The pop song goes:
“I'm not a coward, I've just never been tested.
I'd like to think that if I was I would pass.
…I've never had to knock on wood, but I know someone who has.
Which makes me wonder if I could.”
Today I want to tell you a story about our Unitarian Universalist Publishing house Beacon Press, about a time they were tested, a story which challenges us all to wonder if we could be brave enough to pass such a test.
Our Beacon Press was born as an in-house publisher for The American Unitarian Association, and in 1900 took it’s name from Beacon Hill on which the offices of the AUA were situated, and where the UUA offices are still located today. The name had metaphoric significance as well; you see on that hill, during the formative years of our nation, a tar bucket was hung on a pole at the peak. If enemies were approaching, the tar was lit, and the bucket would be hoisted to the top of the pole. This Unitarian publisher was to be a press empowered to shine a light on truth in troubled times. Their motto “In luce veritatis or ‘ In the light of truth’” would guide their work.
Said Walter Kring in the Christian Register (Which was the equivalent of today’s UU World) “The Beacon Press has always felt that what is printed is of far more important than whether the balance sheet is in the red or the black. Today the Beacon Press is known by many as one of the most courageous presses in America.” Beacon published such important and challenging works as the Autobiography of Mohandas Gandhi (1957) and Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” (1962).
Gobin Stair, who became the third director of Beacon press in 1962, oversaw the publishing of several volumes that questioned the war in Vietnam: Howard Zinn’s “Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal” and Tatum and Tuchinsky’s “Guide to the Draft” (1969) which helped young men avoid being drafted. So when Beacon was approached with a request to publish the Pentagon Papers in 1971, the moral imperative was clear. Allison Trzop, a grad student at Emerson College, found the story compelling enough to wrote a history of the episode as her Master’s thesis in 2006. It is her scholarship that brought this story to a new generation of UUs, and her work that I share with you today. Let’s start from the beginning.
In 1967 Defense Secretary Robert McNamara wanted to put together “a full history of U.S. decision making on Vietnam back as far as the 1940s.” He put together a team of 36 people and gave them access to all kinds of Defense department files, along with outside sources- newspapers and books. The task force director, Leslie Gelb, descried it as “a history based solely on documents – checked and rechecked with ant-like diligence.” The final version was 7000 pages long and was meant for internal use only. Most of the people who worked on the project only saw small sections in their area of specialization, but Daniel Ellsberg, a former marine who had worked at both the Pentagon and the Rand Corporation think tank, had access to the whole document. He wrote in his memoirs “It occurred to me that what I had in my safe at Rand was seven thousand pages of documentary evidence of lying, by four presidents and their administrations over twenty-three years, to conceal plans and actions of mass murder. I decided I would stop concealing that myself. I would get it out somehow.”
Ellison, working with a former Rand associate Anthony Russo, photocopied all 7000 pages after-hours at a friend’s Los Angeles office. He leaked the first papers to the New York Times in March of 1971, but the Times sat on them for several months; it wasn’t until June 12 that the first of the papers were printed, and after only 3 days the New York Times was enjoined from publishing any more of the secret papers. It was the first time a U.S. Court had ever silenced a newspaper on grounds of “national Security.” Ellison then gave 2 sets of the documents to the Washington Post. The Post began publishing excerpts right after the Times injunction, but was similarly enjoined. On June 30 in “New York Times Co. v. United States” the Supreme Court heard an appeal, and both injunctions were lifted. The Times took up publishing the excerpts again the next day.
But remember 2 sets of papers were delivered to the Post, to editor Ben Bagdikian. Ellsberg had asked that the second set be given to a member of congress. Ellsberg approached several senators who declined, before Maurice Gravel, the Democratic senator from Alaska agreed to accept the documents. The heavy box of papers was exchanged in the Parking Lot of the Mayflower hotel in Washington DC. Gavel planned to read the papers into the record of the U.S. Senate during a filibuster of a bill that would extend the draft, but the filibuster was blocked because there wasn’t a quorum. Eager to enter the papers into the public record, on June 29 Gravel held an executive session of the Senate Sub-Committee on Buildings and Grounds which he chaired. He read from the papers for three hours and made an impassioned plea for a full disclosure to the public. Then, “with tears streaming down his face”, entered the documents into the public record. [p. 13] This meant that technically the papers were now in the public domain, but Sen. Randolph of West Virginia refused to authorize payment of a stenographer for a public record, blocking publication by the Government Printing office.
The New York times continued to print excerpts of these papers as “The Vietnam Archive” but Senator Gavel wanted to see publication of the full history. He approached publisher after publisher until thirty-some had turned him down. He approached first the larger publishers like Houghton Mifflin and Simon and Schuster, then he approached University and scholarly presses such as Harvard and MIT. Gavel was one of 2 Unitarian Universalists in the Senate at that time, but it was one of his aids who reminded him that his own denomination had a publishing house.
Beacon’s Editor in Chief, Arnold Tovell, and the director, Govin Stair agreed to look at the papers. Stair said in an interview “Our previous order was to publish those good books which are important books which the commercial presses won’t publish…and we were evading it in every way we could! … I had to tell my trustees that this was a principle, and that it was a silly thing to do, but I thought we should do it. But they had to know that it would cost ‘em. I stood up at that damned meeting and said it just as simply as that.”
And so on August 17, Beacon announced that it would print the Pentagon Papers, knowing it was the “biggest venture in the history of the small publishing firm.” Imagine, what they had been presented with was 7000 pages of “photocopied transcripts” with no particular organization. Said Gobin Stair, “It was an endless pile of notes. Nobody had shaped it.”
In addition to the huge editing task, there was the political stress as well. Stair recalls a phone call from Richard Nixon. “’Gobin’, said Nixon, ‘we have been investigating you around Boston, and we know you are apparently a pretty nice and smart guy…I hear you are going to do that set of papers by that guy Gravel’… The result was that as the guy in charge at Beacon,” Stair Recalled “I was in real trouble. Before we had decided yes or no, we were told not to do it. We were publishing books we like and that we think we can sell, and to be told by Nixon… not to do it, convinced me before I had [completely] decided, that it was a book to do.” But stair admitted feeling anxiety as well saying “I very much wish somebody else were publishing this.”
On September 17 two men from the defense Department walked in to Beacon Press and asked to see Gobin Stair. They demanded that the Pentagon Papers be returned. Before leaving they ran paper through all of Beacon Press’s photocopiers to see if the photocopies had been made on Beacon’s machines. Stair remembered the event as “Ominous and intimidating.”
The sense of fear spread. Beacon asked typesetters to give bids without knowing the exact nature of the project. When the project was revealed, the lowest bidder dropped out saying he was afraid of losing government contracts if he typeset the Pentagon Papers. The next lowest bid was $10,000 higher. They were off to a rough start.
Then, just 12 days before the Beacon press version arrived in bookstores, the Government Printing Office released its own set of the Pentagon Papers. (Remember, they had previously refused to do so). Now the government version did not even have page numbers, and was heavily censored. Said Gavel “You’ve got to appreciate that the decision to publish the papers by the Defense Department had to be a Whitehouse decision. It had to be a spiteful decision to punish… [Beacon] personally.”
On October 22 Beacon released a four volume set in cloth and paper. The New York Times Book reviewer proclaimed the Gravel edition “the best version.” At the release party Senator Gravel said in his speech “I was prepared to give up my Senate seat so that the American people could have these papers. Nothing but my family is dearer to me than my Senate seat – I’ve wanted to be a Senator since I was 12 years old. This” he said, holding up a copy of the book, “is my only pay-off…If there’s any question that I’d do it again, I would. I’d do it again and again and again and again.”
A week later, FBI agents walked into the New England Merchants National Bank of Boston, and asked to look at all UUA records for the past 6 months. The Bank refused, asking to see a subpoena. Two days later they FBI came back with a Subpoena for documents from all 12 of the UUA accounts. The president of the UUA, Dr. Robert West issued a statement that “Serious questions of church-state separation and freedom of the press are raised, in addition to the general issues of government intimidation and repression of dissent.” [p. 30] Senator Gavel and the UUA legal council requested an injunction based on Senator Gavel’s senatorial immunity, and the US court of appeals stopped the investigation while awaiting the ruling about Gravel’s immunity.
The respite was not long lived. On January 7 of 1972, the federal court of Appeals in Boston ruled that Gravel’s immunity would not protect Beacon press. UUA attorneys appealed to the Supreme Court, and asked for an injunction based on a violation of religious liberty. The FBI withdrew it’s subpoena, but Beacon learned that the government planned to file criminal charges for (1) “receiving concealing, retaining and conveying stolen government property (2) receiving, retaining, communication and failure to deliver documents relating to the national defense and (3) interstate transport of stolen property of a value in excess of $5,000.” [p.32]
Said Edwin Lane (chair of the Beacon Board of directors at the time, who later found that his office phone had been tapped) “My greatest concern has always been that we could be completely exonerated by the courts and still be bankrupted if the Government chose to pit it’s fast financial resources against our small denominational publishing house… We could win every court battle and still be destroyed in the process.” [35] They were right to worry about the fiscal impact of the fight- Gravel’s attorney fees were more than $75,000 and the senate declined any funds towards his defense. The UUA paid more than $60,000 for Beacon Press legal fees.
Then on January 11, a subpoena was issued for Stair. UUA president Dr. Robert West sent a letter to religious leaders across the country warning that the FBI had compelled the disclosure of the names of their members and contributors. In that letter he argued that “An individual citizen’s decision to join and support a religious organization should not be subject to government investigation.” West’s ongoing outreach lead to the support by many faith groups, including the US Catholic Conference who offered legal assistance, and the Conference of American Rabbis which issued a statement against the government’s unconstitutional search saying “the end of religious freedom as we have know it could be near at hand.” [p. 37]
Letters of support came in from UUs around the country, some with donations from individuals or offerings taken up by congregations. I was touched to note that Dan Lion, founding minister of the congregation I served in Palo Alto sent a letter reading “I gave a 5 minute pulpit editorial on the UUA and the Pentagon Papers. Result: a request that a second offering be taken up. Hence the enclosed check.” West toured the country keeping the story in the public eye, and sought the support of news media and book publishers. The ALA issued a resolution of support for Beacon Press. Said West “The librarians were the most intensely concerned people I encountered in this who weren’t Unitarian Universalists”
But at the same time the UUA received hate mail from Unitarian Universalists condemning their actions- they felt being in possession of stolen goods was not solid moral ground to stand on. Members were concerned that the UUA stood on shaky financial ground as well. The initial investment in the publishing was $200,000, and by June of 1972 less than 1/3 had been recouped. Fortunately the Veach program made a loan of $100,000 to cover the costs, and later another loan for $300,000 for operating capitol. The press continued to flounder financially, cutting staff, new editions and publicity.
Then in June the Supreme court turned down the final UUA appeal- they would not be covered under Gravel’s immunity. The Association of American Publishers called an emergency meeting, and called for a $100,000 Beacon press legal defense fund. But in that very month the attention of the justice department turned to focus on the break in at DNC headquarters at the Watergate Hotel.
As the Watergate investigation dominated the press, Ellsberg and Beacon Press waited to exhale. Finally by 1973 it seemed the Pentagon Papers were old news. Charges against Ellsberg and Russo were dismissed in Los Angeles. All hoped the case would not be pursued back east. The battle everyone had been bracing for never materialized. Said Stair in an interview later that year “If the Pentagon Papers came to us now, I’m not sure we could publish them.” [p. 46] But reflecting back in 2001 he called it “a high point in Beacon’s fulfilling its role as a public pulpit for proclaiming Unitarian Universalist Principles.”
What is the moral of this story? Beacon Press needn’t have gotten involved; 30some other publishers had turned down the opportunity for this small but noble role in the story of the Vietnam war. But Beacon’s sense of mission and principle was clear- if ever there was a time when this country needed the light of truth it was surely needed to guide their way out of the quagmire of war. But more importantly, Senators, publishers, typesetters, universities, were all afraid of retribution if they participated in the publishing of these documents. Says Edwin Lane, whose office phone was tapped while he was Chair of the Beacon Board of Directors “It’s tragic when a nation, dedicated and committed to the principle of freedom, reaches such a point that the greatest fear we have is from the government itself.” Sometimes you just have to stand up to bullies.
In the midst of conflict and drama, when tensions are high and things are happening fast, our body is hard wired not to act on principle, but to act for our own survival. Our sense of clarity of purpose must be so clear, so sure, that even with our heart racing we ground our actions and choices in our principles. Now that 38 years have passed, it’s easy to be proud of Beacon Press for making the “right choice.” But what must it have felt like to serve on that Board of Trustees, watching the Press your were charged with teeter on the edge of financial ruin, facing off with the Department of Defense. Would any of us have the courage of our convictions to make that kind of choice, for ourselves, for our congregation?
I think that song by the Mighty Might Bosstones hits the nail right on the head:
I'm not a coward, I've just never been tested.
I'd like to think that if I was I would pass…
I've never had to knock on wood, but I know someone who has.
Which makes me wonder if I could.
makes me wonder if I could.
May this story work in our hearts and give us courage whenever we are tested to stand up on behalf of truth.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Monday, December 14, 2009
The Soul of Friendship (December 6, 2009)
A few weeks ago I had the privilege of hearing Author Thomas Moore address the Convocation of UU Ministers in Canada. He was talking about how we tend and feed the soul, and suggested that the most important way we can sustain our souls is friendship. I was, I have to admit, feeling kind of lonely at that moment, kind of empty. I felt suddenly as if someone had mentioned water to a thirsty person. I mean, sure I was surrounded by 400 amazing colleagues, but as I had been wearing your “I am a professional” shoes for 4 days, and trying to weigh everything I said so it wouldn’t be taken wrong in a professional context, I was starting to long for my pink fleece thermal slippers and an equally comfortable companion. In his book Soul Mates (out in book exchange right now) Moore writes “We may believe that friendship, like so many things of the soul, is tangential to life, an added boon, or an accessory… Friendship makes a major contribution to the process of soul-making, and without it we feel a painful lack and a debilitating weakness of heart. (p. 93)
Think of a close friend from childhood. You could play together for hours and hours and still be disappointed when your parent came to take you home. In his poem called “Childhood friends” the 13th century Persian poet Rumi writes:
“A close childhood friend once came to visit Joseph.
They had shared those secrets children tell each other
when they’re lying on the pillows at night
before they go to sleep.
These two were completely truthful with each other.”
["Rumi and the Celts", by Coleman Barks. Parabola, Winter 2004 p. 28].
As I heard Thomas Moore talk I realized how the soul hungers for such a friendship. Yet somehow as an adult I had kind of gotten the idea that responsible grown ups didn’t crave that kind of friendship, that it wouldn’t have the centrality it did when we were children. It was so affirming to hear Moore talk about the importance of Friendship not just to our “networks” or to our social life, but to our SOUL.
Moore went on to talk about Jesus’ relationship with his disciples, how he called them friend, and how he often ate and cooked and even drank wine with them. Friendship was in the fabric of Jesus’ ministry. Ivone Gebara, Latin American Eco-Feminist Theologian, has written extensively about the importance of “relatedness” in theology- She writes “God is relationship. And it is by means of relationships and of relational behaviors that we speak of God... Long ago Saint John said that those who do not love their brothers and sisters do not love God!” [Ivone Gebara, Longing for Running Water. p. 104-5]
In both theology and friendship, there is a dance between separateness and unity, a dance where two become one. This dance echoes our relationship with God, reflects something of the nature of the universe, and is present in our relationships with one another. This dance has been explored by theologians and poets, school children and mystics for as long as anyone can say.
It should come as no surprise, then, that all the spiritual traditions I know lift up friendship as an important spiritual practice. The Sufi’s say there are 3 ways to relate to mystery: Prayer, meditation, and “Sohbet” (which can be translated as exchange or conversation.) Buddhism in particular lifts up the importance of a “Dharma Buddy”, someone who will be a companion to you on your spiritual path. And when a community of friends comes together with the shared purpose of spiritual growth, this is a “Sangha”
So why is friendship so important, and what makes a good friendship?
What moves me in that Rumi poem about Joseph’s childhood friend is the intimacy there. When someone has heard your secrets and you can trust them, this is very precious. The soul craves a friend who has seen your kitchen messy and still wants to be your friend. How precious is a friend who can see you as a real person, not some ideal, not a front, and who shows you their own true self. And as a related quality, friends are those who forgive one another again and again. A friend is not necessarily someone who likes your weaknesses, but one who does not let those weaknesses come between you. Because we can’t be truly intimate with one another, we can’t get really close unless we are willing to be seen in our whole self, both for our strength and our weaknesses. Says Moore “Without intimacy, soul goes starving, for the closeness provided by intimate relationships fulfills the soul’s very nature.” [p. 93]
We’ve all heard the saying “A sorrow shared is a sorrow divided,” I hope everyone in this room who has ever grieved or been in pain has felt the flood of relief when a friend is able to enter your solitude, and just be present with you in a hard moment. Sometimes we don’t even realize how deep our pain is until the companionship of a friend makes us feel safe enough to bring those emotions to the surface. It continues “a joy shared is a joy multiplied.” During my Clinical Pastoral Education the other minister’s-in-training and I met for lunch every day. As we studied pastoral care in a hospital setting, we had the privilege of being with patients in their most scary moments, and in times of grief . It was a challenge for all of us, and it was such a relief to have companionship on that journey. One day after a powerful morning of work, we had to cut lunch short and so found ourselves at Burger King, where there was a row of cardboard crowns set out for customers. After the kind of morning we had all had, we felt compelled to put them on and in so doing just cracked ourselves up. One of my colleagues said conspiratorially “I think the other customers are looking at us.” Another replied “They are wishing they had friends like this.” It is much less funny to wear a crown when dining alone, but downright hilarious when in the company of 3 friends who have your back no matter how foolish you look.
A good friendship is reciprocal. Each listens and each talks. Each helps and each is helped. There is a balance in the relationship that makes it sustainable. Each brings a gift to the friendship. I have to admit I get a little too carried away with the seriousness of things sometimes, and with my passion for my work. I surely am grateful for a friend who can make me laugh or distract me from my e-mail. What a blessing is a friend who can help you be a better person, a more well-rounded person. I have heard it said that on your spiritual journey it is good to always have a friend who you admire who can teach you something, and a friend whom you, in turn, teach. But I think the best friendships are those where each admires and learns from the other.
Another way that friendship becomes a spiritual practice, is that friends act as a mirror for one another. When we are in relationship we see ourselves better, or in a new way. Says Joseph’s childhood friend as that Rumi Poem continues
“I have brought you a mirror.
Look at yourself and remember me.”
["Rumi and the Celts", by Coleman Barks. Parabola, Winter 2004 p. 28].
The friend reflects back to you your good qualities, but also those parts of yourself that need strengthening. When your friend is driving you nuts, there is probably something you need to work on in yourself. This is when friendship gets hard- when we have to keep looking in that mirror where we see ourselves in our places that need to grow.
The shadow side of friendship is loneliness. I bet everyone in this room has experienced periods of your life when you were lonely. Periods when you were a stranger in a strange land, or had lost a really close friend. Or maybe you were so deeply in grief or depression you just could not reach out to connect with others, or couldn’t participate in the genial social conversation that stays above deep pain. Loneliness is real, and the reality of that pain, that emptiness gives more power to Thomas Moore’s words about how the soul needs connection. But the spiritual traditions speak to this as well. The Sufi tradition holds that the spiritual path of conversation can be practiced without another person. In that lonely time we cry out into the emptiness we feel, perhaps we cry out to God if that is part of our theology. Moore says that the emptying that life brings us unbidden is an important part of our spiritual growth. The emptying makes space for us to know ourselves it may bring us closer to mystery or to the divine. Loneliness brings with it the mandate that we come to know our own darkest selves. It asks us to search for whatever it is in this living universe that is present with us even when we are alone. If you are willing to follow Gebara’s logic, that God is Relationship, or that the fabric of the universe is fundamentally relational, we can never be truly alone, even in our deepest loneliness.
Sometimes that loneliness makes room for new friendships. What a delightful surprise it is when you and this one person of the many people you interact with each day are both free for coffee tomorrow. You both have a friend-sized whole in your lives, and this other interesting, friendly person seems to enjoy your company. Becoming close friends with a new person is a tremendous and delightful gift that does not happen often. It is both ordinary and extraordinary.
But not all friendships have the same depth of intimacy. Each friendship brings with it a different gift. Someone who is very fun to watch football with, might not interested in the issues of hydro-fracking, or the implications of process theology. Not everyone wants to hear the minutia of your yoga practice, or stand in a loud club for 3 hours listening to your favorite band. Looking to that Minister’s convocation in Canada, though I missed the flannel slipper intimacy of my home life, I did certainly have friends there. I mean, who knows better about the strange life of a UU Minster than another UU minister? I re-connected with friends I had known since all the way back in my seminary days, friends from my years serving on the West Coast, and new just-sprouting friendships with the ministers here in my new District. There were folks there I knew I could call on if I had a crisis in ministry, and folks who could make me laugh. Together our friendships weave a web that supports and sustains us as no one person could. But all are a gift, and need to be nurtured and cared for.
There’s a lovely story from the Hasidic tradition, about two Rabbis who were reunited after being apart for over a year and greeted each other with the words ‘Blessed art thou, Oh Lord our God, King of the Universe, who raises the dead. ” One of the younger students asked why the prayer for greeting a friend one hasn’t seen in over a year is a blessing to God for reviving the dead. The teachers explained that each person on earth has a unique light “burning for them in the world above” and when two friends meet their light is united, and out of that light an angel is born. But when the friends are apart for more than a year, the angel weakens and wastes away. So on reuniting they bless the dead to revive the angel. And just as the Rabbi finished speaking all heard the sound of rustling wings, and knew the angel had been reborn. ["The Angel of Friendship." Parabola, Winter 2004 p. 76].
Our friendships need tending or they will languish and waste away. Our friendships are not tangential, they feed us and challenge us and help us grow. This is why we are here together this morning. To cherish and honor our friendships, to eat and laugh and restore our souls.
Think of a close friend from childhood. You could play together for hours and hours and still be disappointed when your parent came to take you home. In his poem called “Childhood friends” the 13th century Persian poet Rumi writes:
“A close childhood friend once came to visit Joseph.
They had shared those secrets children tell each other
when they’re lying on the pillows at night
before they go to sleep.
These two were completely truthful with each other.”
["Rumi and the Celts", by Coleman Barks. Parabola, Winter 2004 p. 28].
As I heard Thomas Moore talk I realized how the soul hungers for such a friendship. Yet somehow as an adult I had kind of gotten the idea that responsible grown ups didn’t crave that kind of friendship, that it wouldn’t have the centrality it did when we were children. It was so affirming to hear Moore talk about the importance of Friendship not just to our “networks” or to our social life, but to our SOUL.
Moore went on to talk about Jesus’ relationship with his disciples, how he called them friend, and how he often ate and cooked and even drank wine with them. Friendship was in the fabric of Jesus’ ministry. Ivone Gebara, Latin American Eco-Feminist Theologian, has written extensively about the importance of “relatedness” in theology- She writes “God is relationship. And it is by means of relationships and of relational behaviors that we speak of God... Long ago Saint John said that those who do not love their brothers and sisters do not love God!” [Ivone Gebara, Longing for Running Water. p. 104-5]
In both theology and friendship, there is a dance between separateness and unity, a dance where two become one. This dance echoes our relationship with God, reflects something of the nature of the universe, and is present in our relationships with one another. This dance has been explored by theologians and poets, school children and mystics for as long as anyone can say.
It should come as no surprise, then, that all the spiritual traditions I know lift up friendship as an important spiritual practice. The Sufi’s say there are 3 ways to relate to mystery: Prayer, meditation, and “Sohbet” (which can be translated as exchange or conversation.) Buddhism in particular lifts up the importance of a “Dharma Buddy”, someone who will be a companion to you on your spiritual path. And when a community of friends comes together with the shared purpose of spiritual growth, this is a “Sangha”
So why is friendship so important, and what makes a good friendship?
What moves me in that Rumi poem about Joseph’s childhood friend is the intimacy there. When someone has heard your secrets and you can trust them, this is very precious. The soul craves a friend who has seen your kitchen messy and still wants to be your friend. How precious is a friend who can see you as a real person, not some ideal, not a front, and who shows you their own true self. And as a related quality, friends are those who forgive one another again and again. A friend is not necessarily someone who likes your weaknesses, but one who does not let those weaknesses come between you. Because we can’t be truly intimate with one another, we can’t get really close unless we are willing to be seen in our whole self, both for our strength and our weaknesses. Says Moore “Without intimacy, soul goes starving, for the closeness provided by intimate relationships fulfills the soul’s very nature.” [p. 93]
We’ve all heard the saying “A sorrow shared is a sorrow divided,” I hope everyone in this room who has ever grieved or been in pain has felt the flood of relief when a friend is able to enter your solitude, and just be present with you in a hard moment. Sometimes we don’t even realize how deep our pain is until the companionship of a friend makes us feel safe enough to bring those emotions to the surface. It continues “a joy shared is a joy multiplied.” During my Clinical Pastoral Education the other minister’s-in-training and I met for lunch every day. As we studied pastoral care in a hospital setting, we had the privilege of being with patients in their most scary moments, and in times of grief . It was a challenge for all of us, and it was such a relief to have companionship on that journey. One day after a powerful morning of work, we had to cut lunch short and so found ourselves at Burger King, where there was a row of cardboard crowns set out for customers. After the kind of morning we had all had, we felt compelled to put them on and in so doing just cracked ourselves up. One of my colleagues said conspiratorially “I think the other customers are looking at us.” Another replied “They are wishing they had friends like this.” It is much less funny to wear a crown when dining alone, but downright hilarious when in the company of 3 friends who have your back no matter how foolish you look.
A good friendship is reciprocal. Each listens and each talks. Each helps and each is helped. There is a balance in the relationship that makes it sustainable. Each brings a gift to the friendship. I have to admit I get a little too carried away with the seriousness of things sometimes, and with my passion for my work. I surely am grateful for a friend who can make me laugh or distract me from my e-mail. What a blessing is a friend who can help you be a better person, a more well-rounded person. I have heard it said that on your spiritual journey it is good to always have a friend who you admire who can teach you something, and a friend whom you, in turn, teach. But I think the best friendships are those where each admires and learns from the other.
Another way that friendship becomes a spiritual practice, is that friends act as a mirror for one another. When we are in relationship we see ourselves better, or in a new way. Says Joseph’s childhood friend as that Rumi Poem continues
“I have brought you a mirror.
Look at yourself and remember me.”
["Rumi and the Celts", by Coleman Barks. Parabola, Winter 2004 p. 28].
The friend reflects back to you your good qualities, but also those parts of yourself that need strengthening. When your friend is driving you nuts, there is probably something you need to work on in yourself. This is when friendship gets hard- when we have to keep looking in that mirror where we see ourselves in our places that need to grow.
The shadow side of friendship is loneliness. I bet everyone in this room has experienced periods of your life when you were lonely. Periods when you were a stranger in a strange land, or had lost a really close friend. Or maybe you were so deeply in grief or depression you just could not reach out to connect with others, or couldn’t participate in the genial social conversation that stays above deep pain. Loneliness is real, and the reality of that pain, that emptiness gives more power to Thomas Moore’s words about how the soul needs connection. But the spiritual traditions speak to this as well. The Sufi tradition holds that the spiritual path of conversation can be practiced without another person. In that lonely time we cry out into the emptiness we feel, perhaps we cry out to God if that is part of our theology. Moore says that the emptying that life brings us unbidden is an important part of our spiritual growth. The emptying makes space for us to know ourselves it may bring us closer to mystery or to the divine. Loneliness brings with it the mandate that we come to know our own darkest selves. It asks us to search for whatever it is in this living universe that is present with us even when we are alone. If you are willing to follow Gebara’s logic, that God is Relationship, or that the fabric of the universe is fundamentally relational, we can never be truly alone, even in our deepest loneliness.
Sometimes that loneliness makes room for new friendships. What a delightful surprise it is when you and this one person of the many people you interact with each day are both free for coffee tomorrow. You both have a friend-sized whole in your lives, and this other interesting, friendly person seems to enjoy your company. Becoming close friends with a new person is a tremendous and delightful gift that does not happen often. It is both ordinary and extraordinary.
But not all friendships have the same depth of intimacy. Each friendship brings with it a different gift. Someone who is very fun to watch football with, might not interested in the issues of hydro-fracking, or the implications of process theology. Not everyone wants to hear the minutia of your yoga practice, or stand in a loud club for 3 hours listening to your favorite band. Looking to that Minister’s convocation in Canada, though I missed the flannel slipper intimacy of my home life, I did certainly have friends there. I mean, who knows better about the strange life of a UU Minster than another UU minister? I re-connected with friends I had known since all the way back in my seminary days, friends from my years serving on the West Coast, and new just-sprouting friendships with the ministers here in my new District. There were folks there I knew I could call on if I had a crisis in ministry, and folks who could make me laugh. Together our friendships weave a web that supports and sustains us as no one person could. But all are a gift, and need to be nurtured and cared for.
There’s a lovely story from the Hasidic tradition, about two Rabbis who were reunited after being apart for over a year and greeted each other with the words ‘Blessed art thou, Oh Lord our God, King of the Universe, who raises the dead. ” One of the younger students asked why the prayer for greeting a friend one hasn’t seen in over a year is a blessing to God for reviving the dead. The teachers explained that each person on earth has a unique light “burning for them in the world above” and when two friends meet their light is united, and out of that light an angel is born. But when the friends are apart for more than a year, the angel weakens and wastes away. So on reuniting they bless the dead to revive the angel. And just as the Rabbi finished speaking all heard the sound of rustling wings, and knew the angel had been reborn. ["The Angel of Friendship." Parabola, Winter 2004 p. 76].
Our friendships need tending or they will languish and waste away. Our friendships are not tangential, they feed us and challenge us and help us grow. This is why we are here together this morning. To cherish and honor our friendships, to eat and laugh and restore our souls.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Celebrating Samhain
The Neo-Pagan wheel of the year is divided into 8 equal parts. They honor the summer and Winter Solstice, the Fall and Spring Equinox, and the “Cross quarters” which fall evenly between them. Samhain (which is a name that comes to us from the Celtic tradition) is the most important of these holidays, and marks the New Year. Most American Neo-Pagan families enjoy the usual secular Halloween celebrations- the costumes and pumpkins and treats- because these symbols grew in large part from the much older pagan traditions. In the neo-pagan traditions, however, there is a sacred element to the day that must also be observed. It is a harvest festival that honors the end of the harvest and the first glimpse of winter. In addition, it is a day to honor the ancestors, and to gain wisdom from them because at this time of year it is said that the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead is at it’s thinnest. The veil is said to thin day by day leading up to the New Year, and to be at its most thin on October 31 at midnight- the cross-quarter between fall and winter.
I think one of the reasons that Unitarian Universalists feel an affinity with Neo-Paganism is because much of the tradition is grounded in natural science. It is theologically un-complicated to mark the Winter Solstice and the growing daylight. We notice with our own eyes and with common sense the recurring cycles of sun and moon and stars, and bring our own observations and experiences to the marking of those cycles. The observations of biologists and physicists affirm our noticing, and help us understand dynamics of the natural world we cannot observe with the naked eye. So as we talk about Samhain today, I want to focus on that aspect of the festival- the part that comes to us intuitively as we notice carefully our eco-system and how we respond to changes in the seasons.
These past two years as the wheel of the year turned towards fall I have felt something new- fear. I am afraid of winter. I worry about how cold it is going to get. I worry about whether it will be too cold or icy for my regular jog through the streets of Ithaca. I worry about those famed $400 heating bills. I dread the shortening days, and getting my son ready for school in the dark. I feel anxious about getting all my fall chores done- draining the hose and bringing it into the basement along with all my garden tools, finding places inside for all my potted plants, planting the bulbs, locating the snow shovels, figuring out whether last year’s snow pants and mittens still fit everyone. But sometimes I just feel fear, and it mystifies me. Living in the Southern Tier has touched some primal part of me that knows winter can be deadly. For annual plants, this is the end of their life. Bugs fly drunkenly into our homes to live out their last days. And the cold and lack of food make life very tough for our wild brothers and sisters; many beings will die from hunger or from cold. Some part of my "Reptilian brain", (the brain stem and cerebellum) knows this. Death, which is present all year long, reveals itself in the fall in a dramatic way.
As humans living in a time and place where the grocery stores are always full, where all we have to do to create a warm haven of our homes is to turn our thermostat to 68 degrees, it’s easy to ignore this fear. But for this one weekend, let’s not ignore it. Because the felt presence of death in our own life has power. It has the power to remind us of what is ultimate. Ask yourself the question: what do I have to do today before I go to bed? [pause] Now ask: what do I want from this life before I die? [pause] Feel which question has more power. Have you noticed that when we speak of death, when we call to mind the reality of our own deaths, there is an energy that changes in the room? An alertness? A presence almost, of this intangible universal? Perhaps this is what the wisdom of the pagan tradition has noticed- there is a kind of veil which normally keeps us from obsessing on our own deaths and on the loss of those we love, a veil that allows us to focus on life from day to day. This veil is thin in the fall. And death is naked before us. And in this window when the veil is thin, we need guides. We need our elders, our teachers, those who have crossed this way before us as companions in this space.
As the choir sang this morning:
Those who have died have never, never left
The dead are not under the earth
They are in the rustling trees, they are in the groaning woods
They are in the crying grass, they are in the moaning rocks
The dead are not under the earth.
There is something grounding about linking ourselves to our past, to the millions of generations of beings who have come before us, and to all who will come after us. This remembering has the power to bring us comfort in the presence of impermanence without denying its reality.
How can we ask the beloved dead to be with us? (Especially we who are lovers of science and reason?) Ram Dass is a Harvard professor who left his academic life to go study with a Guru in India becoming a spiritual teacher for westerners. A few years ago he spoke of the death of his guru saying “he is still with me, I talk to him every day. And people say ‘that’s all in your imagination’ and I say ‘exactly’.” I am not going to address the metaphysics or mechanics of our relationship with our ancestors, only suggest that something which happens in the imaginary realm may even so lead us to comfort, transformation and wisdom.
When I moved into my current home, there small shelf on our dining room wall that I imagine is just the right shape for a statue of the Virgin Mary or some other saint. I suppose I could put Margaret Fuller or some other UU luminary in that spot, but when my uncle died, it seemed just the right place for his picture and for Pap’s picture when he died, and of course Nan should be with him there. And when the anniversary of our dog Waldo came around, he needed to be there too. It’s not a very big shelf, so the ancestors come and go as I think of them and want to remember them. This is one easy way to honor and remember your ancestors at this time of year. Hunt down those old photos and bring them out where the whole family can see them throughout their days.
Hopefully when the pictures come out, the stories will follow. In my family there are some precious stories we have heard over the years. The story about how my grandmother and grandfather married when he was on leave during WWII, and they had to borrow fuel rations from a neighboring farmer to be married near my grandmother’s family. The story about how when he was down and out my Pop Pop invented a way of cleaning the tubes that bring beer to the tap at taverns with a Ping-Pong ball. When my mom tells the story, she says this a better feat of salesmanship than engineering.
Come to think of it, I’m not sure I’ve ever told my son these stories. Maybe it’s time. Samhain is a great time to tell and hear stories about your family. It may happen organically, or you may want to set aside s special time by candle light or firelight to tell them. If you have objects of the recently departed, bring those out to help you remember and retell their stories. Another favorite custom is to make the favorite food of your beloved family and friends to honor their memory. Some go as far as to set a place for the departed at the dinner table, or to put food for them near their picture. But then be sure to remember, part of honoring the memory is then to let it go. If you have, for example, cut open a pomegranate or an apple in memory of your ancestors, the following week you could plant it in the back yard. Return the picture to their usual places. This act of letting go is as important as the act of bringing the “beloved dead” to mind.
Our own Unitarian Universalist tradition is somewhat mixed about how we deal with the presence of our ancestors. There is a strain in Universalist history which intersected with Spiritualism in the 19th century. An intriguing book of by John Buescher called “The Other Side of Salvation” looks back at those who felt that they had experiences of contact with the dead, and how Universalism responded. Many Universalists, then as now, who hold to the rational and scientific roots of our tradition would definitely raise an eyebrow at this. Others had experiences they felt could not be explained with reason. But whether or not you believe that contact with ancestors is possible in a concrete way, I would like to put forth the idea that we all have something to gain from setting aside time to remember those who have died. When someone has died recently, we first need to take time to grieve and come to terms with the death, lest that un-expressed grief haunt us and play out in un expected ways. Later, when the loss is not so fresh, we can to remember the stories of our family and community history, lest they be lost. Finally, there is something comforting about calling to mind those we love and miss. By adding ritual to the act of remembering, we bring a strength to those memories- it is common sense that the more senses we involve in the act of remembering, the more clear the memories become. Smelling Gramma’s favorite food and rubbing the lace on her handkerchief between our fingers help us remember more than we could while waiting in line at the grocery store. Whenever we call something to mind and share it, we “add another episodic memory of that memory, which enriches and reinforces the original representations.”
So whether you think of honoring the ancestors as a psychological or a metaphysical exercise, I encourage you to set aside a time to tell stories and honor the memories of your family and ancestors. Now that the costumes are crumpled and the treats have been exchanged, take a moment later today to pull out those old photos, or to ask your elders for some new story, or a well loved and oft repeated story of their parents or grandparents. In this way we strengthen our sense of connectedness to all the generations that come before and those who will follow, telling stories of us each Samhain.
Those who have died have never never left.
The dead have a pact with the living
They are in the woman’s breast
They are in the wailing child
They are with us in the home
They are with us in the crowd
The dead have a pact with the living
So listen more often to things than to beings
Tis the ancestors breath when the fire’s voice is heard
Tis the ancestors breath in the voice of the waters
["Breaths" in Singing the Journey. Adapted from a poem by Birago Diop by Ysaye Barnwell]
I think one of the reasons that Unitarian Universalists feel an affinity with Neo-Paganism is because much of the tradition is grounded in natural science. It is theologically un-complicated to mark the Winter Solstice and the growing daylight. We notice with our own eyes and with common sense the recurring cycles of sun and moon and stars, and bring our own observations and experiences to the marking of those cycles. The observations of biologists and physicists affirm our noticing, and help us understand dynamics of the natural world we cannot observe with the naked eye. So as we talk about Samhain today, I want to focus on that aspect of the festival- the part that comes to us intuitively as we notice carefully our eco-system and how we respond to changes in the seasons.
These past two years as the wheel of the year turned towards fall I have felt something new- fear. I am afraid of winter. I worry about how cold it is going to get. I worry about whether it will be too cold or icy for my regular jog through the streets of Ithaca. I worry about those famed $400 heating bills. I dread the shortening days, and getting my son ready for school in the dark. I feel anxious about getting all my fall chores done- draining the hose and bringing it into the basement along with all my garden tools, finding places inside for all my potted plants, planting the bulbs, locating the snow shovels, figuring out whether last year’s snow pants and mittens still fit everyone. But sometimes I just feel fear, and it mystifies me. Living in the Southern Tier has touched some primal part of me that knows winter can be deadly. For annual plants, this is the end of their life. Bugs fly drunkenly into our homes to live out their last days. And the cold and lack of food make life very tough for our wild brothers and sisters; many beings will die from hunger or from cold. Some part of my "Reptilian brain", (the brain stem and cerebellum) knows this. Death, which is present all year long, reveals itself in the fall in a dramatic way.
As humans living in a time and place where the grocery stores are always full, where all we have to do to create a warm haven of our homes is to turn our thermostat to 68 degrees, it’s easy to ignore this fear. But for this one weekend, let’s not ignore it. Because the felt presence of death in our own life has power. It has the power to remind us of what is ultimate. Ask yourself the question: what do I have to do today before I go to bed? [pause] Now ask: what do I want from this life before I die? [pause] Feel which question has more power. Have you noticed that when we speak of death, when we call to mind the reality of our own deaths, there is an energy that changes in the room? An alertness? A presence almost, of this intangible universal? Perhaps this is what the wisdom of the pagan tradition has noticed- there is a kind of veil which normally keeps us from obsessing on our own deaths and on the loss of those we love, a veil that allows us to focus on life from day to day. This veil is thin in the fall. And death is naked before us. And in this window when the veil is thin, we need guides. We need our elders, our teachers, those who have crossed this way before us as companions in this space.
As the choir sang this morning:
Those who have died have never, never left
The dead are not under the earth
They are in the rustling trees, they are in the groaning woods
They are in the crying grass, they are in the moaning rocks
The dead are not under the earth.
There is something grounding about linking ourselves to our past, to the millions of generations of beings who have come before us, and to all who will come after us. This remembering has the power to bring us comfort in the presence of impermanence without denying its reality.
How can we ask the beloved dead to be with us? (Especially we who are lovers of science and reason?) Ram Dass is a Harvard professor who left his academic life to go study with a Guru in India becoming a spiritual teacher for westerners. A few years ago he spoke of the death of his guru saying “he is still with me, I talk to him every day. And people say ‘that’s all in your imagination’ and I say ‘exactly’.” I am not going to address the metaphysics or mechanics of our relationship with our ancestors, only suggest that something which happens in the imaginary realm may even so lead us to comfort, transformation and wisdom.
When I moved into my current home, there small shelf on our dining room wall that I imagine is just the right shape for a statue of the Virgin Mary or some other saint. I suppose I could put Margaret Fuller or some other UU luminary in that spot, but when my uncle died, it seemed just the right place for his picture and for Pap’s picture when he died, and of course Nan should be with him there. And when the anniversary of our dog Waldo came around, he needed to be there too. It’s not a very big shelf, so the ancestors come and go as I think of them and want to remember them. This is one easy way to honor and remember your ancestors at this time of year. Hunt down those old photos and bring them out where the whole family can see them throughout their days.
Hopefully when the pictures come out, the stories will follow. In my family there are some precious stories we have heard over the years. The story about how my grandmother and grandfather married when he was on leave during WWII, and they had to borrow fuel rations from a neighboring farmer to be married near my grandmother’s family. The story about how when he was down and out my Pop Pop invented a way of cleaning the tubes that bring beer to the tap at taverns with a Ping-Pong ball. When my mom tells the story, she says this a better feat of salesmanship than engineering.
Come to think of it, I’m not sure I’ve ever told my son these stories. Maybe it’s time. Samhain is a great time to tell and hear stories about your family. It may happen organically, or you may want to set aside s special time by candle light or firelight to tell them. If you have objects of the recently departed, bring those out to help you remember and retell their stories. Another favorite custom is to make the favorite food of your beloved family and friends to honor their memory. Some go as far as to set a place for the departed at the dinner table, or to put food for them near their picture. But then be sure to remember, part of honoring the memory is then to let it go. If you have, for example, cut open a pomegranate or an apple in memory of your ancestors, the following week you could plant it in the back yard. Return the picture to their usual places. This act of letting go is as important as the act of bringing the “beloved dead” to mind.
Our own Unitarian Universalist tradition is somewhat mixed about how we deal with the presence of our ancestors. There is a strain in Universalist history which intersected with Spiritualism in the 19th century. An intriguing book of by John Buescher called “The Other Side of Salvation” looks back at those who felt that they had experiences of contact with the dead, and how Universalism responded. Many Universalists, then as now, who hold to the rational and scientific roots of our tradition would definitely raise an eyebrow at this. Others had experiences they felt could not be explained with reason. But whether or not you believe that contact with ancestors is possible in a concrete way, I would like to put forth the idea that we all have something to gain from setting aside time to remember those who have died. When someone has died recently, we first need to take time to grieve and come to terms with the death, lest that un-expressed grief haunt us and play out in un expected ways. Later, when the loss is not so fresh, we can to remember the stories of our family and community history, lest they be lost. Finally, there is something comforting about calling to mind those we love and miss. By adding ritual to the act of remembering, we bring a strength to those memories- it is common sense that the more senses we involve in the act of remembering, the more clear the memories become. Smelling Gramma’s favorite food and rubbing the lace on her handkerchief between our fingers help us remember more than we could while waiting in line at the grocery store. Whenever we call something to mind and share it, we “add another episodic memory of that memory, which enriches and reinforces the original representations.”
So whether you think of honoring the ancestors as a psychological or a metaphysical exercise, I encourage you to set aside a time to tell stories and honor the memories of your family and ancestors. Now that the costumes are crumpled and the treats have been exchanged, take a moment later today to pull out those old photos, or to ask your elders for some new story, or a well loved and oft repeated story of their parents or grandparents. In this way we strengthen our sense of connectedness to all the generations that come before and those who will follow, telling stories of us each Samhain.
Those who have died have never never left.
The dead have a pact with the living
They are in the woman’s breast
They are in the wailing child
They are with us in the home
They are with us in the crowd
The dead have a pact with the living
So listen more often to things than to beings
Tis the ancestors breath when the fire’s voice is heard
Tis the ancestors breath in the voice of the waters
["Breaths" in Singing the Journey. Adapted from a poem by Birago Diop by Ysaye Barnwell]
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
When They Outlaw Jellybeans (October 11, 2009)
Today people all around the country are celebrating “coming out day” as they have been on October 11 since 1988. The fight for Marriage Equality has been going on since the 1970s as part of the ongoing movement to end discrimination against Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Americans, part of the struggle for the recognition of Queer folks to win respect and recognition, to have pride in who they are. Much has changed over the past generation or two. Though a young queer person coming of age today still faces discrimination, the world they grow up in is radically transformed in terms of the public dialogue happening all over our country, in terms of role models available. The kids of our congregation, be they straight, queer or questioning have amazing role models to show them their power to be whomever they will discover themselves to be. They see great examples of committed long term relationships and I hope will learn implicitly that despite the high divorce rate in this world, that having a committed partner for better or worse, in sickness and in health is still a worthy goal. It might not even occur to them to think some of the committed partnerships in our congregation have been legally recognized as marriages, and others cannot yet be afforded that legal standing.
I used to think of Marriage Equality as mostly an issue of pride and recognition. I thought that marriage of any kind was mostly a symbolic act. A woman of my generation, I grew up knowing that I didn’t have to get married. My partner and I could live together indefinitely in a committed partnership. Why marry? But things did change once we became engaged. Somehow the word “fiancé” had a power that “boyfriend” did not. I remember talking to the insurance company or the credit card companies; and noticing the power the words “wife” and “husband” had to change my access to certain information. I noticed that my family treated Eric differently once we became engaged- they figured he was going to be around for a while and they might as well get to know him. When I ask the couples I marry why they are having a wedding, they often say it’s because they want family and friends to be part of their union, to make public their private commitment. I know that as a UU minister I can address that desire by marrying committed couples regardless of the gender of each. Marriage is a religious act, I thought, and no one can stop me from performing the marriage of two loving partners of the same gender.
But the very first couple I ever married had been together for 21 years. In California that is automatically considered a common law marriage. So I asked “why after all these years have you decided to have a wedding now?” The Bride-to-be turned with shining eyes to her husband-to-be and said “Because he wants me to have his pension if he dies before me… Isn’t that romantic?” Being much younger then, that didn’t seem romantic to me at all. Having lived now with my partner for 18 years, I understand a little more about what it means to be able to offer your partner substantive support, to be able to care for him or her thorough a life crisis. When I perform a wedding for a man and a woman, with the stroke of a pen I provide a legal status that allows for all kinds of support and mutuality. When I perform a wedding for two men or two women, I really am offering a ritual that is only symbolic.
The United States General Accounting Office has calculated that there are over 1,400 separate legal rights and protections that come along with a civil marriage. That includes 1138 federal rights and roughly 300 rights that vary from state to state. It’s kind of a mind blowing number- I sure didn’t realize that my wedding to a man afforded me 1400 special rights. I took for granted that a wedding performed in the state of Pennsylvania would be legally recognized not only all over this country but in any country in the world. I just kind of thought we were going to love and cherish until death do we part. The promises I made to my partner, witnessed in a Unitarian Universalist church and officiated by my minister were a religions matter, but those rights and privileges it grants me are a civil matter. Since our country is limiting who can be married based on gender, what we are really talking about here is a lack of equal protection under the law.
If, like me, you have trouble even imagining 1138 rights, The (NCLR) National Center for Lesbian Rights has broken it down a little:
o There are laws protecting married couples in the event of death- from inheritance, to bereavement leave, to social security benefits to decision-making authority over remains and funeral rights.
o Laws protecting the marital relationship include the right to support and care for one another, including medical leave to car for your spouse, to be responsible for each other’s debits, to file taxes jointly, which results in a lower tax liability.
o The laws protecting your relationship to your own children is particularly harsh to those who are denied the right to marry. Imagine having to hire a lawyer and submit to inspection by an adoption authority to adopt your own children? Imagine raising your child from birth to age 10, only to have your partner leave you and take your daughter with her, and you have no claim even for visitation as you are legally a stranger to your own daughter. Or imagine that your partner leaves you and your infant son, and has no legal requirement to pay any child support because again, you and your son are legal strangers to your ex.
Until we need them, we may not consider the benefits our employers provide to our partners. Beyond health care, which is a significant benefit to any family, there is the family leave act which allows one time to support a sick family member, and bereavement time to mourn one who dies. There are pensions and workers compensation which are extended to partners, and more. But federal employees who are gay have no protections or support at all for their partners. This became particularly visible in the aftermath of 9-11. The partners of Gay and Lesbian victims of the attacks were ineligible for employee benefits or government aid. Long-time partners of heroic fire-fighters who gave their lives to protect others during that national emergency, were unable to receive the support we expect any widow or widower of a hero to receive. Our UU Service Committee worked with grass-roots organizations like the Stonewall Community Foundation Emergency Relief Fund to advocate policy reform. Subsequently New York state issued a change in policy declaring surviving partners of gay and lesbian victims of 9-11 eligible for benefits of aid programs.
Now, it is great that first Massachusetts, then Connecticut, then Iowa, and now Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine have legalized marriage, but those laws don’t cover you if you travel; if you get injured on vacation, tough luck. It is great that California has a Domestic Partnership Registry, and Hawaii recognizes reciprocal beneficiaries. But once again those rights disappear once you leave the state, and moreover they do not in any way impact the 1,138 federal rights granted to heterosexual partners. Only a federal law can do that. That is why today, probably right as we speak, there is a march in Washington DC to ask for federal legislation extending the right to be married, and the 1138 rights that go with it to all committed partners who wish to be married.
I know that the journey towards full equality has been a long one, but we need to keep “coming out” in favor of complete equality, not settling for crumbs. Many of us thought that New York was close to passing some legislation last spring, and yet the bill still languishes between Assembly and Senate. So we have to keep a steady pressure on this issue until we have that full equality. Here are some ways we can do that.
First, our congregation will always be here to marry all committed partners in the witness of community and the holiness of our cherished tradition. I wonder if the queer community in the valley know that we are here to celebrate their union with them, and to recognize their marriage in the eyes of God, even though we cannot grant them the legal rights that only the civil government can give.
If you are in a same-gender partnership, the way you use language can help educate your friends and neighbors. If you have been married in the religious sense, I encourage you to use the words “husband” or “wife” and “married” and to publicly celebrate your anniversaries. Or you can choose to convey the secondary status the law affords by writing “domestic partners,” “reciprocal beneficiary” or “legally married in another country” on forms and applications. When the person accepting the form furrows her brow and asks for clarification, this is a moment for education. Understanding the relationship between these strange laws and real people may help educate America one person at a time. Said one Bradford County resident “folks here are very conservative, but they are able to appreciate good neighbors even if those neighbors are different.” This says to me that a conversation with a co-worker or neighbor may be more powerful and effective in the valley than a letter to the editor ever will.
For those of us who have the un-earned privilege of being married to someone of a different gender, we can relinquish some of that privilege by using the word “partner.” That way people will not always know the gender of your spouse or your legal relationship and will have to live in the ambiguity that such a word creates for all who use it. At our weddings and anniversaries we can take a moment of solidarity with our friends and neighbors who don’t have the right to marry, and speak that truth in a wedding ceremony or anniversary party. I married two dear friends a few years back and it was the first time I included these simple words “This day is made possible not only because of your love for each other, but through the grace of your parents and our whole society. We recognize the privilege Erika and Eugene have in being able to publicly witness their love. We acknowledge that it is a privilege not afforded to all in these times. In solidarity, we hope for a day when all people everywhere can express their love openly without fear.” At the reception a gay friend said he had never enjoyed a wedding more- by including those words he felt truly welcome, truly part of the congregation to have his truth spoken.
We can continue to work on the local and state level for change, but particularly in conservative Bradford County, our best efforts might be put towards the federal legislation that actually has the most power to grant those 1128 rights. The three areas that need our attention are:
1) Repealing the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy under which any military personnel who legally or publicly acknowledging his or her partner must loses career, pension, and military benefits.
2) Overturning the Defense of Marriage Act which puts a firewall between same-gender couples and those 1138 rights.
3) Providing domestic partnership benefits for federal employees. The Federal government is the largest American Employer, and civil servants should not have to choose between serving their country and providing basic protections to their partners and children.
4) Passing the Permanent Partners Immigration Act, which will stop the rending of committed partnerships between citizens of different countries.
There is a petition created by Standing on the Side of Love out in the Foyer that will allow you to express your desire for “Full and equal protection under the law for Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people”
On the news you often see “people of faith” being outspoken on the side of denying folks their equal rights. Let us ask the government to separate church and state- we are not telling anyone they have to marry someone their religious forbids them to marry, we are only asking that the religious ideals of some not be used to deny rights to others. Because we too are people of faith: faith in the worth and dignity of all people, faith in the power of love, and the right to give and receive love, faith in the importance of committed partnerships and family. Let us stand up for our faith, and stand on the side of love.
Major Sources:
The title comes from a children's story called The Duke Who Outlawed Jelly Beans by Johnny Valentine published by Alyson Wonderland Press.
Kotulski, Davina. Why You Should Give a Damn About Gay Marriage. Los Angeles: Advocate Press, 2004.
I used to think of Marriage Equality as mostly an issue of pride and recognition. I thought that marriage of any kind was mostly a symbolic act. A woman of my generation, I grew up knowing that I didn’t have to get married. My partner and I could live together indefinitely in a committed partnership. Why marry? But things did change once we became engaged. Somehow the word “fiancé” had a power that “boyfriend” did not. I remember talking to the insurance company or the credit card companies; and noticing the power the words “wife” and “husband” had to change my access to certain information. I noticed that my family treated Eric differently once we became engaged- they figured he was going to be around for a while and they might as well get to know him. When I ask the couples I marry why they are having a wedding, they often say it’s because they want family and friends to be part of their union, to make public their private commitment. I know that as a UU minister I can address that desire by marrying committed couples regardless of the gender of each. Marriage is a religious act, I thought, and no one can stop me from performing the marriage of two loving partners of the same gender.
But the very first couple I ever married had been together for 21 years. In California that is automatically considered a common law marriage. So I asked “why after all these years have you decided to have a wedding now?” The Bride-to-be turned with shining eyes to her husband-to-be and said “Because he wants me to have his pension if he dies before me… Isn’t that romantic?” Being much younger then, that didn’t seem romantic to me at all. Having lived now with my partner for 18 years, I understand a little more about what it means to be able to offer your partner substantive support, to be able to care for him or her thorough a life crisis. When I perform a wedding for a man and a woman, with the stroke of a pen I provide a legal status that allows for all kinds of support and mutuality. When I perform a wedding for two men or two women, I really am offering a ritual that is only symbolic.
The United States General Accounting Office has calculated that there are over 1,400 separate legal rights and protections that come along with a civil marriage. That includes 1138 federal rights and roughly 300 rights that vary from state to state. It’s kind of a mind blowing number- I sure didn’t realize that my wedding to a man afforded me 1400 special rights. I took for granted that a wedding performed in the state of Pennsylvania would be legally recognized not only all over this country but in any country in the world. I just kind of thought we were going to love and cherish until death do we part. The promises I made to my partner, witnessed in a Unitarian Universalist church and officiated by my minister were a religions matter, but those rights and privileges it grants me are a civil matter. Since our country is limiting who can be married based on gender, what we are really talking about here is a lack of equal protection under the law.
If, like me, you have trouble even imagining 1138 rights, The (NCLR) National Center for Lesbian Rights has broken it down a little:
o There are laws protecting married couples in the event of death- from inheritance, to bereavement leave, to social security benefits to decision-making authority over remains and funeral rights.
o Laws protecting the marital relationship include the right to support and care for one another, including medical leave to car for your spouse, to be responsible for each other’s debits, to file taxes jointly, which results in a lower tax liability.
o The laws protecting your relationship to your own children is particularly harsh to those who are denied the right to marry. Imagine having to hire a lawyer and submit to inspection by an adoption authority to adopt your own children? Imagine raising your child from birth to age 10, only to have your partner leave you and take your daughter with her, and you have no claim even for visitation as you are legally a stranger to your own daughter. Or imagine that your partner leaves you and your infant son, and has no legal requirement to pay any child support because again, you and your son are legal strangers to your ex.
Until we need them, we may not consider the benefits our employers provide to our partners. Beyond health care, which is a significant benefit to any family, there is the family leave act which allows one time to support a sick family member, and bereavement time to mourn one who dies. There are pensions and workers compensation which are extended to partners, and more. But federal employees who are gay have no protections or support at all for their partners. This became particularly visible in the aftermath of 9-11. The partners of Gay and Lesbian victims of the attacks were ineligible for employee benefits or government aid. Long-time partners of heroic fire-fighters who gave their lives to protect others during that national emergency, were unable to receive the support we expect any widow or widower of a hero to receive. Our UU Service Committee worked with grass-roots organizations like the Stonewall Community Foundation Emergency Relief Fund to advocate policy reform. Subsequently New York state issued a change in policy declaring surviving partners of gay and lesbian victims of 9-11 eligible for benefits of aid programs.
Now, it is great that first Massachusetts, then Connecticut, then Iowa, and now Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine have legalized marriage, but those laws don’t cover you if you travel; if you get injured on vacation, tough luck. It is great that California has a Domestic Partnership Registry, and Hawaii recognizes reciprocal beneficiaries. But once again those rights disappear once you leave the state, and moreover they do not in any way impact the 1,138 federal rights granted to heterosexual partners. Only a federal law can do that. That is why today, probably right as we speak, there is a march in Washington DC to ask for federal legislation extending the right to be married, and the 1138 rights that go with it to all committed partners who wish to be married.
I know that the journey towards full equality has been a long one, but we need to keep “coming out” in favor of complete equality, not settling for crumbs. Many of us thought that New York was close to passing some legislation last spring, and yet the bill still languishes between Assembly and Senate. So we have to keep a steady pressure on this issue until we have that full equality. Here are some ways we can do that.
First, our congregation will always be here to marry all committed partners in the witness of community and the holiness of our cherished tradition. I wonder if the queer community in the valley know that we are here to celebrate their union with them, and to recognize their marriage in the eyes of God, even though we cannot grant them the legal rights that only the civil government can give.
If you are in a same-gender partnership, the way you use language can help educate your friends and neighbors. If you have been married in the religious sense, I encourage you to use the words “husband” or “wife” and “married” and to publicly celebrate your anniversaries. Or you can choose to convey the secondary status the law affords by writing “domestic partners,” “reciprocal beneficiary” or “legally married in another country” on forms and applications. When the person accepting the form furrows her brow and asks for clarification, this is a moment for education. Understanding the relationship between these strange laws and real people may help educate America one person at a time. Said one Bradford County resident “folks here are very conservative, but they are able to appreciate good neighbors even if those neighbors are different.” This says to me that a conversation with a co-worker or neighbor may be more powerful and effective in the valley than a letter to the editor ever will.
For those of us who have the un-earned privilege of being married to someone of a different gender, we can relinquish some of that privilege by using the word “partner.” That way people will not always know the gender of your spouse or your legal relationship and will have to live in the ambiguity that such a word creates for all who use it. At our weddings and anniversaries we can take a moment of solidarity with our friends and neighbors who don’t have the right to marry, and speak that truth in a wedding ceremony or anniversary party. I married two dear friends a few years back and it was the first time I included these simple words “This day is made possible not only because of your love for each other, but through the grace of your parents and our whole society. We recognize the privilege Erika and Eugene have in being able to publicly witness their love. We acknowledge that it is a privilege not afforded to all in these times. In solidarity, we hope for a day when all people everywhere can express their love openly without fear.” At the reception a gay friend said he had never enjoyed a wedding more- by including those words he felt truly welcome, truly part of the congregation to have his truth spoken.
We can continue to work on the local and state level for change, but particularly in conservative Bradford County, our best efforts might be put towards the federal legislation that actually has the most power to grant those 1128 rights. The three areas that need our attention are:
1) Repealing the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy under which any military personnel who legally or publicly acknowledging his or her partner must loses career, pension, and military benefits.
2) Overturning the Defense of Marriage Act which puts a firewall between same-gender couples and those 1138 rights.
3) Providing domestic partnership benefits for federal employees. The Federal government is the largest American Employer, and civil servants should not have to choose between serving their country and providing basic protections to their partners and children.
4) Passing the Permanent Partners Immigration Act, which will stop the rending of committed partnerships between citizens of different countries.
There is a petition created by Standing on the Side of Love out in the Foyer that will allow you to express your desire for “Full and equal protection under the law for Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people”
On the news you often see “people of faith” being outspoken on the side of denying folks their equal rights. Let us ask the government to separate church and state- we are not telling anyone they have to marry someone their religious forbids them to marry, we are only asking that the religious ideals of some not be used to deny rights to others. Because we too are people of faith: faith in the worth and dignity of all people, faith in the power of love, and the right to give and receive love, faith in the importance of committed partnerships and family. Let us stand up for our faith, and stand on the side of love.
Major Sources:
The title comes from a children's story called The Duke Who Outlawed Jelly Beans by Johnny Valentine published by Alyson Wonderland Press.
Kotulski, Davina. Why You Should Give a Damn About Gay Marriage. Los Angeles: Advocate Press, 2004.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Dreams and the Rational Mind (October 4, 2009. UU Church of Cortland)
When I finally took Rev. Jeremy Taylor’s class, “Dreams and Dreaming” I was in my last year at Starr King School for the Ministry. I knew nothing about dream-work, except that Jeremy’s class was one of the most popular at the Graduate Theological Union, and that it had taken me 3 years of begging and some good luck to get in. I approached the subject with good UU skepticism, which was somewhat allayed when I realized that Jeremy, an Ordained UU minister, approached the topic with questioning and high intellectual standards. Eventually I realized that beneath my skepticism was fear. I was afraid that my dreams had nothing to tell me. I was afraid that dream-work would be useless to me if I could not lay aside my doubt and rational mind frame.
But I followed the professor’s instructions. I made myself a dream journal, and kept it by my bed with a pencil. If I woke up in the middle of the night with a dream I tried to write at least a few words before going back to sleep. Each week in class we would start by going around the circle and each person would tell the title of a dream he or she had recorded. After a lecture and discussion about dream-work in general, then one brave soul would volunteer to share a dream with the class. We would listen to the dream once through, then ask clarifying questions of the dreamer. If we had an idea about what the dream might mean we began “if this were my dream” and gave our thoughts -- always speaking in the first person. We used this formulation so that both we and the dreamer could remember that whatever we projected on the dream were only our projections. However carefully our classmate described a dream, the vision we each had in our own heads would surely be different, our own imaginations filling in the details. We agreed that only the dreamer could say for sure what his or her dream was about, and the way the dreamer would know would be a sense of “Aha.” As the first dreamers told their dreams, it was mostly our teacher who offered “if this were my dream” or “in my years of looking at dreams about water, there is usually something having to do with the emotions” It was like learning a new language. Eventually the images began to come together in my own mind, and then I had my own projections to offer for each dream that was shared.
Over the first month of class, I had only remembered and written four dreams. I had written in my class notebook “I am concerned that my subconscious will not have exciting new messages for me, only things I already know” and in fact the first dream I recorded was one in which I had to go to my actual waking-life bank to transfer money from savings to checking, which in literal fact I had on my to-do list that night). During class following week I had asked “what about boring dreams?” and in my notes I find the response “Maybe the bank dream is showing me that dreams will remind me of something I already know but have forgotten and need to remember.”
Finally it was my turn to offer a dream. It was a longer dream with a dramatic story and had some emotional content for me. I was amazed by how different my classmates interpretations were from my own first impressions of the dream. There really was something new and fresh and radically different to be found in my dreams. Still for most of the class I had this fear that my dreams would not have anything new to say despite Rev. Taylor’s belief that “No dreams come to tell you what you consciously already know” and that “There is no such thing as a dream with only one meeting”
Despite my doubts, I liked the practice of keeping a dream journal -- a collection of these colorful worlds. I now have a row of journals dating back to that class in 1996. Some dreams were easy to call to mind, but others would have been lost forever if I hadn’t written them down. My dreams became like friends to me, each one a strange new world as amazing as any television show or storybook.
That’s how dream-work changed my life. Here was a daily practice that helped me make a link between the conscious and the subconscious, the waking and dreaming worlds. Regardless of how or why humans dream, these dreams are part of the same mind-body system that makes shopping lists or writes a newsletter column. Dreamwork gave me a kind of faith in my own innate creativity -- unconscious though it might be. It gave me faith that the flow of the strange and the new could not be stifled by my conscious limitations. It gave me faith that there were more ways to understand and relate to this constantly unfolding life of mine than I had even imagined. It helped me have faith in and curiosity about mystery. It also helped me by-pass my very controlling rational mind, to get at that knowledge some part of me had access to that my conscious mind could not yet express or understand.
Here is what it could look like to welcome your dreams more deeply into your waking life. Just paying attention is a start. Many folks find that they are more likely to remember their dreams when they give their dreams some attention. If you wake up in the morning with the sense that you have had a dream, don’t move, don’t fully wake, just allow your conscious mind to go back inside the dream and review it, revisit it. Notice the landscape, notice the colors and how you feel. Have you been to this place before? Have you felt this way before?
Many folks put forth the “day residue” theory of dreams and I think that’s partially correct. The sleeping brain sorts and puts away experiences and memories. That’s why some dreams don’t mean much more than the pile of stuff on your desk- the ideas and experiences in the dream are still unsorted or miscellaneous. Such dreams echo a sorting process that is just beginning and kind of random. I brought one of these dreams to dreamgroup once and there just wasn’t much there. I kind of had suspected as much because the dream didn’t feel powerful to me, there were no special emotions attached to it, and in fact working the dream yielded only minimal results. Other times we have dreams with intrinsic power. I propose that this is when the sorting is really getting somewhere. Some learning or growing is occurring for the dreamer and the dream may be a culmination of the synthesizing that the whole self has been working on for some time. If I the dreamer have a dream that feels powerful, either because it is delightful or terrifying, it is probably tied in to some important learning or growth in my life.
That brings us to nightmares. Many folks get in the habit of ignoring their dreams because at one point in their life they were beset by nightmares. But Rev. Taylor reassured us that “All Dreams Come in the Service of Health and Wholeness.” According to that theory the bad dreams aren’t caused by evil gremlins who want to ruin your sleep and have fun at your expense, but instead the dreams come from some part of ones self, a part of me that is scared, or worried, or knows some important choice is coming and wants to say “wake up and navigate this path in a wise way.” Looking at such dreams is a way of confronting the nightmares, of confronting the self. In the same way that psychologists would tell us that talking through our issues can help us move beyond them, dreamwork proceeds with the idea that if we notice and listen to our dreams, with the help of others if possible, we may be able to use the wisdom of our nightmares in a way that will help us live a more whole and healthy waking life.
The nightmare that had haunted me for most of my childhood was of being kidnapped or taken hostage. Occasionally I can break free, but if I tell an authority figure they never believe me. I can’t run away because I know I can’t outrun the bigger stronger adults. I had this dream quite frequently as a child, and even occasionally as an adult. During seminary I started running regularly, and when the dream recurred I had the thought “good thing I like to run” and was free. My nightmare changed and never was the same again. I like to remember this dream because it shows how the dream life can evolve as the waking life of the dreamer evolves, and because of the clear interplay between waking and dreaming life.
Sometimes we can work on these things on our own, but some important insights may be hidden from our conscious minds. When we work with a group they sometimes can see things about us that we hide from ourselves, or that are in our blind spots. Being in a dream group can be different from other kinds of group experiences, because sometimes when we are talking about dreams we can get right to the truth, while when we re talking directly about waking life we might fear to tread on such intimate or tender ground. Over time one comes to know the dreams and lives of other folks in the group, and we are able to see patterns and connections. At first folks may feel that a week when they don’t work their own dream is a wasted week, but eventually one starts to see the way when I work someone else’s dream, the things I project on my version of the dream show me about myself. As Rev. Taylor once quipped: just cause it’s a projection doesn’t mean it isn’t true and just because it’s true doesn’t mean it isn’t a projection.
As I look at your own dreams and the dreams of others, I start to notice that some images are very personal and other images are more broadly shared. Those images we share most widely are called Archetypes. Said Joseph Campbell “a dream is a personal experience of that deep, dark ground that is the support of our conscious lives, and a myth is the society’s dream. The myth is the public dream and the dream is the private myth.” [The Power of Myth p. 40]Carl Jung had said that “The archetype is a kind of readiness to produce over and over again the same or similar mythical ideas… When an archetype appears in a dream, in a fantasy, or in life, it always brings with it a certain influence or power by virtue of which it either exercises a numinous or a fascinating effect, or impels to action.” [Quoted in Taylor Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill p. 238]
For example, I had a dream that I was in a small boat on a large body of water that capsized, and that in my bag were my cell phone, wallet and electronic organizer, all of which would be destroyed if wet, leaving me without resources. The image of water is commonly tied to emotions across culture and time. I’m sure thousands of people have dreamed about being in a small boat in a big body of water, and of capsizing. Perhaps this has to do with the hugeness of our emotions, and fear of drowning or getting immersed in them might be a common theme for folks who have this dream. I even bet there are more and more folks who have dreams about losing or damaging their cell phones- now that the cell phone plays such an important role in the daily lives of many. For me personally I often have a bag of crucial things that I carry with me in many dreams, and in any dream where I am conscious of the bag, it is usually because I am about to lose it. Perhaps there is something there about fear of letting go of my “baggage” (dreams love puns) or losing my connections to my community and friends whose contact information I keep in my cell and PDA. Perhaps confronting the great sea of emotions was more frightening to me without my network, or perhaps I worried that in falling into the sea of emotions I would endanger my friendships and networks.
The communal and the personal symbols flow and interrelate. Take a moment now and notice your response as I talked about my dream and my interpretations. Did you have a moment where you said “yes, that’s probably it” or “boy that doesn’t ring true?” That is an example of how each of us projects our own meaning onto any dream. If I have any kind of response to hearing a dream, it can tell me something about myself, whether or not it was my dream to begin with. Moreover, each dream may have multiple layered meanings for each person and across cultures. There are so many ways water has appeared as a symbol in different cultures over the generations. Water cleans, water flows and ebbs. Water is the birthplace of life on this earth, and reminds us of the womb. Water is crucial for life itself. Now I can go back over the dream with each of those meanings in mind, and see what other layers of meaning emerge.
The more I studied my dreams, the more I became interested in symbol and story, even the scriptures of more orthodox faiths. Now when I look at Jonah in the belly of the whale, I feel connected to all the folks who have ever dreamed of being lost at sea. I notice the special feeling I get in the pit of my stomach when someone in a movie puts down their bag and you know they are going to leave it behind. When I hear of oppression in the world or hear about our freedoms being impaired here in the US, my dreams of captivity and the refusal of authorizes to respond or help link me empathetically to my brothers and sisters who live that waking life nightmare.
When I took my sabbatical several years later, I was happy to see that Jeremy was teaching a dreamwork class at the University of Creation Spirituality where I was doing my sabbatical certificate. I had been part of a regular dream-group for several years after seminary, but then had moved out of town. Since that time I have not stopped writing down my dreams but had very little chance to work deeply with them. It was wonderful to sit in a circle each week telling dreams, and engaging in group projective dream work together. My understanding of archetypes and the relationship between the conscious and unconscious self deepened, and I came to a better knowing of my own self on this level.
I strengthened my belief that story and archetype are the greatest intergenerational teachers. The stories and dreams we tell one another shape our culture and our future. I returned to church recommitted to consciously choosing the stories we teach our children and lift up in worship, and committed to teaching them in such a way that they might be touchstones throughout our lives.
When looking through my dreams at something as simple as water shows me many possible meanings, it begins to expand my sense of the complexity and richness of the language of the soul. Looking at our dreams not only helps us see our own lives through a different lens, but helps us add layers of meaning to stories and symbols and even to ordinary objects or events. Our dreams show us new paths for exploration, encouraging learning and growth in a deep and multi-layered way.
But I followed the professor’s instructions. I made myself a dream journal, and kept it by my bed with a pencil. If I woke up in the middle of the night with a dream I tried to write at least a few words before going back to sleep. Each week in class we would start by going around the circle and each person would tell the title of a dream he or she had recorded. After a lecture and discussion about dream-work in general, then one brave soul would volunteer to share a dream with the class. We would listen to the dream once through, then ask clarifying questions of the dreamer. If we had an idea about what the dream might mean we began “if this were my dream” and gave our thoughts -- always speaking in the first person. We used this formulation so that both we and the dreamer could remember that whatever we projected on the dream were only our projections. However carefully our classmate described a dream, the vision we each had in our own heads would surely be different, our own imaginations filling in the details. We agreed that only the dreamer could say for sure what his or her dream was about, and the way the dreamer would know would be a sense of “Aha.” As the first dreamers told their dreams, it was mostly our teacher who offered “if this were my dream” or “in my years of looking at dreams about water, there is usually something having to do with the emotions” It was like learning a new language. Eventually the images began to come together in my own mind, and then I had my own projections to offer for each dream that was shared.
Over the first month of class, I had only remembered and written four dreams. I had written in my class notebook “I am concerned that my subconscious will not have exciting new messages for me, only things I already know” and in fact the first dream I recorded was one in which I had to go to my actual waking-life bank to transfer money from savings to checking, which in literal fact I had on my to-do list that night). During class following week I had asked “what about boring dreams?” and in my notes I find the response “Maybe the bank dream is showing me that dreams will remind me of something I already know but have forgotten and need to remember.”
Finally it was my turn to offer a dream. It was a longer dream with a dramatic story and had some emotional content for me. I was amazed by how different my classmates interpretations were from my own first impressions of the dream. There really was something new and fresh and radically different to be found in my dreams. Still for most of the class I had this fear that my dreams would not have anything new to say despite Rev. Taylor’s belief that “No dreams come to tell you what you consciously already know” and that “There is no such thing as a dream with only one meeting”
Despite my doubts, I liked the practice of keeping a dream journal -- a collection of these colorful worlds. I now have a row of journals dating back to that class in 1996. Some dreams were easy to call to mind, but others would have been lost forever if I hadn’t written them down. My dreams became like friends to me, each one a strange new world as amazing as any television show or storybook.
That’s how dream-work changed my life. Here was a daily practice that helped me make a link between the conscious and the subconscious, the waking and dreaming worlds. Regardless of how or why humans dream, these dreams are part of the same mind-body system that makes shopping lists or writes a newsletter column. Dreamwork gave me a kind of faith in my own innate creativity -- unconscious though it might be. It gave me faith that the flow of the strange and the new could not be stifled by my conscious limitations. It gave me faith that there were more ways to understand and relate to this constantly unfolding life of mine than I had even imagined. It helped me have faith in and curiosity about mystery. It also helped me by-pass my very controlling rational mind, to get at that knowledge some part of me had access to that my conscious mind could not yet express or understand.
Here is what it could look like to welcome your dreams more deeply into your waking life. Just paying attention is a start. Many folks find that they are more likely to remember their dreams when they give their dreams some attention. If you wake up in the morning with the sense that you have had a dream, don’t move, don’t fully wake, just allow your conscious mind to go back inside the dream and review it, revisit it. Notice the landscape, notice the colors and how you feel. Have you been to this place before? Have you felt this way before?
Many folks put forth the “day residue” theory of dreams and I think that’s partially correct. The sleeping brain sorts and puts away experiences and memories. That’s why some dreams don’t mean much more than the pile of stuff on your desk- the ideas and experiences in the dream are still unsorted or miscellaneous. Such dreams echo a sorting process that is just beginning and kind of random. I brought one of these dreams to dreamgroup once and there just wasn’t much there. I kind of had suspected as much because the dream didn’t feel powerful to me, there were no special emotions attached to it, and in fact working the dream yielded only minimal results. Other times we have dreams with intrinsic power. I propose that this is when the sorting is really getting somewhere. Some learning or growing is occurring for the dreamer and the dream may be a culmination of the synthesizing that the whole self has been working on for some time. If I the dreamer have a dream that feels powerful, either because it is delightful or terrifying, it is probably tied in to some important learning or growth in my life.
That brings us to nightmares. Many folks get in the habit of ignoring their dreams because at one point in their life they were beset by nightmares. But Rev. Taylor reassured us that “All Dreams Come in the Service of Health and Wholeness.” According to that theory the bad dreams aren’t caused by evil gremlins who want to ruin your sleep and have fun at your expense, but instead the dreams come from some part of ones self, a part of me that is scared, or worried, or knows some important choice is coming and wants to say “wake up and navigate this path in a wise way.” Looking at such dreams is a way of confronting the nightmares, of confronting the self. In the same way that psychologists would tell us that talking through our issues can help us move beyond them, dreamwork proceeds with the idea that if we notice and listen to our dreams, with the help of others if possible, we may be able to use the wisdom of our nightmares in a way that will help us live a more whole and healthy waking life.
The nightmare that had haunted me for most of my childhood was of being kidnapped or taken hostage. Occasionally I can break free, but if I tell an authority figure they never believe me. I can’t run away because I know I can’t outrun the bigger stronger adults. I had this dream quite frequently as a child, and even occasionally as an adult. During seminary I started running regularly, and when the dream recurred I had the thought “good thing I like to run” and was free. My nightmare changed and never was the same again. I like to remember this dream because it shows how the dream life can evolve as the waking life of the dreamer evolves, and because of the clear interplay between waking and dreaming life.
Sometimes we can work on these things on our own, but some important insights may be hidden from our conscious minds. When we work with a group they sometimes can see things about us that we hide from ourselves, or that are in our blind spots. Being in a dream group can be different from other kinds of group experiences, because sometimes when we are talking about dreams we can get right to the truth, while when we re talking directly about waking life we might fear to tread on such intimate or tender ground. Over time one comes to know the dreams and lives of other folks in the group, and we are able to see patterns and connections. At first folks may feel that a week when they don’t work their own dream is a wasted week, but eventually one starts to see the way when I work someone else’s dream, the things I project on my version of the dream show me about myself. As Rev. Taylor once quipped: just cause it’s a projection doesn’t mean it isn’t true and just because it’s true doesn’t mean it isn’t a projection.
As I look at your own dreams and the dreams of others, I start to notice that some images are very personal and other images are more broadly shared. Those images we share most widely are called Archetypes. Said Joseph Campbell “a dream is a personal experience of that deep, dark ground that is the support of our conscious lives, and a myth is the society’s dream. The myth is the public dream and the dream is the private myth.” [The Power of Myth p. 40]Carl Jung had said that “The archetype is a kind of readiness to produce over and over again the same or similar mythical ideas… When an archetype appears in a dream, in a fantasy, or in life, it always brings with it a certain influence or power by virtue of which it either exercises a numinous or a fascinating effect, or impels to action.” [Quoted in Taylor Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill p. 238]
For example, I had a dream that I was in a small boat on a large body of water that capsized, and that in my bag were my cell phone, wallet and electronic organizer, all of which would be destroyed if wet, leaving me without resources. The image of water is commonly tied to emotions across culture and time. I’m sure thousands of people have dreamed about being in a small boat in a big body of water, and of capsizing. Perhaps this has to do with the hugeness of our emotions, and fear of drowning or getting immersed in them might be a common theme for folks who have this dream. I even bet there are more and more folks who have dreams about losing or damaging their cell phones- now that the cell phone plays such an important role in the daily lives of many. For me personally I often have a bag of crucial things that I carry with me in many dreams, and in any dream where I am conscious of the bag, it is usually because I am about to lose it. Perhaps there is something there about fear of letting go of my “baggage” (dreams love puns) or losing my connections to my community and friends whose contact information I keep in my cell and PDA. Perhaps confronting the great sea of emotions was more frightening to me without my network, or perhaps I worried that in falling into the sea of emotions I would endanger my friendships and networks.
The communal and the personal symbols flow and interrelate. Take a moment now and notice your response as I talked about my dream and my interpretations. Did you have a moment where you said “yes, that’s probably it” or “boy that doesn’t ring true?” That is an example of how each of us projects our own meaning onto any dream. If I have any kind of response to hearing a dream, it can tell me something about myself, whether or not it was my dream to begin with. Moreover, each dream may have multiple layered meanings for each person and across cultures. There are so many ways water has appeared as a symbol in different cultures over the generations. Water cleans, water flows and ebbs. Water is the birthplace of life on this earth, and reminds us of the womb. Water is crucial for life itself. Now I can go back over the dream with each of those meanings in mind, and see what other layers of meaning emerge.
The more I studied my dreams, the more I became interested in symbol and story, even the scriptures of more orthodox faiths. Now when I look at Jonah in the belly of the whale, I feel connected to all the folks who have ever dreamed of being lost at sea. I notice the special feeling I get in the pit of my stomach when someone in a movie puts down their bag and you know they are going to leave it behind. When I hear of oppression in the world or hear about our freedoms being impaired here in the US, my dreams of captivity and the refusal of authorizes to respond or help link me empathetically to my brothers and sisters who live that waking life nightmare.
When I took my sabbatical several years later, I was happy to see that Jeremy was teaching a dreamwork class at the University of Creation Spirituality where I was doing my sabbatical certificate. I had been part of a regular dream-group for several years after seminary, but then had moved out of town. Since that time I have not stopped writing down my dreams but had very little chance to work deeply with them. It was wonderful to sit in a circle each week telling dreams, and engaging in group projective dream work together. My understanding of archetypes and the relationship between the conscious and unconscious self deepened, and I came to a better knowing of my own self on this level.
I strengthened my belief that story and archetype are the greatest intergenerational teachers. The stories and dreams we tell one another shape our culture and our future. I returned to church recommitted to consciously choosing the stories we teach our children and lift up in worship, and committed to teaching them in such a way that they might be touchstones throughout our lives.
When looking through my dreams at something as simple as water shows me many possible meanings, it begins to expand my sense of the complexity and richness of the language of the soul. Looking at our dreams not only helps us see our own lives through a different lens, but helps us add layers of meaning to stories and symbols and even to ordinary objects or events. Our dreams show us new paths for exploration, encouraging learning and growth in a deep and multi-layered way.
Monday, September 28, 2009
There is a Thread (September 27, 2009, Pennsylvania Universalist Convention)
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.
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, 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.
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