Atlanta Unitarian

Spiritual Journeys – Some Definitions Back when I was at the University of Georgia, before I had arrived at any particular set of religious beliefs, I had a roommate named James who was spiritual in the most cliché sense of the word.  He lit a lot of incense and candles and owned lots of crystals and pictures of the moon.  I basically thought of James’ view of the world as silly but mostly harmless. James also had a girlfriend whose belief system ran along similar lines.  However there was one particular practice that this girlfriend engaged in that bothered me.  Whenever things went wrong, whenever she was disappointed, she would repeat this mantra to herself, “Everything is perfect, everything is perfect.”   I think I loosely understand the underlying philosophy behind the mantra – that the plans of the universe are too complex for us to fathom as individuals.  But it was apparent to me that the mantra was in fact terribly destructive for this ...

This Sunday evening I was playing with my two small children in the park. It suddenly hit me why I am so concerned about climate change. I think as we get older and we slowly come to grips with leaving this world, our legacy for future generations becomes more urgent. I feel a deep need to ensure that the joys and treasures I have enjoyed in my lifetime should be available to future generations. As we sever the strands of the web of life one by one, the entire web is threatened. No one is truly certain about the magnitude and the meaning of the climate-related effects we are unleashing on our children's future. And I think that my concern is not limited to the impacts upon humans. I think it is really important that there be frogs, that there be bees in the future. That there be polar bears and snail darters and Hemlock trees. It is my prayer that future generations live in a world that is as rich in life and in nature and in beauty as our own, hopefully more so. It is my s...

The great thing about being a UU is the freedom; the horrible thing about being a UU is the freedom. Unitarian Universalism has developed satisfactory answers for certain ills. The moral and intellectual oppressiveness of hidebound religious dogma. The need for a continually renewing spiritual awareness and spiritual understanding. The importance of radical inclusiveness and human-centered values. A balance between the life of the intellect and the spirit. And yet I find in the area of religious practice it is lacking in depth and structure. I do not feel a lack of theological grounding, but I do find a void on guidance for how to be a "practicing" UU. Perhaps my keen awareness of this fact comes from my own Jewish background. In Judiasm, there is a prayer for every situation; a holiday for every season; a rich palette of rituals and practices interwoven with meaning. The grounding in literature, community, and spiritual practice is manifold and deep. In Unitarian Univ...

I've recently joined a few new activities where I was clearly and markedly the worst by a large margin. The first is I've joined the "back-up" choir at my UU church. The second is I went out for some pick-up Ultimate Frisbee this past weekend. In both cases, there was a sense of anxiety that I might be (OK, was) dragging down the group. It can be tough to know that you are the bottom end of that bell curve, scraping against the right edge of the graph. But I think that I also experienced a broader sense of liberation. Being the worst, once it has been clearly and definitively established, frees you from any pretence of image or competition. You can immerse in an activity for whatever it is, on its face value. The subjective experience of being in the moment becomes so much more important, because you are clearly not impressing anyone. It's a great thing to sing, and greater still to sing surrounded by voices of beauty. The music stays with you as you walk -...

Everything I Need to Know I Learned from my 7-Month-Old Son (Almost) If you can eat, drink, pee, and poo without incident, you have much cause for satisfaction. The best way to get our needs met is to articulate them clearly, repeatedly, and, if necessary, with volume. It's in our nature to learn, grow, and try new things, with our own interest as our best guide. The best way to learn something is to take an iterative approach rather than a linear one; learning by nature is two steps forward, one harsh bump on the tush. If you're paying attention, the world is a pretty fascinating place. Shadows are particularly interesting because you can't pick them up. The foundation of happiness is being with people who love you for who you are. Can't wait for the next 7 months...!

I've been thinking about modern life and how as an unintentional result of modern convenience we lose our vital connections with the earth and its cycles. I've been reading Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma , which reveals how thoroughly we've lost touch with the source of our food as a culture. We have little or no understanding of the places, processes, and full price of the sources of our food. Pollan particularly dwells upon the denial that is required for the current system of industrial processing of animals to be acceptable in our culture. He essential says that if we knew where our meat came from, we wouldn't eat it. On another front, the political front, I've increasingly come across the dilemma that many local governments are facing. They are running out of revenues to perform the services their constituents demand, but there is increasing resistance to any type of tax increase. It seems we have lost ourselves in our own political rhetoric -...

Sometimes I wonder if our forward-looking culture does not underestimate the value of making and cultivating memories. We have so many catch phrases for focusing on the future. What's past is past. We need to focus on the task at hand. We need a plan for going forward. Just do it. But life at any stage is composed at least as much by memories as by opportunities, by the path we have followed as much as the path we have ahead. In fact, we are much more likely to discover ourselves by looking backwards than by looking forward. Life has a way of revealing through experience things that would never occur to our imaginations alone. What rituals, what practices, what customs do we have to cherish memories? Our holidays commemorate our civic history, but what about our personal history? Do we use birthdays to reflect backwards? Anniversaries? Graduations? Are we afraid that if we look backwards we will see opportunities missed, rather than life lived? If life is worth living, ...