It was cool and drizzly when I was picked up in front of my apartment in Chicago’s Hyde Park. A few hours later it was very bright and just a fraction on the good side of hot as I picked up my car in San Diego. A lovely adventure, at this writing, actually not quite finished.
I settled into the motel, had dinner, and spent the balance of the evening reading and watching TV. The next day I drove out to the First Unitarian Universalist Church and conducted a day long exploration of Buddhism and Zen for Unitarian Universalists. We covered basic Buddhist concepts, the ins and outs of Zen meditation (everyone is curious about the practice of koan introspection) and the Buddhist/Unitarian Universalist encounter. Toward the end of the afternoon the Zen teacher and Dharma successor to Joko Beck, Elizabeth Hamilton showed up.
After the event Elizabeth & I drove off to Pacific Beach where the Zen Center of San Diego (sorry they don’t have a website) is, we walked around a bit, then sat on a bench and watched beach life while catching up on this and that. She’s written a book How to Untrain Your Parrot and is in the last phases of production with her publisher. She then took me to a wonderful Syrian restaurant disguised as a Greek restaurant.
The next day I held forth for two services at the church. A wonderful crowd, quite interesting in several ways. Arvid Straube, their lead minister (what they call a senior minister in ultra egalitarian Southern California) pointed out how diligently his predecessor’s Caroline and Tom Owen-Towle had pushed the congregation’s welcoming stance. A result is that in addition to the usual cast of characters there is a significant number of people living at the edge, for instance some living in single rooms in downtown hotels, who are members of this church. Arvid pointed out this subset of the congregation share the intellectual profile that marks UUs in general, but just aren’t middle class. As most who glance at this site know, so many, most UUs are.
I was deeply taken with this. As someone who comes from the underclasses the middle class biases of the denomination are sometimes annoying. I was very impressed to find concrete proof this doesn’t have to be.
For those who are following this, my back seems fine. I did misstep off a curb and sent a bit of a shock to the spine, but other than being a little sore, all seems okay. In an hour I’ll be picked up by a bus tour that will drive down the Baja coast to Ensenada. Then very, very early tomorrow a flight back to Chicago.
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