Obama said it about McCain's policies yesterday
McCain's supporters have morphed that into an insult against Sara Palin, as she is "the only one of the four candidates who wears lipstick."
McCain has himself used the expression several times in the campaign, always to point out just what Obama was trying to point out, which is that you can make a small change in the packaging of something but it's still the same inside.
Obama is right that this tempest in a TV screen is EXACTLY WHAT MAKES ME HATE POLITICS AND DESPAIR FOR OUR NATION. WE'RE AT WAR, FOR GOD'S SAKE. WE'RE BANKRUPTING OURSELVES. OUR KIDS ARE GETTING an inferior education and everybody's getting inferior health care. Our population is skyrocketing. The Globe is warming up.
And on the other hand, it's a distressingly sexist-sounding statement. There's too much in the culture that links women, lipsticks and pigs. Like the world "nigardly", which doesn't mean what it sounds like it means but is close enough that no smart person uses the word any more, let's retire this folksy statement. In the end, it does only harm.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
On Cultural Mis-Appropriation
Monkey Mind, who is a Buddhist religious leader as well as a UU minister, has commented wisely, here on the problem of adding language to the UUA bylaws dealing with this sticky topic of cultural mis-appropriation. I agree with everything he said, and added a comment that writing bylaws to attempt to regulate practices about which there is not clarity or even agreement, not to mention experience with appropriate procedures is a dangerous mis-use of bylaws.
I want to also add that my experience with this "I know it when I see it but can't define it" area is that our lack of clarity on this subject already puts a dampening effect on robust sharing in our ministry of spiritual and worship practices and does not help ministers take spiritual risks with their colleagues or in their congregations.
We UU's have a profound ambivilance about spirituality of any kind already, and a tendency to pounce, sometimes viciously, on the scary notion that any bona fide UU's would be experimenting with ways to deepen our own spirituality and our corporate experience of spirituality.
Ours is a faith which is open to the wisdom and practices of human religious experience, and that can not simply mean that we learn about other people, although many a preacher or RE director has done only that. Of course understanding others is good, but if our knowledge is only a head-trip, we really have not finished learning. Anything we try to practice is going to fall, at least loosely, into the category of cultural misappropriation. There's not much new under the sun. We don't even all agree that practices like Sweat Lodges are disrespectful to Native Americans. (Nor do all Native Americans think that. ) What about using the tactic of having children ask questions of their elders about the history of their faith to engage them? That harkens to the Jewish Seder practice, and that's where I came across it, so it is a mild form of appropriation. How mild is mild? Who decides? The Orthodox rabbi up the street, the person of Jewish heritage in my congregation? Is the well-established UU Thanksgiving Seder a bad thing? Only a bad thing if it's called a Seder? Only bad if it is a congregational meal? Do we apply the same rules to the communion service? On and on we could go with the questions. They are interesting questions, and I'm not against asking them. What we need is not a by-law but a respectful conversation and learning opportunity. Simple prohibition will only dampen our already small talent for spiritual seeking together.
I want to also add that my experience with this "I know it when I see it but can't define it" area is that our lack of clarity on this subject already puts a dampening effect on robust sharing in our ministry of spiritual and worship practices and does not help ministers take spiritual risks with their colleagues or in their congregations.
We UU's have a profound ambivilance about spirituality of any kind already, and a tendency to pounce, sometimes viciously, on the scary notion that any bona fide UU's would be experimenting with ways to deepen our own spirituality and our corporate experience of spirituality.
Ours is a faith which is open to the wisdom and practices of human religious experience, and that can not simply mean that we learn about other people, although many a preacher or RE director has done only that. Of course understanding others is good, but if our knowledge is only a head-trip, we really have not finished learning. Anything we try to practice is going to fall, at least loosely, into the category of cultural misappropriation. There's not much new under the sun. We don't even all agree that practices like Sweat Lodges are disrespectful to Native Americans. (Nor do all Native Americans think that. ) What about using the tactic of having children ask questions of their elders about the history of their faith to engage them? That harkens to the Jewish Seder practice, and that's where I came across it, so it is a mild form of appropriation. How mild is mild? Who decides? The Orthodox rabbi up the street, the person of Jewish heritage in my congregation? Is the well-established UU Thanksgiving Seder a bad thing? Only a bad thing if it's called a Seder? Only bad if it is a congregational meal? Do we apply the same rules to the communion service? On and on we could go with the questions. They are interesting questions, and I'm not against asking them. What we need is not a by-law but a respectful conversation and learning opportunity. Simple prohibition will only dampen our already small talent for spiritual seeking together.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
R.I.P. Ninja
Our household iguana died on Friday, and I'm still feeling shocked and sad. He had escaped his cage, something he'd done before, but then knocked out a screen and escaped the house. He must have made a beeline for the biggest tree he could see...that's what iguanas do. Unfortunately, the biggest tree in our yard is a utility pole, and he electrocuted himself. I was out looking for him by that time, and heard the bang of the fuse blowing and saw him flung off the pole.
He knocked out electricity for three blocks for three hours. Went with a bang, as they say.
He had always been an adventurous iguana. He'd roamed the world by himself as a yearling; I got him from a rescue organization where they figured he'd been on his own for some months. He was kind of wild his first year with us, but after that he settled down, allowed himself to be carried, and loved his outdoor cage. He had a good life. And died doing what he loved to do most; looking for sun in all the high places.
I'm gonna miss him.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Dan Harper's Purposes and Principles
Fausto notes in the comments that fellow blogger Dan Harper proposed a new Purposes and Principles in his blog last June. I had a peak and fell immediately in love. I promote Dan's alterego, Mr. Crankypants for king of the universe! (UU Universe, at least!) You can find his work here. Of course there will be quibbles with it, and more voices will want to be heard. But let's start with this. It's simple, you could imagine reading it in worship (even reading it responsively), it has a horse-like grace rather than a camel-like clumpiness. Thanks, Dan!
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
New Try at our Purposes and Principles
The Commission on Appraisal has come up with a proposed draft of the first few articles of the UUA bylaws, commonly called our purposes and principles. It's here.
I have liked our current purposes and principles, and while I agree that such statements should be revised from time to time, I don't like this revision. One reason I don't like this revision is that I don't like the way the purposes and principles have moved into a creed-like place in our life together. People are taking them way too literally. I heard it just yesterday: "Our purposes and principles say we are for Peace and Justice. Therefore YOU SHOULD support (our idea of how to gain these two things.)
The Purposes and Principles have taken over RE in the same, concrete way. Ugh.
Given that background, I have to say that I don't like the basic format of the Commission's work. It has given us too many more words to make concrete in the "principles" section, and it has collapsed the "sources" section into a paragraph of prose (verbose prose at that) which is not suitable for use in liturgy. That will mean that those italicized principles will be all the more elevated and concretized in our life together.
It also elevates our paranoia about "cultural misappropriation" to by-law level and seems to permit others rather than ourselves to decide what is appropriate and respectful. I can tell you that there are millions upon millions of Christians who would say that our use of any kind of communion service is disrespectful to their doctrinal Christ, and that any prayer which does not end in the name of Jesus is an insult to the word prayer. These bylaws would allow them to criticize us and give us no way to make our own decisions. Even worse, they would allow some us to criticize others. I'm all for exercising sensitivity to other's sensibilities. But my experience with discussions of cultural misappropriation leads me to believe that this "sensitivity" is mostly used amongst us to distance ourselves from spirituality and dis those spiritual leaders who take the risk of introducing us to spiritual practice. With a bylaw like this, we will reduce ourselves again to classical music, intellectual sermons, social action and a moment of silence as our only legitimate shared spiritual practices. It just won't do.
And there's the statement that the highest purpose of our congregations is to "worship together to create beloved community" (sorry, that's not my primary goal and I think it is a very dangerous one)
It's been hard enough navigating the shoals of congregational life around seven principles. (see above). Navigating around seven principles, cultural misappropriation, and beloved community is not going to make us healthier.
I have liked our current purposes and principles, and while I agree that such statements should be revised from time to time, I don't like this revision. One reason I don't like this revision is that I don't like the way the purposes and principles have moved into a creed-like place in our life together. People are taking them way too literally. I heard it just yesterday: "Our purposes and principles say we are for Peace and Justice. Therefore YOU SHOULD support (our idea of how to gain these two things.)
The Purposes and Principles have taken over RE in the same, concrete way. Ugh.
Given that background, I have to say that I don't like the basic format of the Commission's work. It has given us too many more words to make concrete in the "principles" section, and it has collapsed the "sources" section into a paragraph of prose (verbose prose at that) which is not suitable for use in liturgy. That will mean that those italicized principles will be all the more elevated and concretized in our life together.
It also elevates our paranoia about "cultural misappropriation" to by-law level and seems to permit others rather than ourselves to decide what is appropriate and respectful. I can tell you that there are millions upon millions of Christians who would say that our use of any kind of communion service is disrespectful to their doctrinal Christ, and that any prayer which does not end in the name of Jesus is an insult to the word prayer. These bylaws would allow them to criticize us and give us no way to make our own decisions. Even worse, they would allow some us to criticize others. I'm all for exercising sensitivity to other's sensibilities. But my experience with discussions of cultural misappropriation leads me to believe that this "sensitivity" is mostly used amongst us to distance ourselves from spirituality and dis those spiritual leaders who take the risk of introducing us to spiritual practice. With a bylaw like this, we will reduce ourselves again to classical music, intellectual sermons, social action and a moment of silence as our only legitimate shared spiritual practices. It just won't do.
And there's the statement that the highest purpose of our congregations is to "worship together to create beloved community" (sorry, that's not my primary goal and I think it is a very dangerous one)
It's been hard enough navigating the shoals of congregational life around seven principles. (see above). Navigating around seven principles, cultural misappropriation, and beloved community is not going to make us healthier.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
(political) Life is a Riddle and A Mystery
I think that amongst the most interesting things that is happening in our world today is how people are having to stretch themselves in order to stay true to their values. I first noticed this amongst the Episcopalians. Some of the most socially conservative Episcopal churches in this country have disaffiliated themselves from the American Episcopal body because of women priests and gay priests, and put themselves under the discipline of socially conservative African bishops. This shows an open-minded willingness to accept something new that I hope they take some pride in. I'm sorry they are doing it for the reasons they are doing it but I think God works in mysterious ways and up until last week, I thought that this was one of the great Mysteries of our time.
That is until another group of social conservatives welcomed with open arms a woman candidate for Vice President of the US whose major credential is her feisty track record against good old boy corruption. (Also she's against abortion and for guns and has a son in the military. I wonder when is the last time an American president or vice president had a near relative in the military?)
But she is a woman, and not only that, she's the mother of an infant. An infant with special needs, at that. I've got a fair number of feminist credentials and I have to say that it makes me queasy to imagine how much that little boy is going to miss his mommy even if she becomes Vice President, much less, president. These are not exactly 40 hour a week jobs which easily combine with family and child care. Nor is he the only child in the family; there are three others still young enough to need a big slice of parental time and love, and it's not like they have a full-time dad. He's the owner of a small business. And whatever became of "I am my children's mother!"(and therefore only work, at most, part time while they are in school.) ?
No doubt they will work something out, and I think it is wonderfully open-minded of American Conservatives to let them do that in peace. And should Ms. Palin become VP, I look forward to seeing what the old boys make of their feisty leader.
But I am drowning in the Mystery of it all...
That is until another group of social conservatives welcomed with open arms a woman candidate for Vice President of the US whose major credential is her feisty track record against good old boy corruption. (Also she's against abortion and for guns and has a son in the military. I wonder when is the last time an American president or vice president had a near relative in the military?)
But she is a woman, and not only that, she's the mother of an infant. An infant with special needs, at that. I've got a fair number of feminist credentials and I have to say that it makes me queasy to imagine how much that little boy is going to miss his mommy even if she becomes Vice President, much less, president. These are not exactly 40 hour a week jobs which easily combine with family and child care. Nor is he the only child in the family; there are three others still young enough to need a big slice of parental time and love, and it's not like they have a full-time dad. He's the owner of a small business. And whatever became of "I am my children's mother!"(and therefore only work, at most, part time while they are in school.) ?
No doubt they will work something out, and I think it is wonderfully open-minded of American Conservatives to let them do that in peace. And should Ms. Palin become VP, I look forward to seeing what the old boys make of their feisty leader.
But I am drowning in the Mystery of it all...
Friday, August 29, 2008
Terms of Belittlement
I've been spending time in doctor's offices lately. Nothing major, just my annual stuff and my son's broken arm. What that means is that I've been hearing a lot of professional women referred to as "girls".
Call her a tech or a receptionist, a nurse or a patient rep. (hey, then I know more about what I can expect from her!) Call her a lady, a person...heck, call her a woman.
If you play bridge with "the boys" or go out with "the girls", that's your affair. But if you refer to the woman in your office who is older than I am as a "girl" you belittle her, and her work, and by extension, you belittle me.
As in children.
As in "please hand this to the girl at the window" (meaning the highly trained, apparently competent 50-something person entrusted with sensitive papers and distressed people) and "just sit there and one of the girls will call you back. "(Ditto)
At first I tried being confused. "I don't see any girls here." (blank stare...right over there, can't you see?) Then I tried being shocked. "Surely you don't hire children to work here." (puzzled cluelessness. "No, of course not". ) Then I tried the direct approach. "It's so demeaning to call the professionals you work with girls." This approach was to the male techs who were waiting around to put a cast on my son's arm. (Funny, nobody called them "boys". ) However the response was quite revealing. "Well, they act like girls!" one of them guffawed. His partner sensed dangerous territory and hastened to add. "Of course, they think we're nuts too!"
At the Mamogram office this morning, when told by the clerk to wait for the "girl" to call me back, I said again, "It's so demeaning to imply that the people who do such important work are children." The clerk was taken aback and finally responded. "I'm sure its a term of endearment." But I saw a shadow cross her face as she heard her own words. No doubt employee relations are just fine in that big office, but it was crystal clear that the person who was going to call me back was not "dear" to the one who had just called her a girl. It's not really a term of endearment, after all. No, actually, it's a term of belittlement. It bespeaks a lack of respect for persons doing important but adjunct work in a medical office because of their sex.Call her a tech or a receptionist, a nurse or a patient rep. (hey, then I know more about what I can expect from her!) Call her a lady, a person...heck, call her a woman.
If you play bridge with "the boys" or go out with "the girls", that's your affair. But if you refer to the woman in your office who is older than I am as a "girl" you belittle her, and her work, and by extension, you belittle me.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Chili Roasting Season
They say that the chemicals that make pepper hot cause the body to produce endorphins, and that New Mexicans are so addicted to chili-high that they pine away without it. College-bound New Mexico teens are promised care packages, not of cookies but of chilis packed in dry ice.
Even the smell is addicting. Its the New Mexico high
Friday, August 01, 2008
The Anthrax Scare
So it seems that a suspect in the 2001 Anthrax scare/murders had committed suicide. Now we may never know what exactly happened and why a respected researcher put anthrax powder in envelopes, killed two people and scared the nation half to death. (remember, no powder allowed in gym dressing rooms?) ..either because the man who did it will now never tell, or because the suicider will be presumed guilty and the case closed.
One thing I've not seen much about in today's news about this strange case is how the Anthrax scare was originally blamed, with supposed substantial evidence, on Iraq. It was another reason we had to go to war. One of the supposed weapons of mass destruction was germ warfare. The notes in the envelope were supposedly from Iraq and the powder itself had some especially Iraqi chemical makeup. That turned out to be flat out made up somewhere in the "information" chain. For a long time now (once we started the war), the FBI has focused on domestic sources of this little terrorist event that we've mostly forgotten. But that little terrorist event was a major cause of this disastrous war. And now the person they were about to finger is dead.
It's an unsatisfactory, not to say downright fishy ending to a very strange, not to say, downright fishy episode in American life.
One thing I've not seen much about in today's news about this strange case is how the Anthrax scare was originally blamed, with supposed substantial evidence, on Iraq. It was another reason we had to go to war. One of the supposed weapons of mass destruction was germ warfare. The notes in the envelope were supposedly from Iraq and the powder itself had some especially Iraqi chemical makeup. That turned out to be flat out made up somewhere in the "information" chain. For a long time now (once we started the war), the FBI has focused on domestic sources of this little terrorist event that we've mostly forgotten. But that little terrorist event was a major cause of this disastrous war. And now the person they were about to finger is dead.
It's an unsatisfactory, not to say downright fishy ending to a very strange, not to say, downright fishy episode in American life.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Avoiding Tragedies like Knoxville
Two are dead and 5 critically injured after a man fired on the UU's of Knoxville yesterday. One of the dead apparently heroically stepped in front of the shooter. Two brave congregants tackled him while he was re-loading his gun. The Presbyterians across the street took in the shocked apparently during their own worship service and has opened their building to the congregation for a de-briefing/vigil this evening.
The perpetrator apparently planned and practiced this attack for reasons not yet made public. How anybody can be so evil as to shoot innocent people in a church is one question of the day. How people can risk their lives for others and offer their love and their building to grieving victims is the questions of goodness.
There's another question that is not being asked, which is, why we are putting up with all this gun violence in our society. As the minister of a Knoxville Baptist church mused in his blog, "The last place you'd expect gun violence is in the peace-loving Tennessee Valley Unitarian Church." There's no escape.
Of all the comments I read in news blogs yesterday, 98% were offering prayer and sympathy, 1% had been deleted as crass and hateful, and one...exactly one, suggested we ought to do something about guns. One minute later someone flashed back, "no law would ever prevent a man like this from getting a gun." In other words, all control is completely hopeless.
I don't think so. It would take time and effort to buy back guns in our society, but if a person had to go underground to get a gun, fewer people would do it...fewer and fewer with passing years. Just as there are far more people who use (legal) alcohol to get high than there are who use illegal drugs, so, as guns got harder and harder to find, maintain, and but annumition for, fewer and fewer people would shoot their fellow human beings.
The TVUUC perpetrator was observed by his neighbors in target practice. If that was an unusual enough and fraught enough activity that someone had alerted the police, this tragedy might have been averted. Or at least, without practice, his aim wouldn't have been so good.
This is the 5th church shooting in the past year or so; there have been more shootings like that in schools. Churches and Schools are the open places of our society. If we must close them down, disallow backpacks and guitar cases, be suspicious of the stranger or the angry...we will all lose far more than if we just start cracking down on guns.
Praying for the People of Knoxville, and for us all....
The perpetrator apparently planned and practiced this attack for reasons not yet made public. How anybody can be so evil as to shoot innocent people in a church is one question of the day. How people can risk their lives for others and offer their love and their building to grieving victims is the questions of goodness.
There's another question that is not being asked, which is, why we are putting up with all this gun violence in our society. As the minister of a Knoxville Baptist church mused in his blog, "The last place you'd expect gun violence is in the peace-loving Tennessee Valley Unitarian Church." There's no escape.
Of all the comments I read in news blogs yesterday, 98% were offering prayer and sympathy, 1% had been deleted as crass and hateful, and one...exactly one, suggested we ought to do something about guns. One minute later someone flashed back, "no law would ever prevent a man like this from getting a gun." In other words, all control is completely hopeless.
I don't think so. It would take time and effort to buy back guns in our society, but if a person had to go underground to get a gun, fewer people would do it...fewer and fewer with passing years. Just as there are far more people who use (legal) alcohol to get high than there are who use illegal drugs, so, as guns got harder and harder to find, maintain, and but annumition for, fewer and fewer people would shoot their fellow human beings.
The TVUUC perpetrator was observed by his neighbors in target practice. If that was an unusual enough and fraught enough activity that someone had alerted the police, this tragedy might have been averted. Or at least, without practice, his aim wouldn't have been so good.
This is the 5th church shooting in the past year or so; there have been more shootings like that in schools. Churches and Schools are the open places of our society. If we must close them down, disallow backpacks and guitar cases, be suspicious of the stranger or the angry...we will all lose far more than if we just start cracking down on guns.
Praying for the People of Knoxville, and for us all....
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Multi-Minister Staffs and the Lone Ranger
There's a lot of pain in our ministry about the issues of multi-minister staffs. We're a denomination of small churches, and most ministers never experience this situation, and the ones who do are in a spotlight. This is not something we've done well as UU's, and this is an impediment to our growth. We're going to stay a denomination of small churches unless we can figure out appropriate, workable structures and mindsets for two ministers to work together. So here is my morning's thought on this subject.
If you've never tried to work with another minister on a staff, let me tell you...it's a learning curve, a spiritual discipline, and a Damed Growth Experience all wrapped up in one...one of those ministerial tasks that nobody in their right mind would try unless they were deeply called to a specialized ministry or the church they served couldn't progress any other way. (A different sort of call.) Worse than a building program. Worse than a Sexual Offender, just to name two ministerial experiences that more of us are familiar with.
Whether you talk to people who have served as Senior ministers in such pairs or Associate/Assistant ministers, you scratch the surface and find pain and blame. Sometimes it seems as if our conversation assumes that anybody ought to be able to step into these roles and if things don't instantly go well, they just have bad intentions or a character disorder. A little charity for those who have chosen or found themselves in this very tough learning curve is in order, I think, especially from those who have not stood in those shoes.
All of us learned to be lone rangers in ministry. Even if we've been lone rangers with lots of volunteer rangers, part time rangers, or even a few sheriffs to work with, we have a major shift if we find ourselves one of Two Rangers Working Together, especially when the situation calls for (and in my opinion most of them should) one of the two to have some authority over the other.
Onlookers to these rather public relationships cluck and shake their heads when they don't work out well. (Most of them probably do work out well, often for many years, but we don't hear so much about those.) Mostly they cluck at the senior ministers who are accused of being jealous, protective of their place in the congregational sun, and unwilling to share the perks of ministry. There is, of course, another side of the story, which is the story of Associate/Assistant ministers who couldn't learn to work on a team, couldn't take direction, couldn't NOT be in the spotlight and generally continued to be Lone Rangers when the situation called for working with someone else.
Most UU Ministers, I think, wouldn't want to serve in multi-minister situations. We like being in charge...and whether you serve as a Senior or Associate/Assistant, you give up a good deal of 'being in charge.' For those called to serve in churches which are just too big for one minister and those called to specialized ministries...we just gotta work this out.
If you've never tried to work with another minister on a staff, let me tell you...it's a learning curve, a spiritual discipline, and a Damed Growth Experience all wrapped up in one...one of those ministerial tasks that nobody in their right mind would try unless they were deeply called to a specialized ministry or the church they served couldn't progress any other way. (A different sort of call.) Worse than a building program. Worse than a Sexual Offender, just to name two ministerial experiences that more of us are familiar with.
Whether you talk to people who have served as Senior ministers in such pairs or Associate/Assistant ministers, you scratch the surface and find pain and blame. Sometimes it seems as if our conversation assumes that anybody ought to be able to step into these roles and if things don't instantly go well, they just have bad intentions or a character disorder. A little charity for those who have chosen or found themselves in this very tough learning curve is in order, I think, especially from those who have not stood in those shoes.
All of us learned to be lone rangers in ministry. Even if we've been lone rangers with lots of volunteer rangers, part time rangers, or even a few sheriffs to work with, we have a major shift if we find ourselves one of Two Rangers Working Together, especially when the situation calls for (and in my opinion most of them should) one of the two to have some authority over the other.
Onlookers to these rather public relationships cluck and shake their heads when they don't work out well. (Most of them probably do work out well, often for many years, but we don't hear so much about those.) Mostly they cluck at the senior ministers who are accused of being jealous, protective of their place in the congregational sun, and unwilling to share the perks of ministry. There is, of course, another side of the story, which is the story of Associate/Assistant ministers who couldn't learn to work on a team, couldn't take direction, couldn't NOT be in the spotlight and generally continued to be Lone Rangers when the situation called for working with someone else.
Most UU Ministers, I think, wouldn't want to serve in multi-minister situations. We like being in charge...and whether you serve as a Senior or Associate/Assistant, you give up a good deal of 'being in charge.' For those called to serve in churches which are just too big for one minister and those called to specialized ministries...we just gotta work this out.
Grocery Matters
I'm ecstatic, 'cause I just discovered that Sunflower Market is moving to my neck of the woods (corner of Montgomery and Juan Tabo)! Yes! Ever since my beloved corner grocery store closed a year ago, I've been a grocery shopper adrift, and what used to be my favorite family chore turned into a ...well...a chore. The chain grocery stores cater more and more to people who don't cook, they just nuke and eat. Aside from the fact that even the produce sections are more and more taken over by expensive, ready-to-eat items, the check-out lanes more and more use those "scan-it-yourself" machines which may work well for people who never buy produce...I wouldn't know...but I do know that they are torture for people who do buy produce. So we who eat fresh food stand in ever longer lines for old fashioned checkers.
Sunflower Markets specialize in produce and meat and sell at wonderful prices. For instance, you can by a big bunch of Collards for .99 a Sunflower, while they're $1.99 at Smiths and at Whole Foods/Whole Paycheck a small bunch is 1.99. (Collards, you ask? Collards are the staple diet of green Iguanas, and a 10 lb Green Iguana eats a lot of collards.) That's just an example. Many produce items cost half what they do in the chain stores.
Sunflower is not perfect. They sell only minimal canned/boxed/household goods. But I'm so glad they are moving to my part of town and even...this is too good to be true...on my bus line!
Thanks, Sunflower, you made my week!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Terminating Fellowship and New Media
The UU World has changed its headline to reflect accurately on the new by-law change. Apparently I wasn't the only person who complained. Hopefully, someone thought to complain directly, which is only polite. Now, I'm embarrassed that I didn't think to do that. I actually know these people personally...what was I thinking?
Well, I was thinking old-style media, that's what I was thinking. A Headline is a Headline. A Headline has been printed on thousands of pieces of paper and sent out to the world. There's no recall (in old media) No point in complaining. What's done is done.
What a Luddite I am! This is On-Line. Corrections easy.
And I do appreciate the willingness to make them.
Well, I was thinking old-style media, that's what I was thinking. A Headline is a Headline. A Headline has been printed on thousands of pieces of paper and sent out to the world. There's no recall (in old media) No point in complaining. What's done is done.
What a Luddite I am! This is On-Line. Corrections easy.
And I do appreciate the willingness to make them.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Terminating Ministers
"Ministers can be terminated for incompetence," screams the UU World headline. It's a misleading headline with nasty overtones, and I expect better from the UU World.
Aside from the fact that it is ministerial fellowship (credentialing) which can be terminated, not ministers, for incompetence, I'm sure I'm not the only person who thinks "killed by organized crime" when the verb "terminated" is used in that way.
The text of the article shocked me too, and this is not an editorial problem. When this new rule was explained to the ministers, it was couched in terms of, "When a minister has experienced several negotiated resignations..." they can be judged to be an incompetent minister and removed from Fellowship. The article implied that it would be possible for someone to be removed from Fellowship because they didn't meet current competencies. This would make it possible to remove any minister from fellowship because I can promise you, there's not a minister amongst us who perfectly meets current competencies. I've had an opportunity to look at the list of questions the MFC has lately asked candidates and there are lots and lots that I'd have difficulty with, and more still in which the "competent" answer is impossibly subjective.
So while I think that there is need for a provision like this, without carefully drawn guidelines, it could be a very dangerous new rule.
Aside from the fact that it is ministerial fellowship (credentialing) which can be terminated, not ministers, for incompetence, I'm sure I'm not the only person who thinks "killed by organized crime" when the verb "terminated" is used in that way.
The text of the article shocked me too, and this is not an editorial problem. When this new rule was explained to the ministers, it was couched in terms of, "When a minister has experienced several negotiated resignations..." they can be judged to be an incompetent minister and removed from Fellowship. The article implied that it would be possible for someone to be removed from Fellowship because they didn't meet current competencies. This would make it possible to remove any minister from fellowship because I can promise you, there's not a minister amongst us who perfectly meets current competencies. I've had an opportunity to look at the list of questions the MFC has lately asked candidates and there are lots and lots that I'd have difficulty with, and more still in which the "competent" answer is impossibly subjective.
So while I think that there is need for a provision like this, without carefully drawn guidelines, it could be a very dangerous new rule.
GA Connections
Every year there is a service celebrating ministry at the GA. New ministers are congratulated, retiring ministers honored, and the deceased are named. At the beginning of a minister's career, they likely know many new ministers and few retiring or deceased ministers, and that changes; slowly for people who work around Seminaries or are in ministerial chapters with many Seminarians, rapidly for people like me who spent a career in various UU outbacks. The moment of silence for the deceased gets more and more poignent as the years pass. Ministers talk a lot about this particular rite of passage.
But this year I noticed something else. Between old interns and people who left Albuquerque to go to Seminary, my GA is getting richer and richer. Last week I cheered on an old staffer, Michael Corrigan, who received Preliminary Fellowship, my first intern, who got Final Fellowship, and had breakfast with an Myriam Renaud who left Albuquerque for seminary 7 years ago and is deep into a PhD program in Theology. I knew more of the deceased ministers, but I know these new ones better. That's good!
And speaking of the Service of the Living Tradition, it lived up to its name this year for the first time in a long time...a dignified worship service that was still alive. The 19th century form, created for a small group of ministers and meant to be held in a church, had not translated well to a convention hall and a hundred honorees, and the SLT had taken on the overtones of a circus. Beth Miller has made changes over the past couple of years which have made the service both more interesting (I loved being able to see photographs of the honorees as their names were called!) and more dignified. There were a few adolescents who attempted to continue the circus atmosphere with their calls and whistles, but I imagine they will have matured before another year passes and the Service of the Living Tradition will continue to thrive.
But this year I noticed something else. Between old interns and people who left Albuquerque to go to Seminary, my GA is getting richer and richer. Last week I cheered on an old staffer, Michael Corrigan, who received Preliminary Fellowship, my first intern, who got Final Fellowship, and had breakfast with an Myriam Renaud who left Albuquerque for seminary 7 years ago and is deep into a PhD program in Theology. I knew more of the deceased ministers, but I know these new ones better. That's good!
And speaking of the Service of the Living Tradition, it lived up to its name this year for the first time in a long time...a dignified worship service that was still alive. The 19th century form, created for a small group of ministers and meant to be held in a church, had not translated well to a convention hall and a hundred honorees, and the SLT had taken on the overtones of a circus. Beth Miller has made changes over the past couple of years which have made the service both more interesting (I loved being able to see photographs of the honorees as their names were called!) and more dignified. There were a few adolescents who attempted to continue the circus atmosphere with their calls and whistles, but I imagine they will have matured before another year passes and the Service of the Living Tradition will continue to thrive.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
UUSC Awards
I have to be honest...the moment I finished the Berry St. Essay, which has been a burden and a privilege and an obsession for 15 months now...that was the high point of my GA experience. My gracious colleagues received it well and my new colleague John Cullinan delivered a response that was substantive and well done. What a relief!
But that was really Minister's Days, not GA, and the highlight of GA was, hands down, the UUSC annual meeting, specifically the awards ceremony. Awards were given to an amazing youth...one of those kids who has done more work for justice by the time they go to college than most people do in a lifetime. Last year's youth honoree, who had not been able to be present last year, was also given a round of applause. The adult awardee was a young adult Navy officer who has begun UU worship and other activities at the Great Lakes Naval Base, including values education and decision-making courses for young recruits, some of whom are getting this kind of education for the first time at a very vulnerable times in their lives. With him to celebrate this award were two other leaders, one in uniform, one the parent of a pre-school boy, dressed in his army costume. The moment was a celebration of the terrible and joyful complexity of the reality of war and the hope of peace.
Monday, June 09, 2008
ScareIguana
Iguanas are the genius of the lizard tribe; they need interaction, change, and movement to thrive, just like dogs and cats. Also, they need real sun or are at risk for serious illness. Cage lights help, but, well...nothing replaces straight sun. Ninja has been roaming the house (under supervision) for 9 months now, and it was time for an outdoor cage.
Ig's don't do change well, so his first trip to the cage was an anxious one, but today, he seems content to sit on his high shelf and watch the world. An unexpected benefit; his presence has scared the pigeons away, so we'll just call him our scareiguana!
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Hilary's Triumph
Today is the 89th anniversary of the proposal of the 19th ammendment to the constitution, giving women the right to vote.
Yep...it's only been 89 years. There are woman alive who were born disenfranchised. What a long, long way we've come!
Today it seems clear that we will not have a woman president this time around, and even though I didn't vote for her, there's a sadness in me about that.
Let's give her her due. She dared to dream, she braved criticism (no...not criticism, scorn) that would have withered a cactus in the desert, and she almost won. If she can get that far, one of her sisters, sitting watching the TV last night, will get farther. And a generation of girls knows in a new way, "I could be president."
And that's a triumph. Thanks, Hilary.
Yep...it's only been 89 years. There are woman alive who were born disenfranchised. What a long, long way we've come!
Today it seems clear that we will not have a woman president this time around, and even though I didn't vote for her, there's a sadness in me about that.
Let's give her her due. She dared to dream, she braved criticism (no...not criticism, scorn) that would have withered a cactus in the desert, and she almost won. If she can get that far, one of her sisters, sitting watching the TV last night, will get farther. And a generation of girls knows in a new way, "I could be president."
And that's a triumph. Thanks, Hilary.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Earth Peeves
They say that use of public transportation is up drastically this quarter, all over the nation, and it seems that that's true of ABQ, too. Good for everybody!
At the same time, it's gotten hot in ABQ, and one thing that means is that some people sit in their cars with the engines running in parking lots, getting 0 mpg, so they can stay air conditioned.
I saw it yesterday at the Sunflower market; a man was sitting in the car next to mine blasting CO2 and pollution all over this beautiful world. I was annoyed. But I was even more annoyed when I returned to my car 20 minutes later and he was STILL THERE!...blasting CO2 and pollution all over this beautiful world. And you know, not 20 steps away, under the store's portico, nicely decorated with basil plants, were cafe tables. (Not to mention the possibility that he could have gone in and helped with the shopping...or...if he was really too frail to do any of those things, he should have stayed home.
Long lines at drive-thru's bug me, too. Park and go in, for pete's sake. Most times it's faster.
We need an attitude adjustment about drive-thrus. They should be for the handicapped and for people who are lugging around two little kids in car seats.
Able bodied adults....park your cars!
At the same time, it's gotten hot in ABQ, and one thing that means is that some people sit in their cars with the engines running in parking lots, getting 0 mpg, so they can stay air conditioned.
I saw it yesterday at the Sunflower market; a man was sitting in the car next to mine blasting CO2 and pollution all over this beautiful world. I was annoyed. But I was even more annoyed when I returned to my car 20 minutes later and he was STILL THERE!...blasting CO2 and pollution all over this beautiful world. And you know, not 20 steps away, under the store's portico, nicely decorated with basil plants, were cafe tables. (Not to mention the possibility that he could have gone in and helped with the shopping...or...if he was really too frail to do any of those things, he should have stayed home.
Long lines at drive-thru's bug me, too. Park and go in, for pete's sake. Most times it's faster.
We need an attitude adjustment about drive-thrus. They should be for the handicapped and for people who are lugging around two little kids in car seats.
Able bodied adults....park your cars!
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Playing By The Rules
My major objective for November is a Democratic win, and I preferred Obama over Clinton a little bit...until the last few weeks and the fight over illicit delegates.
Amongst the problems of the past 8 years is that we've had a president who doesn't play by the rules...international rules, UN rules, Geneva convention rules, compassion rules...any rules but his own rules. It's been destructive and damaging and scary.
A president needs to live by the rules, abide by the things s/he negotiated, and live gracefully with the result. That's adulthood. This playground squabble in which one party wants the agreed-upon rules set aside so that she might win the game, and complains when the rules are set aside but in a compromise...that's not my president. That's not even a grownup. And God knows, it is high time we had a grown up in the highest office on the planet.
Amongst the problems of the past 8 years is that we've had a president who doesn't play by the rules...international rules, UN rules, Geneva convention rules, compassion rules...any rules but his own rules. It's been destructive and damaging and scary.
A president needs to live by the rules, abide by the things s/he negotiated, and live gracefully with the result. That's adulthood. This playground squabble in which one party wants the agreed-upon rules set aside so that she might win the game, and complains when the rules are set aside but in a compromise...that's not my president. That's not even a grownup. And God knows, it is high time we had a grown up in the highest office on the planet.
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