May 13 News and Notes – Mothers Day

подаръциToday we were celebrating Mother’s Day with Poetry, Memories and Music.  Lead by our dream team, Becca and Betty, we started off with Susan Boyle singing A Mother’s Day Prayer… well not actually Susan Boyle, but it sounded really nice.  They, Becca and Betty (without Susan), taught us about Julia Ward Howe and the original effort to institute Mother’s day.  Julia envisioned it as Mother’s peace day.  So much devastation had traumatized the country that she wished that the women of one country will not allow sons to be trained to injure the sons of those women of another country.

“Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.”  In 1872, it finally came to pass.

Betty read a poem by James Whitcomb Riley.  Savanna read one by Eugene Fields.  We all had an opportunity to tell stories on our mothers.  Some of the story tellers had their mothers actually in the room.  Thurman read “Let me Grow Lovely” by Karle Wilson Baker.

We lit candles for the Nuns in Catholic orders everywhere who obviously need our support since they aren’t getting support from other denominations.  We lit a candle for Jan’s mother who has shingles.  Thanks to Becca for arranging for the grass cutting.

Next week we are having the annual Church meeting.  June 1 starts our new fiscal year.

Let Me Grow Lovely

Karle Wilson Baker         

Apr 15 News and Notes

Откъде да купя иконаToday we had a lesson in meditation from a teacher at the Tibetan Buddhist meditation and study center: Karma Thegsum Choling.  2600 years ago the Buddha began instruction.  He believed that every human possesses the ability to demonstrate (1) loving kindness and compassion, (2) Virtue, and (3) the ability to tame the mind.  All I can say is that the Buddha never met my nephew.

Anyway, Buddha knew that the mind has an unlimited ability to think things.  During meditation, we have to learn to recognize that and let it go.  Sit in a dignified way, sit up straight, take a deep breath, raise up your chest, tuck in your chin, and set a timer.  OK, it is more complicated than that.  The instructor gave us all a booklet to take home.  Joy pointed out that there is a “Meditation for Dummies” book available.

Our story was Mindful Monkey and Happy Panda.

Don’t forget to register your Kroger card for Kroger rewards for the church.  Yes, again.  We have to do it every year. No, it doesn’t affect your discounts or fuel points.  It is designed for you to shop more often at Kroger so that UUCE gets our extra financing.  Any more questions?  find Kroger Community Rewards on the internet.  Click on Columbus (for some reason they do this by geography) Our reg number is “80237″  You can check your fuel points while you are there.

Volunteerism.  Church members cleared the way for spring lawn mowing today.  Next week Rick will roto-till the meadow for wildflower planting.  The Three Cranes Grove planted trees yesterday in the park.  Oak and Dogwood.  Betty thanks everyone for being so generous in sharing food following services.  Joy’s joy is that everything at her work has gone smoothly recently.  We lit candles for Betty’s son who is looking for a job and Sylvia who’s newborn babies died suddenly.    Also we lit candles for the Ohio Nat Guard members killed recently and for a successful resolution to the middle east conflict… such a small candle for such a big task.

Peace,

Rick

Apr 8 News and Notes

Rick spoke to us today about man’s relationship to animals.  It is a funny complex relationship.  Obviously we humans feel strongly about our relationships to them and they have been at the center of our spiritual relationships.  Animals are the subjects of the first cave paintings – which strongly speaks to our spiritual nature.  In the Judeo-Christian tradition, Genesis says animals are set on the earth before man.  The creation of animals is the first time that god the creator says that his work is good or beautiful (pretty as you may think they are, oceans and firmament don’t get that “good” kind of recognition from god).  Then the Judeo-Christian god tells man something very interesting, to maintain dominion over the animals.  So what is that relationship?  Western European traditions have struggled with this.  The first animal protection laws against cruelty arise in the 1600’s.  But, even if we agree not to be “cruel” to them,  there is still the problem that we eat them that has to be worked out. 

In human traditions, we eat some animals, but decide that it would be cruel to others to eat them.  For some people goats are pets, for some people goats are BBQ.  Dogs have the same dilemma… pets and menu items both depending on who you ask.  Some people who report themselves to be vegetarians will also eat meat, but they justify it depending on who they are.  For some it is OK to eat fish because they don’t have cute fuzzy faces.  For others, they can’t bear the thought of eating an octopus because they are so incredibly intelligent.  For some, chicken is ok for whatever reason… lack of a cute face seems to come up a lot.  But for some people who profess to be vegetarians by conviction, just the smell of a good taco can be enough to temporarily set aside their convictions.

The conclusion is that humans are full of failings and just not good at convictions… whether it be about the relationship humans have with their animals or the relationship humans have with their god.  Not only is it easy for humans to fall off the vegetarian wagon at the smell of a tuna sandwich, but look at the rules that Judeo Christians have to follow in the bible…   No matter how many times the bible says it is an abomination to eat pork, we convince ourselves that it is OK to eat pork.  But, when the bible even suggests that it might be a problem to be gay… well… humans can create hugely organized movements around being anti-gay because, well the bible instructs them to do that.  And Judeo-Christian humans also readily convince ourselves that it is OK to refrain from stoning adulterers as well.

News:  Not so much this week because my reporting skills were compromised on Sunday.  Many people need remembrances in your thoughts this week, so think about some of them.  Church board meeting next week.  The church “Earth day” is going to be Sunday April 22… please consider staying on to help clean up the grounds.  Hopefully we will finally till the soil and create Shirley’s dream of a wild flower meadow down near the river.

Peace,

Rick

Mar 11 News and Notes

ХудожникOur own Shawn spoke to us about the glory of springtime.

The spring equinox is March 20.  The light and the dark will be in balance, but for the first time in 6 months, the light will be increasingly more strong than the darkness.  The sun rises in the East and sets in the West.

Many ancient cultures noticed the balance of light and darkness, and marked the day as a special holiday. The goddess “Eostar” was the patron of spring, and this holiday came to be known as “Ostara.”  Bonfires were a frequent marker of the spring equinox. Jumping the fire sometimes a part of this ritual (ed. note:  see the movie Dancing at Lughnasa with Meryl Streep (1998))

In the natural world the heather and the crocus are in bloom.  The flowering trees rush to bloom in the unusually warm spring, the ancient trees are more wise and hold back.  Hibernation is ending and it is the mating season for much Ohio wildlife.

St Patrick’s day is coming with its sympathetic green coloring.  Everyone suddenly wants to think GREEN.

Things to do to honor the spring:

Appreciate nature.  Lean against a tree.  Watch a daffodil.  Take a walk and watch for buds on the trees.  Make a mud pie.  Put away the snow shovel.  Clean the windows.  Clean the light fixtures.  Clean the crystal.  Change from quilts to lighter blankets.  Make a sculpture of three twigs.  Go buy pansies.  Volunteer to babysit for neighbors and relatives.  Start a new project.  Memorize a poem.  Make a new friend.  Forgive an old grudge.  Make a new hat.  Honor the wind.  Celebrate Earth Day.  Celebrate Arbor Day.  Organize an egg hunt.

Announcements;  Next weekend is the church pot luck – St Patrick’s day pot luck, so bring something green (Betty requests that this dish not involve green jello.)   The Three Cranes Grove is having an Equinox celebration next Sunday.  Ohio Interfaith power and light are hosting an Earth Keeping Summit here in Columbus on March 31.  http://www.ohipl.org/?q=node/230.

We lit a candle for Betty’s daughter, Susan, for the kindness of neighbors, and for Emily J. who’s birthday is tomorrow.

The children’s story was :

Did You Hear Wind Sing Your Name?: An Oneida Song of Spring

And finally, Shawn read the lyrics to the song “Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain”

(Ed. note:  treat yourself to something glorious and go experience this song here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27p98aLPZPI)

Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,
Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.

In the grave they laid him, love whom men had slain,
Thinking that never he would wake again.
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green,

Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain.
Quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.

When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
Thy touch can call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.

Spring's simplicity: Larkin's Twig

4 Mar News and Notes

Our guest speaker today was Barbara Gonzalez, and she came to talk with us about Pastafarianism.   Pastafarians are proponents of the Church of the flying Spaghetti Monster.  The “Flying Spaghetti Monster” first appeared in a satirical open letter written by Bobby Henderson in 2005, protesting the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to permit the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in public school science classes.  Mr Henderson correctly points out that if creationism is going to be given equal access to classroom time as the teaching of evolution, then, logically, teaching that the flying spaghetti monster created the heavens and the earth is equally valid.

“I think we can all look forward to the time when these three theories are given equal time in our science classrooms across the country, and eventually the world; one third time for Intelligent Design, one third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, and one third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence.”

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, then, is an aid in keeping some form of intellectual honesty alive in the attempt to teach intelligent design.  If the argument to include intelligent design is so bereft of logic that it is written in such a way as to allow the teaching of the Spaghetti Monster, then Mr. Henderson is quick to insist on the rights of the Pastafarians.  In Polk County Florida, an attempt to allow intelligent design to be taught in schools was abandon when they could not determine that they could write language that included the Christian’s intelligent design while excluding Pastafarianism.

Intellectual honesty is further attacked by the Pastafarians when they attempt to mimic Christian rhetoric of correlation science.  Henderson asserts that the steady decline in the number of pirates over the years has resulted in global warming.  There is a clear inverse relationship between in increase in global warming and the decrease in the number of pirates.

Girl Scout Cookies are in.

We lit a candle for the victims of tornadoes this week.  We lit one for Thurman’s former sister in law, and one for Betty’s daughter,  Susan.

The Ohio interfaith power and light is having an earth keeping summit on Mar 31.  See http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=c5vggpcab&oeidk=a07e5hv302q581233b5