In his play Hamlet, Shakespeare has the character Polonius ask Hamlet, “What do you read, My Lord?” “Words, words,” Hamlet replies. Polonius says, “But what is the matter, my lord?” “Between who?” “I mean the matter that you read, my lord.” “Matter.” Shakespeare loved words that cut two ways. “Matter,” as in what’s the matter? and “matter” as in “it is all matter.” It’s a good question, isn’t it—What’s the matter? What is the matter in words? What do they... Read more
Here is what Plato had to say about the body and the soul: Does not purification consist in this . . . in separating as much as possible the soul from the body, and in accustoming it to gather and collect itself by itself on all sides apart from the body, and to dwell, so far as it can, both now and hereafter, alone by itself, delivered, as it were, from the shackles of the body? (Phaedo) Body and soul.... Read more
I often tell the story of the time my Chaplain Supervisor told me, “Deanna, I wish you would stop being so hard on yourself” (She paused here and I had a moment to think sweetly “Oh, she really cares about me.” This tenderness quickly faded as she continued) – “because then you would stop being so damn hard on the rest of us.” Oh. I tell this story often because I need to hear it – to hear how my... Read more
Art museums are currently going through a sea change, and that sea change is about the difference between access and curating. Now, obviously, as in most either/or binaries, the answer is actually both/and, but binaries help us get clarity in our thinking. Think of the old model of art museums: they served a curatorial function: we mount a show on Post-Impressionism. We hang a bunch of Post-Impressionist paintings. We put up a sign saying, “Post-Impressionism was an artistic movement in... Read more
In 1931 the Humanist Unitarian minister Curtis Reese looked into his crystal ball and wrote that society was moving “away from religion conceived as one of man’s concerns, and toward religion conceived as man’s one concern.” Why would a Humanist foresee religion becoming more, not less, central as a human concern? (Note that Reese had the dominant Western religions of his time in mind.) Because Reese assumed the new religion of Humanism would make its adherents into practical philosophers, philosophers... Read more
Who doesn’t want to be happy? Everybody wants to be happy. The trouble starts when we begin the search for happiness. Will that big slice of cheese cake make me happy? How about a new car? A new partner? How about a big move to somewhere else, anywhere but here? Nope. Those don’t do much for happiness, not in the long run, anyway. You’ve probably read about the study that compared lottery winners and paralyzed accident victims a year after... Read more
Late last night a member of my congregation was killed. She was someone who cared deeply about her spiritual life, who not only took classes through our church but also was moved to go through seminary. She was someone who believed, as Unitarian Universalists do, in growth, in possibility, in the urge toward the good, in the value of each and every human life. She believed, as Unitarian Universalists do, that redemption is not so much something that is granted... Read more
I meet monthly with clergy colleagues, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian of various stripes, all of whom are leaders of urban, liberal congregations. We clergy—and most of our members—do not see our own way as the only way. We believe that dialogue is the antidote to violence. None of us are fundamentalists. That said, none of us is thinking of converting to another religious tradition. We are open-minded but not open to conversion. We meet to talk. The fact that we... Read more
A few weeks ago, I shared a sermon called Still We Rise with a congregation in the Greater New Orleans Unitarian Universalist cluster. Sometime later, I fed this sermon into a program that created the beautiful word cloud above. To me, it feels like a visual prayer. This past week has been a storm of living for me, filled with the full spectrum of life and death, family, friends, administration, travel, and ministry. I am taking this morning to breath a prayer of gratitude for... Read more
Totally unprepared are you To face a world of men Timid and shy and scared are you Of things beyond your ken The composition date is 1959, the composers Rogers and Hammerstein, the musical The Sound of Music. “You are Sixteen Going on Seventeen” is perhaps the epitome of mansplaining. Mansplaining. It’s about speaking from a position of privilege. There’s a Tumblr site, mansplained.tumblr.com. An internet search will reveal several related words: “man-turuption” man-turpreting bro-propriating (or bro-opting), when a man... Read more
UU Collective
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In