On this day in 1970 in Los Angeles a thirteen-year old child was discovered to have been kept locked in a room for the entirety of her life, mostly tied sitting on a potty chair. She never escaped the consequences of the brutal treatment, and particularly the social isolation of those first thirteen years. Beyond the immediate sadness of her situation, I find I need to pause. Those who think we are autonomous creatures would do well to read her... Read more

WESTERN BUDDHIST TEACHERS FOR A FREE BURMAc/o Clear View Project1933 Russell Street, Berkeley, CA [email protected] / 510.845.2215 1 November 2010The White House1600 Pennsylvania AveWashington, DC  20500 Dear President Obama,As you know, the upcoming elections in Burma, scheduled for November 7th cannot be legitimate without participation of the National League for Democracy (NLD). The NLD is boycotting this sham process because the Burmese military regime has designed electoral laws that insure that a rigged and non-representative election will transpire precluding the... Read more

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Have you ever been mugged and had a friend ask you why you wanted that to happen? Happened to a friend of mine. Before we go forward, just so you know; I wasn’t the person with the question. The premise within this exchange is that we are in control of what happens to us. If we’re right with the universe everything we want will be ours. And, so, if we have cancer, we wanted it. If a child is born... Read more

I caught just a fragment of an NPR interview with Patti Smith about her life with the late great photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. I was between this and that, and couldn’t catch the whole thing… But it left Gloria racing through my brain… Read more

TONIGHT, ONLY! 28 October, 2010 The Rev’d Mark Morrison-Reed 7pm in the Parish House Auditorium(right behind the Meeting House) at the First Unitarian Church of Providence1 Benevolent Street(at the corner of Benevolent & Benefit) Reflections on Race Within Unitarian Universalism An Evening with Mark. What was it like growing up an African-American Unitarian Universalist? Why does UUism find becoming more diverse such a struggle? Renowned UU minister Mark Morrison-Reed joins us to read excerpts from his book In Between: Memoir... Read more

Yesterday I was in the grocery store picking up the makings for dinner when I ran into a friend. Her cart was full, almost certainly near the end of her visit to the store. She was poking through a display of frozen fish. I made some small noise about how people block aisles. She looked up at me, took that microsecond to place me out of context, smiled, walked around the carts and gave me a quick hug. And she... Read more

Yesterday, I drove up to Boston to meet with Erik Wickstrom at the Unitarian Universalist Association. He’s one heck of a facilitator and will be leading a conversation with our leadership as we finalize a five year plan for the church. On the way as our local radio station, WRNI began to fade near where we pass the 280 loop, I switched over to Boston’s WBUR. I was listening to Tom Ashbrook’s On Point. I swear Mr Ashbrook has to... Read more

I think the new atheists just plain get it wrong. Not because they’re so unpleasant in their pursuit of clean thinking, although that is too often true. They are wrong because they set their net to capture the wrong monster. Now I applaud those who point out the problems in painting a human face on the cosmos, and the rather worse difficulties in assigning a human-like personality directing the flow of events. When you do that and then you look... Read more

OPEN SECRETS A Reflection on the Nature of Friendship James Ishmael Ford 24 October 2010 First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new. Shall I not call God the Beautiful, who daily showeth himself so to me in his gifts? I chide society, I embrace solitude, and yet I am not so ungrateful as not to see the wise, the lovely, and the noble-minded, as from... Read more