Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Subzero MLK March, 2008 - Never Before Seen Footage!



Okay, so maybe it wasn't really below zero that morning - and maybe the only reason these photos have never been seen before is because I only discovered them under a pile of books and papers as I cleaned my office today...

But still, a day more than worthy of memory.

It really was terribly cold that morning, as two of us hardy adults joined twenty or so of our YRUU-ers for Denver's annual MLK Day "Marade." It was cold, yes, but no problem - I was so bundled up in insulated wind and waterproof layers that even my mother would have approved. The youth were another story, however. Despite my repeated reminders and demands that they bring warm clothes with them, most of them (in true teenage style) were dressed stylishly in low-cut canvas Chuck Taylors (some with no socks)and colorful hats and mittens better suited for signalling overflying airplanes than for keeping out the cold.

Don't I sound OLD! It's like I'm channelling my mother's voice...

Anyway, even all of this would have been fine if we had been moving - but we weren't. Instead there were a couple hours of speeches (no exaggeration)from various corporate heads ("MLK would have loved our insurance company!") and local luminaries, each of which flagrantly broke their own promises to keep it short because of the extreme cold! After about the third speech some of the youth were starting to have real trouble - what with standing around in a couple inches of mostly frozen slushy water while a bitter wind cut to the bone. As you can see below, we tried our best to keep warm, but even dancing couldn't keep the cold at bay for long!



For a while I was seriously contemplating cancelling the whole thing. I was worried about frost-bite and other adult concerns too lame for sixteen years olds to contemplate. But when I suggested calling it off, they said "absolutely not" through blueing lips and chattering teeth. "If we can't deal with being cold and uncomfortable for one morning, how can we ever be tough enough to change the world? Martin Luther King put up with a LOT more than this - so forget it, we're marching!"

And so, after some more speeches - we marched.



Sure enough, once we started marching the day seemed much more bearable. Still cold, but more fun by the moment. The youth were right, there was something especially powerful about marching with 3,000 other people through the otherwise silent and frozen streets of Denver. It was inspiring to walk with so many strangers who were also determined to march, cold or no cold - wind or no wind.

We bumped into a pile of kids (in snowsuits and mittens) and their parents (looking much less toasty) from our sister church, First Unitarian, as well as more adults from our own congregation. So for a time we all marched together, maybe 40 or 50 Unitarian Universalists. It was great.

In the end, this may have been one of the most satisfying MLK marches I have ever been part of. As always, our youth inspired me with their grit and commitment. They were SOOO cold, really suffering - yet it never occured to them to call of the march because of discomfort. They were finding their own answers to the critical religious question, "If this is what I believe, what I stand for - how then must I live?"



This is a question I struggle with all the time, and watching the youth struggle (literally arm in arm) to live their values out loud on that frigid Colorado morning reminded me yet again of the path I want to tread.

Thanks, you guys!

Thursday, May 8, 2008

The Great Migration



It's finally over.

After way too many months, my search is finally over. On May 4th, 2008, the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara called me to be their new minister!

Candidating week was a lot of fun, and I was so gratified to discover first hand that the outstanding search committee really was representative of their outstanding congregation! Although it was a tiring, action-packed week (I have no idea how Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama manage to do what they do months after month....), every single event, every single meeting, was full of fascinating, loving and committed people and my energy level remained high. It was great.

Eliza and I did manage to take some breaks here and there, and even split town for a day to pop over the mountains into the Santa Ynez Valley, which is some of the loveliest win country I have ever seen (or tasted). We also managed some bike riding, beach-walking and museum-going, which was remarkably easy since Everything seems to be within 10 miles of town! I don't know how people ever get any work done in a place where the weather is always perfect, the beach is 3 minutes away and rivers of milk and honey flow down from every mountain!



But I guess we'll find out soon enough.

And maybe milk and honey doesn't really flow down from the mountains, but I seriously wouldn't be suprised if it did - Santa Barbara is truly a paradise!



But nothing could have prepared me for what it felt like at the end of the week when Eliza and I were ushered back into the sanctuary to the applause, cheering, tears and love of all those wonderful people who were calling me to be their minister! I was so moved that when I opened my mouth to speak - nothing came out. I was speechless, a rare event for a McEmrys! In fact even now words fall short of describing what I see in my mind's eye, so I won't try. Just trust me - it was awesome.



After such a long journey from Portland, Oregon to Meadville Lombard in Chicago to Denver for internship and a year of interim-ship it is hard (and wonderful) to believe that very soon Eliza and I will be SETTLED - living somewhere long enough to make planting things seem like a good idea - living and growing with a community and knowing all the while that there is no where else I would rather be and no reason in the world why I cannot, should not, will not stay for a good long time! It's like a Spring harvest.

It's kind of surreal being back here at my desk in Denver. Although I love it here and will miss the people I serve, the friends I have made and the mountains that have been my neighbors - a big part of me is already in Santa Barbara, just waiting for the rest of me to catch up. I am bilocated.

So we'll be moving (again....) in the beginning of July. I don't officially start work until August 15th, so until then we will be settling in, having a good visit with my kids and other friends and family - and just sort of hanging out and enjoying life for a while. I haven't had a real vacation for a long time, so I can hardly wait for this one!

In the meantime, there is still plenty to do here in Colorado, some of which I ought to get back to right about now. So back to work it is.

UUNITED Hangs Tough (don't we always?)

Well, last night's game was not exactly how I envisioned my return to the soccer pitch after an almost three month long search and weather-related layoff. After rain throughout the day the sky finally cleared, the sun came out and it was fine soccer weather.

But alas, as seems to happen at least once every season, a ton of our players couldn't make the game - sickness, injury, working late, out of town - all of these (excuses, excuses!) conspired to leave a rag-tag group of nine of us standing around the pitch with dread in our eyes as the match began.

Soccer, as you might know is a game with two sides of eleven players on the pitch at a time, so we were not even able to field a full team - much less have some subs around so we could catch a breather now and then!

Just for perspective, our roster is usually around 20 players, which allows for people to miss games now and then while still leaving us plenty of fresh legs to run around on. So having only nine players was pretty weird, especially since we had done everything we could to recruit some extra warm bodies to come help us out.

But anyway...

We took the field, and were cheered when Shaun trotted onto the field, taking our number up to ten. There was a strong wind at our backs, and we took immediate advantage, racing up the field on our still-fresh legs for four strong goals in the first half. We would need every one of those early goals to see us through, however, as we were all starting to get increasingly tired after halftime, while our opponents had a full team plus three subs to run at us.

We only managed to score once more in the second half, while they scored three more times, bringing the score to 5-4 with us barely clinging to what had once seemed like an insurmountable lead. At one point I overheard Shaun ask the ref how many minutes were left (by that time we were counting every second!), but I couldn't hear what the ref said. I called over, "Shaun, how many minutes left? and he just looked back at me with a somewhat grim expression and said, "Too many!"

That pretty much summed it up. We did hold on to win 5-4, and went out for some food and drink to celebrate after. Everything tastes better after a win.

I am feeling it today though - even my elbows are sore, although that might have something to do with the increasingly physical defense I was playing as the game wore on...Overall, I would definately not have chosen my first game back to be so gruelling - but it really was a blast, sore bones and all.