We’re planning the fellowship dinner at my church, and people are signing up as “table sponsors.”
It’s weird how the moment someone mentions something like this, the Bree Van De Kamp within comes out.
I’m already thinking about table decorations. I can do place cards, and some spiffy centerpiece. Cloth napkins absolutely.
What? It’s for the church…
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Report from Murder Mystery Night
Three people guessed who the murderer was and they had a drawing for the prize. One of the three was the CSO and the one who won was a little kid who was sitting near us as we talked about the case. (Not that I’m accusing the kid of anything… but come on…)
Regular readers of my column on Coffee Hour know that I have, shall we say, a certain romantic enthusiasm for detectives of all varieties.
It was a good night to be the CSO, and we’ve said that murder mystery nights may become a semi-regular habit for us.
My friend who appreciates high school boys didn't come. Physically, I don't think he would have been disappointed, but having taught SAT classes, I have a general idea of what most high school kids are like to talk to and I can't say I share his taste. (Though I don't consider myself in a position to judge as when I was in high school, older men was where my tastes ran and in the final analysis, most of those mistakes were worth making.)
CC
Regular readers of my column on Coffee Hour know that I have, shall we say, a certain romantic enthusiasm for detectives of all varieties.
It was a good night to be the CSO, and we’ve said that murder mystery nights may become a semi-regular habit for us.
My friend who appreciates high school boys didn't come. Physically, I don't think he would have been disappointed, but having taught SAT classes, I have a general idea of what most high school kids are like to talk to and I can't say I share his taste. (Though I don't consider myself in a position to judge as when I was in high school, older men was where my tastes ran and in the final analysis, most of those mistakes were worth making.)
CC
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Gotta love this religion...
I was telling a friend of mine tonight that my church’s high school youth group was putting on a “Murder Mystery Night” to benefit the UUSC Tsunami relief fund.
“So, this is, like, theater, right?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“So there will be gay guys there,” He said, his eyes lighting up.
“I suppose…”
“And in high school, so they will be cute?”
“Yeah,” said she who had always erred on the side of dating guys who were much older.
“But they’re Unitarians, so the gay high school guys won’t be all fucked up and depressed, they will have accepted themselves and be cool.”
My pride in my faith swelled. As did my resolve to keep an eye on him if he does tag along.
CC
“So, this is, like, theater, right?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“So there will be gay guys there,” He said, his eyes lighting up.
“I suppose…”
“And in high school, so they will be cute?”
“Yeah,” said she who had always erred on the side of dating guys who were much older.
“But they’re Unitarians, so the gay high school guys won’t be all fucked up and depressed, they will have accepted themselves and be cool.”
My pride in my faith swelled. As did my resolve to keep an eye on him if he does tag along.
CC
Friday, January 28, 2005
I guess we're just friends now, huh?
Ever had a “work boyfriend?” I have one, or really in all practical sense, had one. His last day is next Friday as he’s leaving for a new job and a $15,000 raise.
Having a work boyfriend is a wonderful thing. Now I’m not talking about freaky sex on the copier. TheCSO wouldn’t approve, and judging by what I’ve seen, I’m not my work boyfriend’s type. But somehow, when he and I met, we just clicked in a fully professional, fully platonic sort of way.
It took me awhile to really get the hang of things when I first started. But within a month or so, working with this guy was like dancing with someone who moved to my rhythm. Who got the credit for a given project had more to do with who needed to look good for the boss than who did 51 percent of the work.
He’s attractive, a good salesman and ridiculously efficient, I’m dreamier, but write and design things. I’m an INTP, he’s an ESTP. It worked beautifully.
Can’t say things were perfect, in my relationships they never are. He had some personal problems in our time working together, so did I. BUt we helped one another through them, mostly by quietly being there and keeping one another's work lives as stress-free as we could when we needed it.
When I think about my freaky little friends, an ex-frat boy in AA is certainly an outlier, but somehow, we made things work in a really amazing rhythm.
Oh well. There are other fish in the sea…
Having a work boyfriend is a wonderful thing. Now I’m not talking about freaky sex on the copier. TheCSO wouldn’t approve, and judging by what I’ve seen, I’m not my work boyfriend’s type. But somehow, when he and I met, we just clicked in a fully professional, fully platonic sort of way.
It took me awhile to really get the hang of things when I first started. But within a month or so, working with this guy was like dancing with someone who moved to my rhythm. Who got the credit for a given project had more to do with who needed to look good for the boss than who did 51 percent of the work.
He’s attractive, a good salesman and ridiculously efficient, I’m dreamier, but write and design things. I’m an INTP, he’s an ESTP. It worked beautifully.
Can’t say things were perfect, in my relationships they never are. He had some personal problems in our time working together, so did I. BUt we helped one another through them, mostly by quietly being there and keeping one another's work lives as stress-free as we could when we needed it.
When I think about my freaky little friends, an ex-frat boy in AA is certainly an outlier, but somehow, we made things work in a really amazing rhythm.
Oh well. There are other fish in the sea…
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Blog Reviewlets
I'm having a short-attention-span MTV-generation sort of night, so the reviews are short today.
At Boy in the Bands the debate over the place of atheism in the UU church continues. It’s a cool discussion. Check it out. Weigh in. The Left Coast Unitarian has.
Rich has a rather poetic post about the moon in Facilitating Paradox
Will has a bunch of writing advice in It’s All One Thing
Phil’s little blog on the Prarie is looking into the future.
At Unity, Adam comments on the crucial SpongeBob issue.
Ever heard anybody say I’m not religious, I’m spiritual?" Yeah, Peacebang has too.
The Socinan is a new blog, and it rocks.
CC
At Boy in the Bands the debate over the place of atheism in the UU church continues. It’s a cool discussion. Check it out. Weigh in. The Left Coast Unitarian has.
Rich has a rather poetic post about the moon in Facilitating Paradox
Will has a bunch of writing advice in It’s All One Thing
Phil’s little blog on the Prarie is looking into the future.
At Unity, Adam comments on the crucial SpongeBob issue.
Ever heard anybody say I’m not religious, I’m spiritual?" Yeah, Peacebang has too.
The Socinan is a new blog, and it rocks.
CC
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Even a humanist can't stop reading....
A cranky humanist must have some guilty pleasures. Rob Brenzy's writing is one of mine. Can't say that I believe, but I never tire of the way he puts words together.
Brezny Prays
CC
Brezny Prays
CC
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Duh.
Death theme of this blog aside, I do not actually favor death. Possibly more importantly, a guy who can't prepare a legal brief properly is an incompetent lawyer.
So I am against the Gonzales nomination. Like every other blogger I know
CC
who hates talking politics, but come on.
So I am against the Gonzales nomination. Like every other blogger I know
CC
who hates talking politics, but come on.
Just like looking in a mirror...
I needed a picture for my profile page.
Someone of whom I used to be quite fond one compared me to Titian's Venus with a Mirror so it seems a logical choice.
The CSO prefers Barnett Newman
CC
Useful Information
Accomplished Abby told me the other day that Interlochen, where my father went to school, is a 24-hour orgy of parties and freaky sex.
Now that just sort of sounds like the sort of information that will come in handy someday.
CC
Now that just sort of sounds like the sort of information that will come in handy someday.
CC
Sunday, January 23, 2005
That Goddamned Utopia
So, I’m sitting in a coffee bar, typing away on Enrique* and thinking about a conversation I had with Jennifer Beautiful** two nights ago.
I told her about my Island.
When I was in high school, my friend Eric and I decided that we were going to buy up an island someplace, move there, name it “that Goddamned Island” and secede from the Union. Thus we would get to hear Tom Brokaw say:
“And tonight, we have a report on the situation on That Goddamned Island.”
Eric has probably long forgotten this, but I still think about that Island. You see, when I was telling my friends about this initially, they all wanted to move to my island. So I started inviting people, telling them they could pick their jobs. The joke expanded. My large number of professor friends meant that TGI got an institution of higher learning: “Goddamn U.”
Religion flourishes on TGI. Among my friends, we have religious leaders to run “That Goddamned Presbyeterian Church,” “That Goddamned Baptist Church” “That Goddamned Unitarian Church” and “that Goddamned Synagogue.” Somehow, I don’t see us getting a Mormon temple, but that’s a good start.
I could go on about this for quite a long time, but the point is, for over a decade I have been carrying around in my head the idea of an island where all my friends live and work.
In real life, my friends live literally from one end of the country to the other (Mary-who-Dances in New York to Melani-of-Honor in LA.) But on that Goddamned Island, Mary’s Presbyterian Church could be just down the street from Melani’s candle shop and used bookstore.
As I think about it, that TGI is still in my head, and people have been invited as recently as two days ago may be my attempt to reconcile the non-Geographic community that I have (with regular beliefnet readers knowing me better than members of my own church) with the ideal of a Geographic community.
A woman gave a talk in church today about Geographic and interest-based communities and it really set me thinking. I’ve moved back to my hometown and don’t feel any more a member of the community than I ever did. This may be my fault. I am sitting in a coffee bar, my nose in the computer, working on a blog for a readership from all over, by nature of the activity ignoring the people around me.
I look around and I’m not the only hermit. Some people are here with friends. But a good half dozen people are just typing away, islands in geographic community, but perhaps right then taking advantage of membership in a vast society.
There are big advantages for having friends all over. I have a place to sleep in all of America’s top five cities except Houston. But at the same time, it would be cool to walk down the street and see people I knew.
I would love to live on an Island with all my scattered friends, though I can't swear that they would all love to pull up roots and go live there with me.
But that's probably never going to happen.
Oh well. Maybe I will join my high school class’ reunion committee after all.
*Enrique is the laptop I write most of my posts on. I used to tease the CSO that I’d run off with someone named Enrique, so the laptop gets that name in recognition of the fact that it is the real drain on my attention.
**I responded to the person who asked, but I’ll go ahead and write that Jennifer Beautiful gets her name because the first time I saw her I noticed she was beautiful, then as I got to know her, I got used to her looks and forgot. I was out with Accomplished Abby (who graduated from school and went directly to the top of her field, thus her clever nickname) and we ran into Jennifer Beautiful and chatted for a minute. Later on, Accomplished Abby said “Boy, Jennifer is beautiful.” So I named her Jennifer Beautiful so I wouldn’t forget again.
I told her about my Island.
When I was in high school, my friend Eric and I decided that we were going to buy up an island someplace, move there, name it “that Goddamned Island” and secede from the Union. Thus we would get to hear Tom Brokaw say:
“And tonight, we have a report on the situation on That Goddamned Island.”
Eric has probably long forgotten this, but I still think about that Island. You see, when I was telling my friends about this initially, they all wanted to move to my island. So I started inviting people, telling them they could pick their jobs. The joke expanded. My large number of professor friends meant that TGI got an institution of higher learning: “Goddamn U.”
Religion flourishes on TGI. Among my friends, we have religious leaders to run “That Goddamned Presbyeterian Church,” “That Goddamned Baptist Church” “That Goddamned Unitarian Church” and “that Goddamned Synagogue.” Somehow, I don’t see us getting a Mormon temple, but that’s a good start.
I could go on about this for quite a long time, but the point is, for over a decade I have been carrying around in my head the idea of an island where all my friends live and work.
In real life, my friends live literally from one end of the country to the other (Mary-who-Dances in New York to Melani-of-Honor in LA.) But on that Goddamned Island, Mary’s Presbyterian Church could be just down the street from Melani’s candle shop and used bookstore.
As I think about it, that TGI is still in my head, and people have been invited as recently as two days ago may be my attempt to reconcile the non-Geographic community that I have (with regular beliefnet readers knowing me better than members of my own church) with the ideal of a Geographic community.
A woman gave a talk in church today about Geographic and interest-based communities and it really set me thinking. I’ve moved back to my hometown and don’t feel any more a member of the community than I ever did. This may be my fault. I am sitting in a coffee bar, my nose in the computer, working on a blog for a readership from all over, by nature of the activity ignoring the people around me.
I look around and I’m not the only hermit. Some people are here with friends. But a good half dozen people are just typing away, islands in geographic community, but perhaps right then taking advantage of membership in a vast society.
There are big advantages for having friends all over. I have a place to sleep in all of America’s top five cities except Houston. But at the same time, it would be cool to walk down the street and see people I knew.
I would love to live on an Island with all my scattered friends, though I can't swear that they would all love to pull up roots and go live there with me.
But that's probably never going to happen.
Oh well. Maybe I will join my high school class’ reunion committee after all.
*Enrique is the laptop I write most of my posts on. I used to tease the CSO that I’d run off with someone named Enrique, so the laptop gets that name in recognition of the fact that it is the real drain on my attention.
**I responded to the person who asked, but I’ll go ahead and write that Jennifer Beautiful gets her name because the first time I saw her I noticed she was beautiful, then as I got to know her, I got used to her looks and forgot. I was out with Accomplished Abby (who graduated from school and went directly to the top of her field, thus her clever nickname) and we ran into Jennifer Beautiful and chatted for a minute. Later on, Accomplished Abby said “Boy, Jennifer is beautiful.” So I named her Jennifer Beautiful so I wouldn’t forget again.
Gathering the Why
I’ve had a long, weird night, kids, and then I was awoken by a wrong number calling my house at 3:30 a.m. and have been up since.
Normally, after some effort, I would have gotten back to sleep, but tonight I’m left awake, thinking about the connections we have with one another and how fragile they can really be.
I’m not writing about my own marriage here, I promise, but some things I’ve heard tonight in conjuction with a movie I saw have left me thinking about divorces and firings and the similarities there.
The CSO, who knows a lot about corporate things, reports that because of lawsuits it is now a common practice to “gather evidence” to justify a firing. So the fired person is offered at the firing a file of reasons they were fired.
And any divorced person knows a thousand reasons why they are divorced.
But like what we think of as a thousand different causes of death can be summed up as “cardiac arrest,” our reasons for firing and leaving all boil down to “I’ve lost faith in you.”
At what point do we give up on the connections we have, our employees, our spouses, and just start gathering evidence?
“When finding a replacement is easier than keeping them, “I suppose is one answer.
“When there’s a catastrophic event” is another, though I don’t think that’s actually very common.
Legally, as far as I know, every state is a right-to-work state when it comes to marriage. We can break up for any reason. But when there’s a divorce, (or a firing) the people around always want to know WHY.
One can take a judgemental view and assume it is just snoopishness, but that’s not really it to me, I don’t think. If someone is fired at my company, I want to know why so I can amend my own behavior. If they were fired for being late too often, I’ll be much more careful with my own timing, for example. If they impregnated the boss' wife, I can be relieved.
Tonight, my friend talked about leaving her husband, who has no idea this is coming. I’ve been mulling over what she had to say, tongue-across-a-mouth-sore-style, and I think that what has me doing that is that her reasons boiled down to “my husband is an inconsiderate, indecisive, pain in the ass.”
She’s right, I’m sure. Yet like the prosecutor on cross-examination, my mind wants to go “But was he this way when you married him? If so, why leave now?” I know this guy. To have met him is to know that sensitivity is not necessarily a real strong point. He has a romantic Don Quixote quality, but whether his Dulcinea is a believer likely doesn’t often occur.
So what makes that intolerable now? I actually do have some idea in her case, and I’m not saying her actions aren’t justified. They likely are. And even if they weren’t justified enough for me, that’s none of my business. This is a right-to-work state.
Probably in the end, my worry boils down to the fact that I am an inconsiderate, indecisive pain in the ass sometimes. My husband is, too. Will he be the one gathering evidence in ten years? Will I?
I am bemused that I find myself a bit resentful over my friend’s explanation. Couldn’t she come up with something BETTER? Couldn’t he have poisoned the cat? Or cheated on her and given her an STD? Or something?
Something catastrophic, something dramatic. Something that would give me the chance to sidle away from the idea, thinking to myself “But the CSO would NEVER do THAT…”
I do think that sparing our friends such pain, as well as justifying our already-decided-upon actions to ourselves, is why we gather the why.
But it must be an awful thing to have to do.
CC
Normally, after some effort, I would have gotten back to sleep, but tonight I’m left awake, thinking about the connections we have with one another and how fragile they can really be.
I’m not writing about my own marriage here, I promise, but some things I’ve heard tonight in conjuction with a movie I saw have left me thinking about divorces and firings and the similarities there.
The CSO, who knows a lot about corporate things, reports that because of lawsuits it is now a common practice to “gather evidence” to justify a firing. So the fired person is offered at the firing a file of reasons they were fired.
And any divorced person knows a thousand reasons why they are divorced.
But like what we think of as a thousand different causes of death can be summed up as “cardiac arrest,” our reasons for firing and leaving all boil down to “I’ve lost faith in you.”
At what point do we give up on the connections we have, our employees, our spouses, and just start gathering evidence?
“When finding a replacement is easier than keeping them, “I suppose is one answer.
“When there’s a catastrophic event” is another, though I don’t think that’s actually very common.
Legally, as far as I know, every state is a right-to-work state when it comes to marriage. We can break up for any reason. But when there’s a divorce, (or a firing) the people around always want to know WHY.
One can take a judgemental view and assume it is just snoopishness, but that’s not really it to me, I don’t think. If someone is fired at my company, I want to know why so I can amend my own behavior. If they were fired for being late too often, I’ll be much more careful with my own timing, for example. If they impregnated the boss' wife, I can be relieved.
Tonight, my friend talked about leaving her husband, who has no idea this is coming. I’ve been mulling over what she had to say, tongue-across-a-mouth-sore-style, and I think that what has me doing that is that her reasons boiled down to “my husband is an inconsiderate, indecisive, pain in the ass.”
She’s right, I’m sure. Yet like the prosecutor on cross-examination, my mind wants to go “But was he this way when you married him? If so, why leave now?” I know this guy. To have met him is to know that sensitivity is not necessarily a real strong point. He has a romantic Don Quixote quality, but whether his Dulcinea is a believer likely doesn’t often occur.
So what makes that intolerable now? I actually do have some idea in her case, and I’m not saying her actions aren’t justified. They likely are. And even if they weren’t justified enough for me, that’s none of my business. This is a right-to-work state.
Probably in the end, my worry boils down to the fact that I am an inconsiderate, indecisive pain in the ass sometimes. My husband is, too. Will he be the one gathering evidence in ten years? Will I?
I am bemused that I find myself a bit resentful over my friend’s explanation. Couldn’t she come up with something BETTER? Couldn’t he have poisoned the cat? Or cheated on her and given her an STD? Or something?
Something catastrophic, something dramatic. Something that would give me the chance to sidle away from the idea, thinking to myself “But the CSO would NEVER do THAT…”
I do think that sparing our friends such pain, as well as justifying our already-decided-upon actions to ourselves, is why we gather the why.
But it must be an awful thing to have to do.
CC
Saturday, January 22, 2005
Responding to Philocrites
Peacebang mentioned people at weddings who grate on her by saying they are “spiritual but not religious.”
I’m thinking “spiritual but not religious” is to a minister what “I don’t know much about art but I know what I like" is to an art historian.
Here’s Katy-the-Wise’s take
I’m thinking “spiritual but not religious” is to a minister what “I don’t know much about art but I know what I like" is to an art historian.
Here’s Katy-the-Wise’s take
CC Theology 101
From Beliefnet UU Debate
As far as I know, Nontheism consists of Buddhism, Deism and me.
I'm closer to a deist than a Buddhist, but I'm not a deist.
Like a deist, I believe that there is a God, but that humanity is basically on its own. Unlike a deist, I don't believe that God was a creator who then left the world alone. What I do believe is that God is here and with us, but is a transcendent force.
Tillich says that everything one says about God is metaphor. My chosen metaphor is gravity. Gravity is everywhere, always pulling on and effecting things, but we don't notice it most of the time. Gravity is a wonderful thing, a miraculous thing, we couldn't survive without it. But it works itself so seamlessly into our reality that only physicists and engineers think about it much. It's just a part of "the way things are' for us.
Likewise for God, our transcendent force for good. You can chose to work against gravity if you want to, but doing so really just makes life a little harder.
Now this theology is all well and good, but it does present a few practical problems. I don't "worship" God in any real sense. A being that enjoys worship by beings that don't understand it doesn't seem very-worship worthy to me, and gravity doesn't care if you worship it or not. Petitionary prayer is even more ridiculous from my perspective.
I suppose "My gravity bless you and not send you flinging into space" can be said, but I always feel a little awkward suggesting that God should bless people just the same. In my view, God doesn't give people special blessings. God's there. Pay attention and seek attunement or don't.
Theistic services tend to make me sit there and go "God is watching over me, you say? Well, sort of, but, well, not really, no."
If I wanted to sit in church and disagree, I could, but if I'd wanted to do that, I could have saved my parents some anguish and remained a Presbyterian.
Thus my athiest and humanist sympathies. I prefer athiest and humanist congregations not because I necessarily agree with athiests but because they really talk about how to life a life in tune with God, though they don't use the same language I do. And they do a lot of social justice work. I don't believe that social justice work is a replacement for religion, but if you elieve as I do that God doesn't directly feed the homeless or free the oppressed, the need for human beings to take care of each other becomes glaringly apparent.
I don't use much theistic language myself, unless I'm using it to make the point that I am actually far more religious than people tend to give me credit for as I've done recently, and I don't quite understand other peoples' need to hear it all the time. To me, if we're talking about taking care of one another and living thoughtfully and faithfully, saying that we're going it because we seek the highest and best in everything is not really any different than saying we do it to glorify God.
I think of theistic language as a language. I can translate it easily enough, but I don't think it's any of our place to try to pressure people for whom secular language is a native tongue to speak theistically just to please us, or just to recruit more members or what have you.
But funny, all that doesn't fit in B-net's little "statement of belief" box
CC
As far as I know, Nontheism consists of Buddhism, Deism and me.
I'm closer to a deist than a Buddhist, but I'm not a deist.
Like a deist, I believe that there is a God, but that humanity is basically on its own. Unlike a deist, I don't believe that God was a creator who then left the world alone. What I do believe is that God is here and with us, but is a transcendent force.
Tillich says that everything one says about God is metaphor. My chosen metaphor is gravity. Gravity is everywhere, always pulling on and effecting things, but we don't notice it most of the time. Gravity is a wonderful thing, a miraculous thing, we couldn't survive without it. But it works itself so seamlessly into our reality that only physicists and engineers think about it much. It's just a part of "the way things are' for us.
Likewise for God, our transcendent force for good. You can chose to work against gravity if you want to, but doing so really just makes life a little harder.
Now this theology is all well and good, but it does present a few practical problems. I don't "worship" God in any real sense. A being that enjoys worship by beings that don't understand it doesn't seem very-worship worthy to me, and gravity doesn't care if you worship it or not. Petitionary prayer is even more ridiculous from my perspective.
I suppose "My gravity bless you and not send you flinging into space" can be said, but I always feel a little awkward suggesting that God should bless people just the same. In my view, God doesn't give people special blessings. God's there. Pay attention and seek attunement or don't.
Theistic services tend to make me sit there and go "God is watching over me, you say? Well, sort of, but, well, not really, no."
If I wanted to sit in church and disagree, I could, but if I'd wanted to do that, I could have saved my parents some anguish and remained a Presbyterian.
Thus my athiest and humanist sympathies. I prefer athiest and humanist congregations not because I necessarily agree with athiests but because they really talk about how to life a life in tune with God, though they don't use the same language I do. And they do a lot of social justice work. I don't believe that social justice work is a replacement for religion, but if you elieve as I do that God doesn't directly feed the homeless or free the oppressed, the need for human beings to take care of each other becomes glaringly apparent.
I don't use much theistic language myself, unless I'm using it to make the point that I am actually far more religious than people tend to give me credit for as I've done recently, and I don't quite understand other peoples' need to hear it all the time. To me, if we're talking about taking care of one another and living thoughtfully and faithfully, saying that we're going it because we seek the highest and best in everything is not really any different than saying we do it to glorify God.
I think of theistic language as a language. I can translate it easily enough, but I don't think it's any of our place to try to pressure people for whom secular language is a native tongue to speak theistically just to please us, or just to recruit more members or what have you.
But funny, all that doesn't fit in B-net's little "statement of belief" box
CC
CC the political refugee
I’m at the coffee bar last night with Jennifer Beautiful, and I get up to go to the bathroom.
When I return, she confronts me.
“You know, Suz, I had doubts about you when you started working for Republicans. But this is it.“ She held aloft an issue of Town and Country that she had pulled out of my totebag. “You’re OUT of the Democratic party.”
“But..”
“If it had been Harpers, that would have been excusable. Even Vogue. But Town and Country? That's the pinnacle!"
I think the subscription label is really what got her.
Oh well.
CC
Who got it free with frequent-flyer miles and only reads it for the articles, she swears...
When I return, she confronts me.
“You know, Suz, I had doubts about you when you started working for Republicans. But this is it.“ She held aloft an issue of Town and Country that she had pulled out of my totebag. “You’re OUT of the Democratic party.”
“But..”
“If it had been Harpers, that would have been excusable. Even Vogue. But Town and Country? That's the pinnacle!"
I think the subscription label is really what got her.
Oh well.
CC
Who got it free with frequent-flyer miles and only reads it for the articles, she swears...
How to post a comment
I love my funky little blog, but it makes me nuts that comments don't appear. You have to click on the pound sign beneath the item to comment on it and the front page doesn't show previous comments.
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Words to live by
Sigh.
The author of this post is right on just about everything, I'd say, I'll make it an aspiration.
CC
The author of this post is right on just about everything, I'd say, I'll make it an aspiration.
CC
Good news/bad news
Good news:
Martin Bryant mentioned on B-net UU debate that about a third of a percent of Americans are UUs.
Well, two members of the house and one of the senate are UUs.
Three divided by 535...
Wahoo!
UUs are better represented in Congress than in the general population.
Know any other minority of any sort of which this is true?
Bad news:
I discovered in editing my last post that MS word's spellchecker does not recognize "Tillich," "Pagels," "Buber" or "salvific."
Such the philistine, that Bill Gates.
Martin Bryant mentioned on B-net UU debate that about a third of a percent of Americans are UUs.
Well, two members of the house and one of the senate are UUs.
Three divided by 535...
Wahoo!
UUs are better represented in Congress than in the general population.
Know any other minority of any sort of which this is true?
Bad news:
I discovered in editing my last post that MS word's spellchecker does not recognize "Tillich," "Pagels," "Buber" or "salvific."
Such the philistine, that Bill Gates.
Just call me Buffy, for short
Now, most of y’all know me as mild-mannered Chalicechick, peaceful and sweet.
Little do you realize that when UUism is insulted, I have a bad habit of turning into “Buffy, the Logical Fallacy Slayer.”
I don’t know, I just really don’t like to see UUism insulted, especially by people who don’t seem to know what they are talking about. So I have quixotic little verbal battles.
I had a really bad day and got into is over at B-net UU debate tonight. I gave you a link, but don’t look it up, kids, it’s just lame.
Anyway, as things were dying down, someone asked me why I do that.
Best answer I could think of:
Because I was a really screwed up person before I found it.
I knew there was more to life than what I was seeing, but I couldn't accept what my Presbyterian upbringing had taught me. I couldn't stomach a faith where people told me what to believe, and I had a sense that there was something beyond my understanding, but was an atheist in some ways purely out of self-protection.
I found UUism's focus on reason salvific. Once I began refining belief through reason and making a conscious effort to look at the world objectively, I found things made a lot more sense and my behavior became a lot less self-destructive and a lot more productive.
I hadn't had an easy childhood, and for a long time, I believed that forces more powerful than I was were forever ready to sweep chaos in and destroy any plans I might have made. Finding UUism was a vital part of taking control over things and realizing that I really do have the power to shape my life.
Eventually, I came back around to the concept of God. My UU friends were always there for me, happy to help out, but asking enough pointed questions to keep me from making God in my own image.
I'm still deep in my Tillich and Pagels and Buber, trying to figure out God's place in my life and my own place in the world, but I do find I've made progress and I've become a more stable, sexy, interesting human being along the way.
So basically, I defend UUism because it saved me.
Goodness, seems like the least I can do.
Little do you realize that when UUism is insulted, I have a bad habit of turning into “Buffy, the Logical Fallacy Slayer.”
I don’t know, I just really don’t like to see UUism insulted, especially by people who don’t seem to know what they are talking about. So I have quixotic little verbal battles.
I had a really bad day and got into is over at B-net UU debate tonight. I gave you a link, but don’t look it up, kids, it’s just lame.
Anyway, as things were dying down, someone asked me why I do that.
Best answer I could think of:
Because I was a really screwed up person before I found it.
I knew there was more to life than what I was seeing, but I couldn't accept what my Presbyterian upbringing had taught me. I couldn't stomach a faith where people told me what to believe, and I had a sense that there was something beyond my understanding, but was an atheist in some ways purely out of self-protection.
I found UUism's focus on reason salvific. Once I began refining belief through reason and making a conscious effort to look at the world objectively, I found things made a lot more sense and my behavior became a lot less self-destructive and a lot more productive.
I hadn't had an easy childhood, and for a long time, I believed that forces more powerful than I was were forever ready to sweep chaos in and destroy any plans I might have made. Finding UUism was a vital part of taking control over things and realizing that I really do have the power to shape my life.
Eventually, I came back around to the concept of God. My UU friends were always there for me, happy to help out, but asking enough pointed questions to keep me from making God in my own image.
I'm still deep in my Tillich and Pagels and Buber, trying to figure out God's place in my life and my own place in the world, but I do find I've made progress and I've become a more stable, sexy, interesting human being along the way.
So basically, I defend UUism because it saved me.
Goodness, seems like the least I can do.
Sunday, January 16, 2005
My professional life
One of my co-workers said recently
"Fundraising is like an ugly cheerleader, they only love us when we put out."
I think everyone's job is like that, though.
CC
"Fundraising is like an ugly cheerleader, they only love us when we put out."
I think everyone's job is like that, though.
CC
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