seeker for truth

On November 17, 2000 Bill Gardiner died in a cycling accident while commuting home from work, he was 67 years old. On the day that he died, I didn’t even know his name. A decade later he still comes to mind when I think about the kind of person that I want to be. It was months after his death, which I had heard about on the news, before I was able to connect his name, and his fate, with the familiar face that I had come to miss in the hallways at work. Bill and I had just one interaction, repeated many times. I would greet Bill with a standard ‘how’s it going?’ and he would shoot me a toothy grin and say, ”I struggle. How about you?” What was clear about Bill’s struggle, just from the way he said it, was that it was both a joy and a duty. It was his definition of his own life, his way of laying claim to it, and every day he both invited you and challenged you to join in. It was offered like an invitation to a celebration. It was issued like a challenge to live up to your own high...

Rachel, When responding to the new GOP Chair's distinction between making 'work' vs. making 'jobs' on the 2/9/09 show it felt like you intentionally misunderstood or refused to understand his point as a way to poke fun at his argument. While I understand the pull to maneuver and spin these soundbites, and while I agree that his proposition was preposterous, I think that in order for the nation to follow President Obama down the path toward more honest government where he is attempting to lead us, the press will need to cooperate by taking a more substantively engaged position on these issues. In this particular case, the issue with the work/jobs distinction is based on the fallacious assumption that private sector jobs are more stable or last longer than government jobs. Or that infrastructure projects are somehow ephermeral in their impact. I think that these points can (and need to be) refuted, both with argument and with data. But to simply...

(sermon delivered on February 1, 2009 at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin) READING This reading comes from an interview with the 14th Dalai Lama "Recently I am emphasizing that due to the modern economy, and also due to information and education, the world is now heavily interdependent, interconnected. Under such circumstances, the concept of 'we' and 'they' is gone: harming your neighbor is actually harming yourself. If you do negative things towards your neighbor, that is actually creating your own suffering. And helping them, showing concern about others' welfare -- actually these are the major factors of your own happiness. If you want a community full of joy, full of friendship, you should create that possibility. If you remain negative, and meantime want more smiles and friendship from your neighbors, that's illogical. If you want a more friendly neighbor, you must create the atmosphere. Then they will respond." PRAYER Please joi...

Did a little internet research today I thought I'd share. I searched for the full text string of each of the seven UU principles and recorded the number of hits. I think it is an interesting rough estimate of what priority each principle has at this point in history (although a better study would break down the evaluation by posting date, so that the time element contributes to the analysis instead of weakening it). At any rate, here's what I found: [# of Hits - UU Principle] 34.2k -The inherent worth and dignity of every person 22k - A free and responsible search for truth and meaning 21.9k - Justice, equity and compassion in human relations 18k - Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part 17k - The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all 11.6k - Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations 10.7k - The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congrega...

I decided a few days ago to finally visit the MacArthur foundation website. I had been hearing their recognition clip on NPR for years: "The MacArthur Foundation supports creative people and effective institutions committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world." I think it's a great mission statement for a foundation: it is nearly exhaustive without losing focus on the values that it promotes. At any rate, this led me to read more about the programs that they sponsor, and subsequently to realize that I want to be a MacArthur Fellow. Unfortunately you can't apply to be a MacArthur fellow. Which is probably an excellent idea to save your selection volunteers from having to pour over oodles of applications from all over the spectrum (a lot of people would do anything for $500,000 in no-strings-attached funding). But, in deciding what I would do with the funding, I came to a few important realizations: (1) that I am ready to begin work on writing on so...

I was reading an article by Robert Bellah called "Unitarian Universalism in Societal Perspective" delivered at the UU general assembly in 1998. (http://www.robertbellah.com/lectures_7.htm) He places UUism squarely in the mainstream of the American religion tradition, primarily by discussing how it is principally in line with America's cultural bias of individualism. I find this argument compelling and I agree with the analysis, but for me it has highlighted what I believe to the the biggest hurdle standing between where we are and where we are headed (as a species). Before I attempt to articulate the hurdle, another example: in the fouth season of the West Wing. The President is faced with a genocide in the fictional African nation of Kundu and asks one of his staffers, "Why is an American life worth more than a Kundunese one?" The staffer responds, "I don't know sir, it just is." The power of this dialogue, for me, is the clear acknowledgement o...