believe I could have it all, they just didn’t tell me I couldn’t have it all at once.” Maybe this month I make a special gift to the food bank, and next month I take my Husband out to dinner. I don’t feel guilty at all when I go see a favorite band play. ‘Supporting Local Music” is a proud member of my list of top 10 values, and I’m willing to give up other things to do it.
Of course there are other was to express our values that don‘t require money. If “good food” is a value, we are lucky to be part of a religious community with some awesome cooks! A potluck here is as good as eating at many restaurants. If protecting the environment is a value, one of the best ways you can help is to fly less and drive less- and that doesn’t cost anything. Remember that saving the environment is not at its core about being able to buy the latest eco-chic product. When we “reduce, reuse, recycle” it is good for the planet and for our checkbook.
Neither our changing economic landscape, nor our changing family budget take away our ability to make a difference in the world: each of us still has gifts to offer. Our story this morning about the magic pomegranate is a beautiful reminder from the Jewish tradition that we each have something special to give, and much as the gifts of all three brothers were needed to save the princess, each of us is called to find and cultivate our gifts. The story reminds us that all of our gifts are needed as we come together to create a community of compassion and integrity.
It calls to mind another story taken from the Christian scriptures:
It begins when Jesus “sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the multitude putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came, and put in two copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury, for they all contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living.” [Mark 12:41-44]
Whether rich, poor, or somewhere in between, we have the opportunity to contribute the way this widow did, with a felt generosity that will ripple into the way she lives her life. This is why as a community of faith, we are called to see beyond the hard numbers to the heart, the soul of each gift. Said the treasurer of a congregation I worked with years ago: "nobody else knows what goes on in your home and your heart."
The occasion of our stewardship campaign gives us the opportunity to think about money on the level of the soul and heart. This is particularly important in a culture that respects wealth and commerce above all. We must be fundamentally about something different in our sanctuary here. We must value the giver more than the gift. Our principles teach us to honor a diversity of gifts that mirror an economically diverse and inclusive community.
Going back into the story, I like the fact that this translation says the widow gave “her whole living” which invites us to see the wholeness of the gift. It calls to mind the people in this congregation who give hours each week to see our books are balanced. Those who stand by our front door each week making sure all who come to worship are greeted with a friendly smile. I think of the outpouring of generosity for the two families our congregation adopted this winter for the holiday season, and the pies and turkeys we shared over Thanksgiving. I am moved by each volunteer who leads our young children upstairs on a Sunday morning to help them on their own search in this world, and those who drove and cooked and slept on a cement floor so that our teenagers could honor their passing out of childhood in a special way. “Her whole living” reminds me of the people who carry the values of this church out into their jobs, their parenting, their gardening.
No matter how big or small your purse, money is only one of many tools for creating a life of integrity and generosity. But still it is part of the fabric of our society. So let us use it consciously as an expression of our deepest values, let it speak what we intend it to say. Let it speak the wholeness of our living.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Response to "Watching Over the Love" - Katie Replogle
“Stay at the table”
When Darcey gave her sermon last month about “Watching Over the Love,” I found myself nodding in agreement she spoke about valentine number seven, “Stay at the table.” She was talking about persevering through church conflict.
Church is the last place we want to have to deal with conflict. We have enough stress in our lives outside of church – in our relationships, where we work, in other volunteer organizations. We come here to find love and peace. And we do find a lot of love and peace, but occasionally we also find conflict. Because we expect church to be a haven from the stress of life, conflict in church can be especially disappointing and disillusioning. It’s very tempting to give up and walk out when things get difficult.
During my first five years as a member of UUCAS, we had two significant conflicts. Since childhood I have been afraid of conflict, and the early experiences at UUCAS confirmed my worst fears: that conflict means that relationships will fall apart. Some members – including me - considered leaving the congregation, and several of them actually did leave.
Those painful events preceded my term as president of this congregation. My four years were, thankfully, relatively smooth sailing. But disagreements always arose, and, as president, I had to learn to deal with them. While I’m still not completely comfortable with conflict, I now know that it does not mean that the world is coming to an end. On the contrary, it can lead to learning and growth – if we stay at the table.
I believe that staying at the table is important for three reasons.
First, healthy disagreements help us find better answers. When dissenters leave, we lose important perspectives. I am constantly amazed by the diversity of thought among UUs. I’ve heard issues that I considered “no-brainers” debated hotly at General Assembly and within our own congregation. I would think, “Who wouldn’t agree with this proposal?” – and of course someone always does. And what I thought would be a thirty-minute congregational meeting turns into an hour and a half! But the dissenting opinions always open my eyes to ways of looking at the issue that I had never considered. Because those with opposing views chose to stay at the table, we were able find a better path.
Second, we can be the church we want to be only if the people who see us going off track are willing to push us back on track. Last month we welcomed new members with the following words:
“This congregation charges you to use your fresh and new perspectives to remind us when we seem to be losing our way. Evaluate our words and acts by the words we have just read together. Remind us when we have overlooked them.”
We warn our new members that we don’t always live up to our highest ideals. That shouldn’t be a surprise - we are human, after all. We ask them to stay at the table when we don’t appear to be walking the talk and to help us to put things right.
Finally, staying at the table is important because our world desperately needs people who can resolve conflict peacefully and constructively, and church is an excellent place to develop those skills. I view church as a laboratory. We try to figure out how to create loving community on a small scale, and then we use what we’ve learned to try to transform the rest of the world. If we can’t make it work here, where we share common principles and a covenant to love each other, what hope is there for our world? We need to stay at the table and do the hard work of making peace here, so that we can do it outside.
This congregation is thriving today, 200 years after its founding, because people stayed at the table. In my eleven years, I’ve seen members whose persistent advocacy of a minority viewpoint eventually won over the rest of us and led us to do things of which we were very proud. We have a handicap access ramp, we are a Welcoming Congregation, we have Joys and Concerns in our worship service, we have taken public stands on issues, we have chairs that can be rearranged instead of fixed pews - all because people stayed at the table through the disagreements – and there were disagreements on all of these! - and helped us change and grow.
In any organization of at least two people, conflict is inevitable. It shows that people care. Sometimes conflicts cannot be resolved and people feel they have to leave the table because the wounds are too deep, the disagreements too fundamental, and the emotional energy required to maintain the relationship too great. But I encourage you to try really hard to stay at the table when things get tough. And encourage those who disagree with you to stay, too. We can be the church we want to be – and the world we want to be - if we stay at the table.
When Darcey gave her sermon last month about “Watching Over the Love,” I found myself nodding in agreement she spoke about valentine number seven, “Stay at the table.” She was talking about persevering through church conflict.
Church is the last place we want to have to deal with conflict. We have enough stress in our lives outside of church – in our relationships, where we work, in other volunteer organizations. We come here to find love and peace. And we do find a lot of love and peace, but occasionally we also find conflict. Because we expect church to be a haven from the stress of life, conflict in church can be especially disappointing and disillusioning. It’s very tempting to give up and walk out when things get difficult.
During my first five years as a member of UUCAS, we had two significant conflicts. Since childhood I have been afraid of conflict, and the early experiences at UUCAS confirmed my worst fears: that conflict means that relationships will fall apart. Some members – including me - considered leaving the congregation, and several of them actually did leave.
Those painful events preceded my term as president of this congregation. My four years were, thankfully, relatively smooth sailing. But disagreements always arose, and, as president, I had to learn to deal with them. While I’m still not completely comfortable with conflict, I now know that it does not mean that the world is coming to an end. On the contrary, it can lead to learning and growth – if we stay at the table.
I believe that staying at the table is important for three reasons.
First, healthy disagreements help us find better answers. When dissenters leave, we lose important perspectives. I am constantly amazed by the diversity of thought among UUs. I’ve heard issues that I considered “no-brainers” debated hotly at General Assembly and within our own congregation. I would think, “Who wouldn’t agree with this proposal?” – and of course someone always does. And what I thought would be a thirty-minute congregational meeting turns into an hour and a half! But the dissenting opinions always open my eyes to ways of looking at the issue that I had never considered. Because those with opposing views chose to stay at the table, we were able find a better path.
Second, we can be the church we want to be only if the people who see us going off track are willing to push us back on track. Last month we welcomed new members with the following words:
“This congregation charges you to use your fresh and new perspectives to remind us when we seem to be losing our way. Evaluate our words and acts by the words we have just read together. Remind us when we have overlooked them.”
We warn our new members that we don’t always live up to our highest ideals. That shouldn’t be a surprise - we are human, after all. We ask them to stay at the table when we don’t appear to be walking the talk and to help us to put things right.
Finally, staying at the table is important because our world desperately needs people who can resolve conflict peacefully and constructively, and church is an excellent place to develop those skills. I view church as a laboratory. We try to figure out how to create loving community on a small scale, and then we use what we’ve learned to try to transform the rest of the world. If we can’t make it work here, where we share common principles and a covenant to love each other, what hope is there for our world? We need to stay at the table and do the hard work of making peace here, so that we can do it outside.
This congregation is thriving today, 200 years after its founding, because people stayed at the table. In my eleven years, I’ve seen members whose persistent advocacy of a minority viewpoint eventually won over the rest of us and led us to do things of which we were very proud. We have a handicap access ramp, we are a Welcoming Congregation, we have Joys and Concerns in our worship service, we have taken public stands on issues, we have chairs that can be rearranged instead of fixed pews - all because people stayed at the table through the disagreements – and there were disagreements on all of these! - and helped us change and grow.
In any organization of at least two people, conflict is inevitable. It shows that people care. Sometimes conflicts cannot be resolved and people feel they have to leave the table because the wounds are too deep, the disagreements too fundamental, and the emotional energy required to maintain the relationship too great. But I encourage you to try really hard to stay at the table when things get tough. And encourage those who disagree with you to stay, too. We can be the church we want to be – and the world we want to be - if we stay at the table.
Response to "Watching Over the Love" - Elaine Lovegreen
Elaine Lovegreen:
I APPRECIATE BEING ASKED BY THE WORSHIP TEAM TO TAKE PART IN THIS SERVICE, AS A RESPONSE TO DARCEY’S VALENTINE’S SERMON, “WATCHING OVER THE LOVE”
AS TIME MOVES FORWARD, IT IS SO EASY TO FORGET A LOT OF THE DETAILS, OR HOW OR WHY THINGS PLAYED OUT THE WAY THEY DID.
IT’S EASY TO RECRIMINATE YOURSELF OR OTHERS AND THINK “I SHOULD HAVE DONE THINGS DIFFERENTLY” OR “IF ONLY WE HADN’T …..”
IT HAS BEEN A GOOD EXERCISE FOR ME TO REVISIT THE ACTUAL RECORDS, AND BE REMINDED OF THE VERY CAREFUL, CONSCIENTIOUS, SENSITIVE AND DEDICATED EFFORTS OF OUR BOARD MEMBERS AND OUR CONGREGATION DURING A TIME OF CRISES.
MY APPROACH TO PLANNING WHAT I’D SAY HAS BEEN METHODICAL AND SYSTEMATIC.
FIRST I RE-READ DARCEY’S SERMON, NOTING THE VALENTINE’S “GIFTS” SHE HIGHLIGHTED.
THEN I READ THE NEWSLETTERS WITH THE PRESIDENT’S COLUMNS I WROTE DURING MY TERM FROM 6/2000 TO 6/03
IT’S BEEN INTERESTING TO REMEMBER THE TONE AND ATMOSPHERE OF UUCAS DURING THAT TIME.
AS I’VE SAID, WE WENT THROUGH SOME DIFFICULT AND TUMULTUOUS TIMES.
LET ME TAKE A FEW MOMENTS HERE TO TAKE YOU DOWN MEMORY LANE, AND REMIND YOU OF WHAT WAS HAPPENING AT THAT TIME:
I HAD BEEN ON THE BOARD AS A TRUSTEE, WITH WILL TRIPOLI AS OUR PRESIDENT IN THE SPRING OF 2000.
WE WERE STILL RECOVERING FROM THE LOSS OF BOB ALLEN, A DYNAMIC AND CHARISMATIC LEADER WHO WAS GREATLY-LOVED.
LEE RICHARDS WAS OUR MINISTER AT THAT TIME
WILL HAD BECOME PRES. AT BOB’S DEATH; THEN WILL MOVED AWAY AND I WAS VOTED PRESIDENT.
I FELT VERY NEW AND UNTRIED; BUT ACCEPTED THE ROLE DUTIFULLY.
WE BEGAN A MEGA-PROCESS OF SELF-EVALUATION, PARTLY DUE TO MY READING OF A BOOK – “BELONGING” BY THE UUA ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A CONGREGATIONAL MEMBER – ABOUT THE BENEFITS, EXPECTATIONS, AND OBLIGATIONS OF MEMBERSHIP
THEN 911 HAPPENED; AND JARRED THE WORLD
IT WAS THEN THAT I BEGAN TO SIGN MY COLUMNS WITH “NAMASTE” – A HINDI SALUTATION THAT LOOSELY MEANS “I SALUTE THE SPIRIT WITHIN YOU, WHICH IS ALSO WITHIN ME” BECAUSE I FELT IT WAS A SACRED AND SOLEMN WAY OF RECOGNIZING THE INHERENT WORTH OF EVERYONE
THE FOLLOWING SPRING LEE RESIGNED SUDDENLY, AS WE WERE NEGOTIATING WITH HIM TO EXTEND HIS CONTRACT WITH US,
SO WE WERE, AGAIN, THROWN FOR A LOOP
WE CALLED ON JPD AND R. SPECK FOR CRISIS INTERVENTION AND HELP PROCESSING WHERE WE WERE AND HOW TO BEGIN HEALING
THEN THE IRAQ WAR BEGAN, AND WE OPENED OUR CHURCH TO THE LARGER COMMUNITY WEEKLY
JACE CAME TO US AS OUR INTERIM MINISTER
THEN WE DID BEGIN A PERIOD OF HEALING AND MOVING FORWARD, WHICH WAS THE THEME I HAD ESTABLISHED FOR THE YEAR 02-03
IT WAS A DIFFICULT TIME.
AND IN READING MY COLUMNS, I TOOK NOTE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS AND THEN STUDIED WHICH OF DARCEY’S MAIN TENETS WERE REFLECTED IN THE ACTIONS AND PROCESSES OF THE BOARD.
AND I SAW MANY, MANY CORRELATIONS BETWEEN WHAT WE WERE DOING ON THE BOARD AND THE EXPRESSIONS OF LOVE DARCEY PUT FORTH.
THE PRINCIPLES DARCEY IDENTIFIED ARE:
1. Make our expectations explicit when starting a new project
2. Listen so that everyone feels heard;
3. Direct communication,
4. Speak the truth with love
5. Good boundaries
6. Share the work
7. Ask for what you want and need
8. Staying at the table
9. Use “I” statements
10. No insulting or name-calling
11. Pay attention to process and to feelings
12. Uphold your agreements
I FOUND MANY, MANY DIRECT CONNECTIONS BETWEEN EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE OBJECTIVES AND THE WORK OF THE BOARD.
# 11 GOT MORE ATTENTION THAN ANY OTHERS – WITH SO MANY INITIATIVES AND CONSCIOUS EFFORTS TO PAY ATTENTION TO PROCESS AND TO FEELINGS;
WE STARTED A LOT OF NEW THINGS – OPENSPEAK AT BoT; “TALK WITH THE BOARD” MONTHLY; REGULARLY ASKING PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANTED, NEEDED AND THOUGHT
MANY EXAMPLES WERE SEEN OF #2 – LISTEN SO EVERYONE FEELS HEARD; AND #8 STAY AT THE TABLE; AND #7 ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT AND NEED, AND #6 SHARE THE WORK, AND #12, UPHOLD YOUR AGREEMENTS
I TRULY SAW EVIDENCE OF EVERY SINGLE POINT - I’M WISHING I HAD A LOT MORE TIME TO TALK ABOUT IT
BUT I’LL END WITH A SUMMARY OF MY RECOLLECTIONS AND HOW THEY’VE MADE CLEARER TO ME WHAT HAD FADED FOR ME PERSONALLY AND PERHAPS FOR ALL OF YOU WHO WERE HERE AT THAT TIME. AND A NEW AWARENESS FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE NEWER.
WE’VE HAD TOUGH AND PAINFUL TIMES;
WE, THE LEADERSHIP, DID OUR BEST TO “WATCH OVER THE LOVE” WITH RESPECT, SENSITIVITY, DEDICATION AND DILIGENT EFFORTS.
ALL THIS HELPED MOVE US TO A STRONGER AND HEALTHIER PLACE
I SEE US NOW CONTINUE TO GROW IN STRENGTH AND VITALITY, WHICH IS WONDERFUL TO SEE AND EXPERIENCE.
I WAS PROUD OF OUR BoT AND THE WHOLE CONGREGATION THEN
AND AM PROUD STILL OF THIS CONGREGATION AND THE PART I HAD IN WATCHING OVER THE LOVE WHEN I WAS GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO “STEER THE SHIP FOR AWHILE.”
NAMASTE
I APPRECIATE BEING ASKED BY THE WORSHIP TEAM TO TAKE PART IN THIS SERVICE, AS A RESPONSE TO DARCEY’S VALENTINE’S SERMON, “WATCHING OVER THE LOVE”
AS TIME MOVES FORWARD, IT IS SO EASY TO FORGET A LOT OF THE DETAILS, OR HOW OR WHY THINGS PLAYED OUT THE WAY THEY DID.
IT’S EASY TO RECRIMINATE YOURSELF OR OTHERS AND THINK “I SHOULD HAVE DONE THINGS DIFFERENTLY” OR “IF ONLY WE HADN’T …..”
IT HAS BEEN A GOOD EXERCISE FOR ME TO REVISIT THE ACTUAL RECORDS, AND BE REMINDED OF THE VERY CAREFUL, CONSCIENTIOUS, SENSITIVE AND DEDICATED EFFORTS OF OUR BOARD MEMBERS AND OUR CONGREGATION DURING A TIME OF CRISES.
MY APPROACH TO PLANNING WHAT I’D SAY HAS BEEN METHODICAL AND SYSTEMATIC.
FIRST I RE-READ DARCEY’S SERMON, NOTING THE VALENTINE’S “GIFTS” SHE HIGHLIGHTED.
THEN I READ THE NEWSLETTERS WITH THE PRESIDENT’S COLUMNS I WROTE DURING MY TERM FROM 6/2000 TO 6/03
IT’S BEEN INTERESTING TO REMEMBER THE TONE AND ATMOSPHERE OF UUCAS DURING THAT TIME.
AS I’VE SAID, WE WENT THROUGH SOME DIFFICULT AND TUMULTUOUS TIMES.
LET ME TAKE A FEW MOMENTS HERE TO TAKE YOU DOWN MEMORY LANE, AND REMIND YOU OF WHAT WAS HAPPENING AT THAT TIME:
I HAD BEEN ON THE BOARD AS A TRUSTEE, WITH WILL TRIPOLI AS OUR PRESIDENT IN THE SPRING OF 2000.
WE WERE STILL RECOVERING FROM THE LOSS OF BOB ALLEN, A DYNAMIC AND CHARISMATIC LEADER WHO WAS GREATLY-LOVED.
LEE RICHARDS WAS OUR MINISTER AT THAT TIME
WILL HAD BECOME PRES. AT BOB’S DEATH; THEN WILL MOVED AWAY AND I WAS VOTED PRESIDENT.
I FELT VERY NEW AND UNTRIED; BUT ACCEPTED THE ROLE DUTIFULLY.
WE BEGAN A MEGA-PROCESS OF SELF-EVALUATION, PARTLY DUE TO MY READING OF A BOOK – “BELONGING” BY THE UUA ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A CONGREGATIONAL MEMBER – ABOUT THE BENEFITS, EXPECTATIONS, AND OBLIGATIONS OF MEMBERSHIP
THEN 911 HAPPENED; AND JARRED THE WORLD
IT WAS THEN THAT I BEGAN TO SIGN MY COLUMNS WITH “NAMASTE” – A HINDI SALUTATION THAT LOOSELY MEANS “I SALUTE THE SPIRIT WITHIN YOU, WHICH IS ALSO WITHIN ME” BECAUSE I FELT IT WAS A SACRED AND SOLEMN WAY OF RECOGNIZING THE INHERENT WORTH OF EVERYONE
THE FOLLOWING SPRING LEE RESIGNED SUDDENLY, AS WE WERE NEGOTIATING WITH HIM TO EXTEND HIS CONTRACT WITH US,
SO WE WERE, AGAIN, THROWN FOR A LOOP
WE CALLED ON JPD AND R. SPECK FOR CRISIS INTERVENTION AND HELP PROCESSING WHERE WE WERE AND HOW TO BEGIN HEALING
THEN THE IRAQ WAR BEGAN, AND WE OPENED OUR CHURCH TO THE LARGER COMMUNITY WEEKLY
JACE CAME TO US AS OUR INTERIM MINISTER
THEN WE DID BEGIN A PERIOD OF HEALING AND MOVING FORWARD, WHICH WAS THE THEME I HAD ESTABLISHED FOR THE YEAR 02-03
IT WAS A DIFFICULT TIME.
AND IN READING MY COLUMNS, I TOOK NOTE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS AND THEN STUDIED WHICH OF DARCEY’S MAIN TENETS WERE REFLECTED IN THE ACTIONS AND PROCESSES OF THE BOARD.
AND I SAW MANY, MANY CORRELATIONS BETWEEN WHAT WE WERE DOING ON THE BOARD AND THE EXPRESSIONS OF LOVE DARCEY PUT FORTH.
THE PRINCIPLES DARCEY IDENTIFIED ARE:
1. Make our expectations explicit when starting a new project
2. Listen so that everyone feels heard;
3. Direct communication,
4. Speak the truth with love
5. Good boundaries
6. Share the work
7. Ask for what you want and need
8. Staying at the table
9. Use “I” statements
10. No insulting or name-calling
11. Pay attention to process and to feelings
12. Uphold your agreements
I FOUND MANY, MANY DIRECT CONNECTIONS BETWEEN EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE OBJECTIVES AND THE WORK OF THE BOARD.
# 11 GOT MORE ATTENTION THAN ANY OTHERS – WITH SO MANY INITIATIVES AND CONSCIOUS EFFORTS TO PAY ATTENTION TO PROCESS AND TO FEELINGS;
WE STARTED A LOT OF NEW THINGS – OPENSPEAK AT BoT; “TALK WITH THE BOARD” MONTHLY; REGULARLY ASKING PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANTED, NEEDED AND THOUGHT
MANY EXAMPLES WERE SEEN OF #2 – LISTEN SO EVERYONE FEELS HEARD; AND #8 STAY AT THE TABLE; AND #7 ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT AND NEED, AND #6 SHARE THE WORK, AND #12, UPHOLD YOUR AGREEMENTS
I TRULY SAW EVIDENCE OF EVERY SINGLE POINT - I’M WISHING I HAD A LOT MORE TIME TO TALK ABOUT IT
BUT I’LL END WITH A SUMMARY OF MY RECOLLECTIONS AND HOW THEY’VE MADE CLEARER TO ME WHAT HAD FADED FOR ME PERSONALLY AND PERHAPS FOR ALL OF YOU WHO WERE HERE AT THAT TIME. AND A NEW AWARENESS FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE NEWER.
WE’VE HAD TOUGH AND PAINFUL TIMES;
WE, THE LEADERSHIP, DID OUR BEST TO “WATCH OVER THE LOVE” WITH RESPECT, SENSITIVITY, DEDICATION AND DILIGENT EFFORTS.
ALL THIS HELPED MOVE US TO A STRONGER AND HEALTHIER PLACE
I SEE US NOW CONTINUE TO GROW IN STRENGTH AND VITALITY, WHICH IS WONDERFUL TO SEE AND EXPERIENCE.
I WAS PROUD OF OUR BoT AND THE WHOLE CONGREGATION THEN
AND AM PROUD STILL OF THIS CONGREGATION AND THE PART I HAD IN WATCHING OVER THE LOVE WHEN I WAS GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO “STEER THE SHIP FOR AWHILE.”
NAMASTE
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