It matters what company we keep.<\/p>\n
I was in the 10th grade. My English teacher had assigned a project to collect and summarize a series of newspaper and magazine articles on some theme I\u2019ve long since forgotten. I didn\u2019t really care for this teacher, I thought her project was more appropriate for elementary school than high school, and as a result I hadn\u2019t started working on it with less than a week to go before it was due.<\/p>\n
The project came up in conversation at lunch one day. We talked about how juvenile it was, how we weren\u2019t learning anything and how this teacher didn\u2019t seem to understand we were supposed to be an \u201caccelerated\u201d class. D said how happy she was to be finished with the project. Others said they were close to being done. I kept my mouth shut till everyone had spoken, then admitted I hadn\u2019t started.<\/p>\n
J looked right at me and said \u201cyou better get your ass in gear!\u201d<\/p>\n
Nothing the teacher, my parents, or anyone else could have said would have made as strong an impression as hearing that from a peer. I got my ass in gear, pulled the project together and turned it in on time. <\/p>\n
I sympathize with those whose family or geographical situations won\u2019t allow them to join a coven, grove, CUUPS group or even a UU church. But those of us who can are shorting ourselves if we don\u2019t participate in a spiritual community. We need like-minded folks to talk to \u2013 people who won\u2019t look at us like we\u2019re nuts when we talk about our religious experiences. We need people we can learn with and from. And, as my story from 10th grade illustrates, we need people who will hold us accountable to our common values and our individual goals. <\/p>\n