On the Journey: Simplicity

The Jan issue of On the Journey has arrived! HERE

This month, UU Journey Groups will be exploring SIMPLICITY. Don't miss it, and don't miss your Journey Group meeting to get together to work with this theme!

The Jan issue of On the Journey features

• poems from Emily Dickinson, Mary Oliver, William Wordsworth, Sandra Gilbert, Peter Gizzi, and Josphine Miles
• a quotations page of 23 provocative, witty, or trenchant remarks
• Henry David Thoreau's de rigueur passage on simplicity
• a taxonomy of "five simplicities"
• essays on reducing stress by doing less and doing it slowly, reducing consumption, and de-cluttering
• 9 TED talks curated for your viewing edification
• a page of questions
• a spiritual exercise for the month

The Questions Page. Select one or two questions about which to share your thoughts or musings with your Journey Group.

1. (a) Were the questions for the “Defining Moment” (p. 2) interesting? (b) Did you reflect on any of the questions about the poems (pp. 2-3)? (c) Do you have a comment on any of the quotations (p. 4)? (d) If you watched some or all of the TED talks (p. 9), which were particularly interesting?
2. The passage from Thoreau (p. 5) is well-known. Did you find yourself engaging (anew) with this brief “simplicity manifesto”?
3. “Simple in actions and in thoughts, you return to the source of being.” (Lao Tzu) What disconnects you from “the source of being”? How might you return?
4. Which of the “Five Simplicities” (p. 5) support or are part of which other ones? Which ones would make other ones harder?
5. What do you think of Toni Bernhard’s suggestions (“How to Reduce Stress by Doing Less and Doing It Slowly,” p. 5)? Do you think you’ll try following any?
6. How about Michael Forman’s (“5 Ways to Reduce Unnecessary Consumption,” p. 6)? Do these suggestions call to you?
7. Then there were the tips from Madeleine Somerville (“Creating Change, Reducing Consumption: How Living with Less Can Transform the World,” p. 7). Anything there that you’ll adopt?
8. Finally, Julie McCormick write about “How to Declutter Your Life and Reduce Stress” (p. 8). Have you been inspired to do some do-cluttering?
9. In what ways are you prepared to be (or continue being) counter-cultural in the direction of a simpler life?
10. What do you wish you could say “no” to in your life? Why haven’t you? What would happen if you did?
11. Who might be your teammates in building a simpler and more fulfilled life? Who could you ask for help, and what help would you ask them for?
12. The old Shaker hymn says, “Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free.” What’s the connection between simplicity and freedom?
13. Do you already have the balance you want? If so, how do you notice and appreciate the simplicity and beauty of your life?
14. Does simplicity mean something entirely different for you from how these questions seem to treat it?
15. Is there a different question about simplicity that is niggling at you?

The link to the current and all past issues of On the Journey can always be found at cucmatters.org/p/journey-groups.htm

From the Minister, Sat Dec 29

The 2018-19 UUA Common Read: Manish Mishra-Marzetti and Jennifer Nordstrom, eds., Justice on Earth: People of Faith Working at the Intersections of Race, Class and the Environment. Available from UUA Bookstore HERE; from Amazon HERE.

This week, chapter 3: Sheri Prud'homme, "Ecotheology."

“A prevalent theme in ecotheology is the radical interdependence of all existence and the accompanying mandate to view humankind as embedded in a complex web of relationships with other organisms that have intrinsic value.”

With these echoes of the UU 7th principle – and the 1st – ecotheology is substantially connected to UU theology. Significant ecotheologians include Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme, John Cobb, Joanna Macy, Sallie McFague, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Catherine Keller.

“All that exists in in relationship with everything. As Ivone Gebara writes in Longing for Running Water, it ‘is not a mechanical interdependence but a living one: a sacred interdependence that is vibrant and visceral’.”

Ecology becomes ecotheology when it encounters a sense of mystery, when the study of the relations of life forms to one another and their environment evokes awe and wonder. Theology, historically and currently, may serve the interests of dominance and empire by coopting God into a story that underwrites the social inequities of its time. Mindfulness of mystery can help protect against such cooptation. African-American writers such as theologian James Cone and Shamara Shantu Riley express the connections between oppression of people, exploitation of animals, and ravaging of nature.

For many ecotheologians, God does not precede the cosmos, but arose and unfolds with the cosmos. Ecotheology lends itself to pantheism (God and the universe are the same thing), or to panentheism (God and creation are inextricably intertwined, but not identical, as they participate together in creation’s unfolding).

“As McFague explains in The Body of God, ‘Everything that is, is in God and God is in all things and yet God is not identical to the universe, for the universe is dependent on God in a way that God is not dependent on the Universe’.”

Unitarians and Universalists of the 19th-century foreshadowed many of ecotheology’s concerns. UUs today

“are increasingly able to participate powerfully in ecumenical and multi-faith efforts when we draw on God language and images that are inclusive, expansive, immanent, and intermingled with the unfolding of creation.”

The writings of ecotheologians provides us a language for connecting with people of other traditions yet one UUs can use with integrity.

Ecotheology’s ethic emerges from seeing that the source of evil always lies in a good and necessary need taken to excess. Virtue is skill in balancing all needs.

Questions

• What seems to you attractive about ecotheology? Are there aspects that give you pause?
• How does the power of beauty affect your work for justice?
• Ecotheologians are apt to say “God (the holy, the sacred) is in all of the created universe,” or that “God (the holy, the sacred) is the universe,” or that “God (the holy, the sacred) is creativity itself.” How might these thoughts support the work for environmental justice?

Yours in faith,
Meredith

The Liberal Pulpit New this week:

• Some Brueggemann and Some Poems (Part 1 of "Reality Amid Ideology")
• Imagination Shortage (Part 2 of "Reality Amid Ideology")
• Prophetic Call to Neighborliness (Part 3 of "Reality Amid Ideology")

Index of past sermons: HERE. Index of other reflections: HERE.
Videos of sermons are on the Liberal Pulpit Youtube Channel: HERE

Practice of the Week: Deep Time Journeys /Ecospiritual.
Our arrival on Earth was quite sudden when considered from the perspective of the Earth itself. Gaia blinked, and suddenly found all of us here! But blink again, and we will pass like smoke on the breeze. Life, and the Earth, will go on without us. This realization can have a profound impact on how we view ourselves as a species. READ MORE.

Your Moment of Zen: Trust /Choose your mentors and guides carefully, and then give them your trust. This is risky. You might not choose well. It's risky even if you choose well. But it's necessary.

​Case

Porcupine then asked, "Is trust in the teacher important for the practice?"
Raven said, "Indispensable."
Porcupine asked, "Can't that create problems?"
Raven said, "Interminable."

Verse

That joke about why the dog:
The punchline, Because he can,
Answers a lot of questions.
To exercise a capacity: reason enough.
Why does one love? care? trust?
Why does one study? Follow a teacher's direction?
Why does one hurt so when any of these goes awry?
Why does one bother with sadness and happiness?
Read the paper on the commuter train?
Toast the New Year? Sit Zazen?
Why does one grow present to one's life,
Or want to?
If one couldn't, there'd be no reason to.

Case by Robert Aitken; introduction and Verse by Meredith Garmon

RAVEN INDEX
Zen at CUUC, Sat Dec 29: HERE

Religious Education News: Dec 30

Last Sunday was Fun Day for the children and youth, with children’s music director Lyra Harada taking the lead for holiday and seasonal festivities. With Christmas only two days away, everyone was excited and jubilant during this pre-“big day” event. Two of the younger children assisted me in lighting the chalice and then we sat around in a close circle talking about what the kids liked the most about Christmas and what they were looking forward to. There were quite a variety of eagerly anticipated activities, starting with watching Lord of the Rings all day, to eating lots of cookies, to opening up at least “fifty” gifts. If you are going to wish, it might as well be big! Lyra spoke to the children about the season of winter and how music can make you imagine different feelings. She asked them to close their eyes, listen, and demonstrate different “winter” feelings such as shivering, brrrr, snowflakes falling on their face, jumping up and down to keep warm, or ice skating. Well, we had quite a few terrific impressionists from those shivering away and chattering their teeth, to graceful dancing, to jumping jack workouts. With all this acting, it was time to hear the Nutcracker, which was beautifully choreographed by a mom and her twin daughters displaying lovely ballet moves (no training required). To round out the morning, everyone got to play musical chairs and board games. It seems to me that fun, spontaneity, and the simplicity of laughter is a common thread among our children. However childhood innocence is not reserved for just Christmas nor just children. Adults can be children as well and we can collectively live this treasury of emotions now and throughout the New Year.

Michele Rinaldi
Religious Education Coordinator

This Sunday in RE, Dec. 30
There is no RE this Sunday. Childcare will be available.

Last Call for the Mitten Tree
Bring warmth to the men, women, and children in local shelters. Donate mittens, gloves, scarves, and hats for all ages.

Faith Development Friday, Fri Jan 11
Our evening of learning, spiritual growth, and community. 6:15pm Pizza & Salad Community Dinner; 7:00pm Programs; 8:30pm Coffee. Programs include Adult RE and Family Journey Group. Adults may also just come for a slice and unstructured social time together. All are welcome to stay after the programs to share coffee and a chat. RSVP to CUUCevents@gmail.com by 12:00 noon on Friday.

From the Minister, Fri Dec 21

Let's talk about the Common Read!

Manish Mishra-Marzetti and Jennifer Nordstrom, eds., Justice on Earth: People of Faith Working at the Intersections of Race, Class and the Environment.

Available from UUA Bookstore HERE; from Amazon HERE.

This week, chapter 2: Paula Cole Jones, "The Formation of the Environmental Justice Movement."

In 2014, UUs from around the country assembled in Detroit for a "collaboratory" to learn and reflect on our denomination's environmental work. Detroit was a good example of the intersection of environmental issues and urban issues. As local environmental activists showed the UUs around the city, they saw a city

"dominated by abandoned homes, crumbling industrial plants, and sparsely traveled streets."

They met people

"fighting for access to municipal water services and the enforcement of clean air stands at recycling plants,"

and saw the work to develop "urban agriculture to meet the city's goal of food sovereignty." They witnessed commitment to the principle, "No one is expendable. Everyone matters."

When waste sites and polluting industries are located in poorer and darker communities, this may appear to be following the path of least resistance. But this explanation

"takes the focus off of the systemic nature of oppression; specifically, who gets to make the decisions."

It leaves out the role of

"racial and ethnic segregation, income inequality, and limited access to resources and policy makers."

The environmental justice movement, still relatively young, corrects this lack. How did this movement emerge?

The post-WWII boom substantially increased both prosperity and industrial waste and pollution. These two factors led to the modern environmental movement, landmarked by the first Earth Day in 1970. The movement was slow, however, to attend to ways entrenched racial inequality affected environmental decisions. Research by African American sociologist Robert Bullard, published in 1983, found that

"African Americans making $50,000 to $60,000 per year are much more likely to live in a polluted environment than poor white families making just $10,000 per year."

In 1982, the environmental justice movement broke through to national recognition in a case from Warren County, North Carolina. The sending of PCB-contaminated oil to a landfill in Warren County's poorest and most heavily African American community was resisted by activists seeking to protect their groundwater.

"More than five hundred people were arrested, including Congressman Walter Fauntroy and pastors Benjamin Chavis and Joseph Lowery."

A citizen class action suit was filed.

"They did not win the case or stop the landfill, but they successfully launched the environmental justice movement."

In 1991, three hundred people of color gathered for the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit. The Summit adopted seventeen “Principles of Environmental Justice” which continue to frame and guide the movement.

Paula Cole Jones concludes:

“As Unitarian Universalists continue to work on environmentalism and climate change, we must operate with the knowledge of structured racial and economic inequality so that we are truly confronting oppression and doing our part in building the Beloved Community.”

Also read:

• The Seventeen Principles of Environmental Justice adopted at the 1991 Summit: HERE.
• The Environmental Protection Agency’s Eco-Justice 2020 Action Agenda (2016), 66pp.: HERE.

Questions:

• How well do you know the history of the environmental justice movement? What will you do to become more familiar with this history?
• What do you know about federal and state government actions that ameliorate or exacerbate environmental injustices?
• Are environmental decisions in Westchester County fair and equitable?
• Which communities are at risk? Where do Westchester community officials stand on local environmental justice issues?
• What local organizations have been formed by and for people of color and working-class communities to address environmental racism and classism?
• How can CUUC partner with people of color in our community?
• Who could be invited to speak here about environmental justice?
• What can you do to build relationships, trust, and partnerships that make a difference?

This week, read chapter 2. Consider and talk about the questions, and any other questions that come up for you. Feel free to click "Comment" below and share your thoughts here. Thank you!

Yours in faith,
Meredith

The Liberal Pulpit
Index of past sermons: HERE.
Index of other reflections: HERE.
Videos of sermons are on the Liberal Pulpit Youtube Channel: HERE

The Dec 16 reflection: "Our Holiday":

Practice of the Week: Fill the Hole in Your Heart /Slogan. You've got lacks and wounds; we all do. What can you do about them? It's fundamentally simple: you take in good experiences specifically aimed at your own lacks and wounds. It's like being a sailor with scurvy: you need vitamin C — not vitamin E — for what ails you. READ MORE.

Your Moment of Zen: Too Busy /As you begin the practice, visit many teachers. Sit a retreat, or attend three or four weekly gatherings, with each one. Then pick one and settle down for 10 years or so -- or for as long as you both live, if it's working out. Changing teachers every year or two or three is not recommended. It's hard to set the judging mind aside when you're constantly asking yourself if some other teacher would be "better." It is, as Raven says, too much busy-ness. Of course, even settling in is too much busy-ness. So what wouldn't be too busy?

​Case

Owl said, "I notice that some students go from teacher to teacher. What do you think of this?"
Raven said, "Busy."
"After all," Owl said, "practice is a matter of settling in."
Raven said, "Still too busy."
Owl said nothing.

Verse

Busy, as a swift brook,
As cirrus clouds, striping the sky,
As glaciers are, melting,
And as they were, before that.
Busy as the owl on her night branch, listening.

Life and history make of me
A bearer of mostly futile love.
Seven generations hence,
Justice will mean something else,
Or maybe nothing much at all.
Perhaps the struggles and projects
Of my fifth-great-grandchildren
Will not invoke justice.
Perhaps, for them, it will be a
Dusty classical virtue, like prudence.

All the strands of the world flow into me
And out again, some a little stronger,
Or weaker, or more refined, or less.
When they arrive at the late 22nd century
With unrecognizable textures and weavings,
Will their time spent weaving me
Be more help or more hindrance
To the aims and needs of that time?
About equal measures of each, I guess.

Busy as a cheetah's tail,
As a cow's four stomachs --
Busy as soil erosion,
As the silent moon and the Sahara dunes.
Busy as Rigel at Orion's knee, so
Busy. Oh,
Too busy.

Case by Robert Aitken, adapted; introduction and Verse by Meredith Garmon

RAVEN INDEX
Zen at CUUC, Sat Dec 22: HERE

Religious Education News: Sun Dec 23

A No-Rehearsal Christmas Pageant… who would have ever thought? Well it happened here last Sunday and believe me, Radio City has nothing on us! With some uncertainty I took my place in reading the script, not sure what was going to unfold. There were a multitude of Marys and Josephs, not to mention an exemplary number of angels. Shepherds came forward but didn’t leave their flock behind. Oh yes, we had sheep and horses and goats and let us not forget a few baby Jesuses. Rounding out our ensemble were an impressive number of Magi going for the gold - gold crowns that is! Seeing all the children, youth, and adults enjoying themselves was contagious. The sanctuary was filled to the brim with smiles and laughter, voices raised to the heavens in song, and genuine celebration. Being part of the whimsy and magic as well as observing, I had an epiphany of how a special message transcended the reenactment of the birth of baby Jesus that we constructed. We were honoring the day that this man came into this world. There is no need to examine opinions on the concept of deity, but instead just to remember how he lived his life, in very much the same way congregants of CUUC seek to do. Christmas is not the gifts, the flurry of activities and parties, but really -- to some people’s disbelief -- simplicity. Jesus was a simple man, fearless and brave. He stood by his personal convictions and talked about love, and peace, and honoring one another. He turned no one away, but instead embraced a diversity of people. He fought for the oppressed and taught mercy. He embodied and embraced all the virtues that Unitarian Universalists value 365 days of the year. With this thought in mind, I say thank you for the gift of community that you have generously extended to me. I wish for everyone a sense of purpose and gentleness and most of all, love and serenity this season and throughout the New Year. Happy Holidays, everyone!

Michele Rinaldi
Religious Education Coordinator

Looking ahead...

This Sunday in RE, Dec. 23
All ages in Fellowship Hall for Fun Sunday activities, including music with Lyra Harada, our Children's Music Director.

Help Decorate our Mitten Tree
Bring warmth to the men, women, and children in local shelters. Donate mittens, gloves, scarves, and hats for all ages.

Mon Dec 24, Christmas Eve Service, 5:30 pm
All ages are welcome to attend the Christmas Eve Service. childcare is available for those who need it.

Sun Dec 30
There is no RE on Sun Dec 30 but childcare will be available.

Music: Sun Dec 23

Christmas music from a variety of traditions and a range of perspectives is featured this Sunday morning at CUUC. The French composer Olivier Messiaen composed his Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus for solo piano in 1944. These “Twenty Views of the Child Jesus” are highly evocative, sonorously enchanting meditations on the Christ child. “Regard de l'étoile" or the View of the Star, is the second work in the cycle. Full of bell chiming and distant twinkling, the piece also presents the “Theme of the Star and of the Cross,” a musical idea developed throughout the suite. The following program is suggested in the subtitles in the printed score: the shock of grace….the star shines naively, topped by a cross….

Other works performed include selections from Franz Liszt’s “The Christmas Tree,” a set of piano pieces written for the composer’s granddaughter, an arrangement of a popular Catalonian Christmas carol, and more settings of celebrated holiday tunes by Donald Waxman, a renowned author of teaching materials for young piano students. Read on for programming details.

Centering Music: Adam Kent, piano

Regard de l’étoile from Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus
                                         Olivier Messiaen

From “The Christmas Tree”

            “The Shepherds at the Manger” (In dulci jubilo)

            “Scherzoso: Lighting Up the Tree”

            “Old Provençal Christmas Song”

            “Psallite”

                                    Franz Liszt

Opening Music:

El cant dels ocells (The Song of the Birds)               

                                    Traditional Catalan Christmas Carol, arr. by Joaquin Nin-Culmell

Offertory:

From A Christmas Pageant

“Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabelle”

“Good King Wenceslas”

“We Three Kings”

“Ding Dong Merrily On High”

“Yule’s Come and Yule’s Gone”
           Donald Waxman

Interlude:

From “The Christmas Tree”

                        Adeste Fideles

                                      Liszt

From the Minister, Thu Dec 13

Let's talk about the Common Read! This week, chapter 1: Jennifer Nordstrom, "Intersectionality, Faith, and Environmental Justice," in Mishra-Marzetti and Nordstrom, eds., Justice on Earth: People of Faith Working at the Intersections of Race, Class and the Environment.

The word "intersectional" is big these days among people thinking about social justice. The word calls attention to how interrelated the various justice issues are. Nordstrom opens with mention of a 10-day "direct action and permaculture training camp" she attended in New Mexico to simultaneously learn sustainability and "build resistance to white supremacy and militarism." Growing food and growing cross-cultural relationships of equality and respect at the same time is one manifestation of "intersectionality."

The overlap of issues calls attention to the commonalities, but also the differences: "For example, women will experience sexism differently depending on their race, class, gender identity, and sexuality. People of color will experience racism differently based on their class, gender, gender identity, and sexuality."

In particular, Justice on Earth looks at Environmental Justice through the lens of intersectionality -- this is, in light of interconnecting systems. Nordstrom shares her experience learning that "communities of color were exploited and poisoned through the entire nuclear fuel cycle: from uranium mining on Indigenous lands to nuclear weapons production on Indigenous land and the contamination of surrounding Indigenous, Chicano, and Latinx communities to nuclear waste storage in communities of color" (4). Thus, militarism, colonialism, racism, and the environment interrelate.

We are thus lead to see that "the environment" "is not simply natural wilderness in need of saving" -- as UUs are prone to view it. It is also roads, industries, urban trees, other people -- everything around us, and all of it shaped by patterns of power. "There is not a single experience of the environment divorced from other relationships, or a single experience of humanity divorced from the environment" (5).

For too long UUs have done "justice work in silos" -- an approach that "is not true to our whole lives, or to the wholeness of other people." When we ignore intersectionality, our work "usually caters to the dominant identities within the issue" (6).

Yet, Nordstrom argues, as important as intersectionality is, equally powerful for us is faith. Our faith as UUs "can ground and nurture our work for environmental justice." Our situatedness in the interdependent web is our "call of the deep to the well of" our souls.

Related and Recommended: Kimberle Crenshaw's Keynote address to the Women of the World Festival 2016.(30 mins) HERE.



Questions: What overlapping patterns of power and oppression have you experienced in your own life? How have they manifested in the institutions in which you live and work? How have they affected your experience of you own identity?

What do you know of environmental justice organizations active in Westchester?

This week, read chapter 1. Consider and talk about the questions, and any other questions that come up for you. Feel free to click "Comment" below and share your thoughts here. Thank you!

Yours in faith,
Meredith

The Liberal Pulpit /New:

• Justice on Earth

Index of past sermons: HERE.
Index of other reflections: HERE.
Videos of sermons are on the Liberal Pulpit Youtube Channel: HERE


The Dec 9 sermon, "Justice on Earth":

Practice of the Week: Get a Teacher /Key Supporting Practice. A critical reason to seek out a teacher is to make your practice accountable. We live busy, complex, and changeable lives. There are dozens of reasons why it is difficult to sustain daily practice over time. We are masters at rationalizing why we can't meditate. Being accountable to a teacher, a community, and a tradition outside yourself can help. READ MORE.

Your Moment of Zen: Still Lonesome /Someone told you once to be open to the other. They forgot to mention that there is no other.

​Case

Mole spoke up after Raven had his exchange with Owl and said, "I have a different kind of question. Is there a way to practice in ordinary times?"
Raven said, "The robin! The dove! The linnet!"
"Is it just a matter of being open to the other?" asked Mole.
"Still lonesome," said Raven.

Verse

On the path,
First comes everything.
Second, everything again.
Third, return to first things.
Ordinal numbers
Mark ordinary time.

Case by Robert Aitken, adapted; introduction and Verse by Meredith Garmon

RAVEN INDEX
Zen at CUUC, Sat Dec 15: HERE