Wednesday, October 31, 2007

UUNITED Soccer Team Ends Fall Season

That's right, sports-fans - the UU juggernaut that is the UUNITED soccer team has finished it's 2007 Outdoor Season! True, we ended the season with only one win (the first game of the season!), but it was a fine season nonetheless.

We played hard and often above ourselves, earning draws with much more experienced teams and losing a number of games in the final bruising seconds as the clock ran out. No matter how you look at it, I think our team definately triumphed in the "Team Spirit" and "Having Fun" departments.

From 4-foot nothing Chanida Thongplengsri's tenacious, take-no-prisoners defense of players literally twice her size to Chiles Friedman's weekly impersonation of the Energizer Bunny to Elliott Davis' on-field "Pirate" persona, every game was challenging, fun and left me counting the days before we would play again.

Each week we would end our games by awarding the honorary Captaincy to another of our scrappy and eminently deserving teammates, who would then lead us in our weekly cheer, which was first chanted almost four years ago in Chicago by the first incarnation of UUNITED:

"1-2-3
U-UNITED
YAR!!!"

(the "Yar" pirate bit was added this year by Elliott)
I always get a little depressed at the end of a season. It's like the end of a theatre production or a class or any other project - some people stick around, other people drift off - no matter how you look at it, things will no longer be the same. Always leaves me a little bit blue. In fact, back in my theatre days, I used to do my best to avoid "take-down" after a show because I found it so depressing. I handle endings much better now (perhaps I have matured somewhat), but still...

Of course I feel much better looking ahead to the coming weeks. We are switching to a Tuesday night indoor league - which will be lots of fun - and a whole new challenge. For those of you who don't know, indoor soccer is radically different than outdoor soccer. It is really a hybrid of soccer and hockey! We play on an oval turf field about the size of an ice-hockey rink. The walls are made of curved plexiglass and you can play the ball off the walls!! It's really fun, and very fast-paced; non-stop sprinting instead of the more measured endurance required by outdoor soccer.

My lungs will not be happy for the first couple weeks...

Anyway, I just want to close by thanking all my teammates (and our patiently tolerant families and cheerleaders) for one of the most fun seasons I have had yet. Thank you, thank you, thank you!


See you on the pitch!
Aaron
















Thursday, October 25, 2007

My Cup Runneth Over

It feels funny not to have written in a while. I find myself inordinately looking forward to those stolen moments when I can add another post. This seems odd to me, since I write constantly, all the usual minister-stuff: prayers, sermons, meditations, wedding services and memorials – and yet I find myself on busy days hoping to find half-an-hour somewhere to work on my blog.

Interesting.

But today I want to begin writing about my recent Ordination into the Unitarian Universalist ministry. Although I was Ordained almost a month ago (Sept. 23, 2007), I have not been able to write about it. It’s just too big. In fact, next to my wedding, the births of my children and getting run over by a car – my ordination was probably the most powerful experience of my life.

And even now, a month later, I still don’t know how to write about it. Words fall so terribly short sometimes.

The feeling of being so supported and affirmed by so many wonderful people, the feeling of the church-walls shaking with song – the feeling of being profoundly connected to all who have come before me and to all who will follow – was simply incredible.

I remember looking out from the pulpit at everyone and seeing their faces, eyes, smiles, standing out in sharp relief. In that moment, I found myself utterly overwhelmed by a feeling of deep gratitude. I remember thinking, “Wow – so this is what Grace feels like…”

And that was all I could do for a time – just stand there, washed in the power and beauty of….everything.

I just stood there speechless (a rare occasion, for those of you who know me!). I think a funny sound of some sort tried to make its way out of my mouth – but that was all I could muster, despite the words clearly printed in front of me.

To some extent I remain speechless. Every part of it was perfect, every prayer, every song, every smile and tear. Perfect. I find myself buoyed just by thinking about it. In answer to my colleague Deborah Holder smilingly asked question, “How’s it feel to have your molecules re-arranged?” I say, “Whoa…..”

So rather than keep trying futilely to express the inexpressible, I will simply post two things that I will carry in my heart, draw upon and strive to live up to for the rest of my life.

The first is the Charge to the Minister and Right Hand of Fellowship, which was given to me by the Rev. David Bumbaugh. The second is the sermon the Rev. Dr. Marilyn Sewell preached. More than anyone else, it is to these two Ministers that I offer my thanks. Both of them in their different ways have not only inspired me to ministry – but have shown me, through their lives – how to do it.

Charge To The Minister:
By the Rev. David Bumbaugh

In his novel, A Cup of Gold, John Steinbeck tells the story of Henry Morgan. Young Henry grew up in Wales, and finding—as most of us do—the world of his childhood too narrow for his dreams and too confining for his hopes, decided to abandon it for the New World.

He shares his decision with an old bard named Merlin. Merlin responds to this news by telling Henry that he is like a child who wants the moon and he runs and leaps and grabs, and sometimes he catches a firefly. And Henry looks at old Merlin and asks, “Did you never want the moon?” Merlin says, “Oh yes, I wanted it, I wanted it above all things. I reached for it and then…then I grew up, I became a man and I knew that I could not have the moon and would not want it if I could. I grew up and so I caught no fireflies. I grew up and I became a failure.

But there is this about a failure, Henry," he said: "people know he has failed, and they are kind and sympathetic because they share with him the cloak of mediocrity. But those who have caught fireflies while reaching for the moon are doubly alone; for, as others praise them and set them aside because of their great accomplishments, only they know how great is the distance between the ambition and the achievement, between the dream and the reality.”I

In many ways, this conversation—as I remember it--captures an essential quality of ministry, as I have known it. Ministers are like children who never grow up, who spend their lives reaching for the moon. One of my colleagues once described ministers as “god-driven folk who cannot find god.” We want the moon. We want the light. We want to tease out the eternal meaning that lies all trammeled up in the ordinary and the commonplace. We run and we leap and -- sometimes -- we catch a firefly. And that firefly is the only thing we have to share with our people.

By the nature of our vocation, we are called to share it, to call aloud, "Come! See!" and let others make of it what they will. And sometimes they make very much of it.It is important, however, that we not deceive ourselves or allow others to cloud our understanding. No matter what truth we find, it is never the truth; no matter what gods we encounter, they are not god. And so, Aaron, as you enter upon this curious, demanding, frustrating and sometimes lonely vocation, as you run and leap and reach for the moon I would charge you to share whatever you capture, but always remember two things: First, the firefly you catch is not the moon; and, second the firefly you catch is the moon. In the space opened up by that paradox, ministry becomes possible.

The Right Hand of Fellowship

In this moment, Aaron, not only do you enter formally into your vocation, you also join a long and honored tradition--a tradition that extends back through the centuries--the living tradition of the Unitarian Universalist ministry.

This tradition includes those whose names we write in burning gold--Francis David, Joseph Priestley, John Murray, Hosea Ballou, William Ellery Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore Parker, Joseph Jordan, Olympia Brown,l August Jane Chapin, Phoebe Hanniford. It includes many more whose names are lost to us, but whose courage and commitment have shaped our faith.

It includes all our colleagues who, in these times struggle to shape a world of justice and mercy, of peace and promise.It is my great pleasure to extend to you the right hand of fellowship and welcome you into the living tradition that is the Unitarian Universalist ministry.

I think I started weeping with joy the moment he extended his hand to me. All I could do in that moment was cling to him and cry. Quite out of character for me – except at births, my wedding and – it turns out – my ordination. Thank you, David.


Here is a link to Marilyn’s sermon, “Unitarian Universalism: the Promise and the Challenge.” Thank you, Marilyn.

http://secure.firstuniversalist.org/openrosters/DocDownload.asp?orgkey=1050&id=29356

I think an audio recording of the service was made, and when I find a copy, I will add it to this post, as well as some more photos and the words of other participants – all of which were simply wonderful.

Now, a month later - I still feel profoundly supported and blessed, and I still find myself shaking my head in wonder and thinking, "That's right - this is what Grace feels like."

Thursday, October 11, 2007

My favorite writer wins Nobel Prize!

Doris Lessing has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Finally.

Here is a link to the NY Times story. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/world/11cnd-nobel.html


Doris Lessing has influenced my development more than any other writer, and more than most people, period. Her always clear, always brave critical eye never seems content with the surface of things, but must always dive, dive, dive into the deep waters where most of us fear to swim. Her commitment to the beauty and potential of conciousness, community and love - always balanced by an equally fierce commitment to freedom and individuality have inspired me since I was a teenager.

She has challenged generations of readers to strive to be "in the world, but not of the world" and to learn to look at ourselves and the world we live in with ever more lenses, sometimes as if through a prism - dizzying and incomprehensible as it may feel to do so. Lessing introduced me to Sufism, and to the many uses of Story.

Perhaps most of all, Doris Lessing has inspired me by personal example. She did not finish high school, but reading and living voraciously - educated herself - as I did. She struggled (and continues to struggle) to live authentically in a world that often seems opposed to authenticity. Lessing has made terribly hard choices in order to live her calling - as I have. Thanks to Doris Lessing, in part, I never felt alone in my own struggles. I have always looked to her as a guide, and knew that if she could walk that path, then I could too. She embodies integrity for me.

I know she would likely purse her lips at the paragraphs above, but that's okay. I trust I have never been slavish or embarrassingly derivative in my appreciation and gratitude.

I will always remember the first time I encountered her. I was about seventeen years old and was marking time browsing the spines of 10-cent used paperbacks at a St. Vincent DePaul's resale shop in rural Wisconsin while my mother was shopping.

That turned out to be a big day in my literary life. My eyes stopped over two titles that day: the first was "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller (which I still reread now and then) and the other was "Briefing for a Descent Into Hell" by Doris Lessing.I thought, "I think the title alone is worth 10 cents!", so I bought it without even taking a look inside. And that was the beginning of a literary relationship that has continued ever since, across the whole of my adult life, and spanning (and intertwining) the worlds of art, politics, sociology, history, spirituality and much more. It has spanned from inner space to outer space and even to some of the places where both of those poles are one.

I won't even try to introduce her work in this blog - there are already volumes upon volumes of those. If you are curious, I think this is the best DL site out there: http://www.dorislessing.org/index.html

I know myself better because of Doris Lessing. I feel more empowered to be myself because of Doris Lessing. My curiosity and search for truth and meaning has been whetted by Doris Lessing. The universe, reality - all-that-is - feels more immediate and open to relationship, scrutiny and interaction because of Doris Lessing.


My life, like so many other lives, has been immeasurably enriched by her life and work, and I cannot think of a better person (just the 11th woman to do so) to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Congratulations, Doris Lessing - and thank you.