THE STORY OF THE ELDEST PRINCESS A Life in Stories A story loosely adapted from A.S. Byatt’s story Together with a Homily by James Ishmael Ford 1 November 2009 First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Cathy: Here we are, at the time which in the ancient Celtic calendar is known as “Summer’s end.” In more recent Western spiritual calendars it has become the time to recall all those who have died, and particularly those who became examples for us and... Read more

In A. S. Byatt’s lovely story “The Eldest Princess,” all the eldest princesses magical companions are wounded. I read of these encounters and my mind reeled. I think of all my magical companions, really my spiritual guides over the many years, the ones who were actually of use on my way. Not one of them without a wound. One ate too much. Another had anger issues. Another liked the opposite sex way too much. Some whose wounds were, are so... Read more

Harry Houdini, a hero of my childhood died on this day in 1926. Famous for inviting people to give him their most ferocious punch to his stomach, he died after receiving several in rapid succession from a college student. One version of the story says he hadn’t “prepared” to take the punch. In any case his appendix ruptured and he died a while later, today, from peritonitis… As a child I was fascinated with magicians, and of that crowd, I... Read more

She Dreamed of Cowsby Norah Pollard I knew a woman who washed her hair and bathedher body and put on the nightgown she’d wornas a bride and lay down with a .38 in her right hand.Before she did the thing, she went over her life.She started at the beginning and recalled everything‹all the shame, sorrow, regret and loss.This took her a long time into the nightand a long time crying out in rage and grief and disbelief‹until sleep captured her... Read more

There are, of course, a number of “new humanisms” ranging from political to, and probably most significantly, literary movements. But here I’m holding up the New Humanism associated with Greg Epstein, Harvard University’s Humanist chaplain. I’m profoundly enamored of the humanist movement. I think the humanist strains of Chinese religion and what has flourished within Unitarian Universalism are rich and complex expressions of human yearning for depth within the world within which we find ourselves. Western humanism shares with Buddhism,... Read more

On this day in 1787 Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni opened for the first time in Prague. Recently I’ve had several conversations about sexual misconduct and ministers and Zen teachers. And Don Juan’s story certainly fits the bill… Great passion, great falls… In my UU denomination we tend to swing wildly between libertine and puritanical approaches to matters sexual. In my Zen communities, we seem to do the same. Sex is a big one, no doubt. It is about heaven. It... Read more

John Cleese was born on this day in 1939… Walk silly, walk proud! Read more

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TO BE OF USE Finding the Heart of Work A Sermon by James Ishmael Ford 25 October 2009 First Unitarian Church Providence, Rhode Island Text The people I love the bestjump into work head firstwithout dallying in the shallowsand swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.They seem to become natives of that element,the black sleek heads of sealsbouncing like half-submerged balls. I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,who pull like water buffalo, with... Read more

Such a lovely speech. And such evil as burrows into the human heart underlies it… Read more