Front

A cold front was supposed to move through New Bedford today. In the early afternoon, the sun came out, the air got cooler and drier, my mood lightened and got cheerful: maybe the cold front had come through. But a couple of hours later I suddenly became aware that my mood had darkened; I couldn’t figure out why, until I realized that the gray clouds moved back in, there was some light rain, the air was heavy and thick. The vacillations of a cold front over our region changed my mood significantly. The effect on my mood was aggravated because all my joints ached from the pressure changes; it was annoying enough that I took some acetemenophen. This is one example of weather having a direct and immediate influence on emotional state. i would say that the expressions “my mood lightened” or “my mood darkened” are more than mere analogies between emotional states and fair or overcast weather conditions; these expressions also represent observations that the passage of a weather front can have a direct effect on the physical body which can in turn lead to a mood change.

Now the weather forecast says the cold front is due to pass over our area at about ten at night, which is just about now. Time to take another acetemenophen tablet.

Utah Phillips is dead

Bruce “Utah” Phillips died on on Friday. Commenter Dan Schatz tells us:

Sadly, we lost Utah on Friday. He died peacefully in his sleep next to his wife. Utah had been a founding member of his [Unitarian Universalist] fellowship in Nevada City, CA, and though he often made light of his UUism, it was extremely important to him. He was sometimes known as “U. Utah Phillips” (a take-off on the country singer T. Texas Tyler); a few weeks ago I joked with him that it stood for “Unitarian.” “Well, you figured it out,” he said.

The various benefit concerts and other projects that were planned for Utah are still going ahead, as a memorial and a way to make sure Utah’s family remains well supported. If one of the concerts is in your area, I advise you to go to it. If you see a Utah Phillips CD, pick it up — the songs will astound you with their beauty.

Thanks for letting us all know, Dan. On the the Utah Phillips Web site, his son Duncan reports:

Utah’s wish was to not be embalmed and laid to rest in a plain, hand made wooden coffin to expedite his return to the earth, which we will honor. He will be laid to rest in the cemetery down the road from his home in Nevada City.

Ecologically sensible, just as you’d expect — what a good last act of a profoundly caring life. As soon as I finish typing this, I think I’ll go find a Utah Phillips CD and listen to it. Obituaries and press notices after the jump… Continue reading →

Cleaning house

What could be better than house cleaning? You answer: just about anything. But I think you’re wrong.

Yes, house cleaning is drudgery. Yes, cleaning house can be overwhelming, especially I would think for families with young children where the adult or adults have to work full time. Yes, house cleaning is associated with the worst excesses of sexism. Yes, all these things are true.

Thich Nhat Hanh says: “There are two ways to wash the dishes. The first is to wash the dishes in order to have clean dishes and the second is to wash the dishes in order to wash the dishes.” This is true as far as it goes: any task, no matter how mundane — perhaps even, no matter how degrading — any task can be turned into an act of mindfulness. But I don’t think Thich Nhat Hanh goes far enough.

This winter, I got bronchitis. I wasn’t that sick — I didn’t have to go to the hospital — but I was sick enough that about all I had energy to do was to go to work, and to come home and sleep. This went on for months. At the same time, Carol’s work overwhelmed her life, and between the two of us we didn’t have much or any time to devote to house cleaning. Dirty dishes piled up in our sink, and — well, you don’t need to hear the details.

Finally this week I have been feeling more energetic, and I have been house cleaning. I have not been house cleaning in order to house-clean; I have been house cleaning in order to have a clean house. Thich Nhat Hanh has his perspective, and I have mine: he is full of mindfulness and he is far more spiritual than I; I’m happy just having a clean house.

The local press

The local daily newspaper, the New Bedford Standard-Times, published an article today on convicted sex offenders wanting to attend churches. It’s always interesting to read an article in your local paper on a topic about which you happen to know quite a bit — it gives you a good sense of how good your local paper is. This happened to be a subject about which I know quite a bit — indeed, the reporter interviewed me, quotes me in the article, and went on to interview at least two other people I suggested she call.

Unfortunately, this story revealed to me that the Standard-Times is not a particularly good newspaper. The facts are mostly right, but the story doesn’t really go anywhere. It covers the obvious points:– convicted sex offenders can benefit from participating in a religious community; churches have to protect their children; the situation is difficult. But there’s very little in the way of a specific local story — it’s a collection of loosely-connected generic facts rather than a real story.

I wish I could provide a link to the story so you could read it yourself, but the Substandard-Times requires a paid subscription to view anything except the current news on their site. But the hell with it — you don’t want to bother reading their story anyway; it’s not worth your time. Instead, go and read this really top-notch story on the same topic from the New York Times.

Not that the New York Times is a very good newspaper any more — they’re not. The quality of their writing and editing, like that of most newspapers, has gone down year after year for the past decade or more. And that’s what’s happening at a big national newspaper; the local newspapers are even worse. The local newspapers claim that their readership is declining because everyone gets their news from the Web these days. But that’s not true — we still need local newspapers that report on local news; that’s something you can’t get from the Web. The real reason newspaper readership is dropping is because the quality of the writing and editing is going down.

It’s too bad that local newspapers are so bad, too, because there are plenty of real stories that need to be told. There certainly is plenty of corruption and political intrigue going on in this city that needs courageous reporting. But it has become clear we’re not going to get that kind of reporting from our local newspaper. Oh well. Maybe someone will start a well-written, hard-hitting political blog in this city….

At this point in the year, I don’t have much left in me. The sermons take more and more effort to write; I really need those weeks of study leave this summer to read and study; all year long the thoughts have been flowing out, and now I need some new thoughts flowing back in.

Or to put it another way, on Thursday, supposedly the day when I write the week’s sermon, I made very little progress. I worked for eight or nine hours and all I had to show for it was a sketchy outline; usually I would have the whole thing written. So I took yesterday off, and (grouchily) sat down this afternoon to finish the sermon. I wrote some, but it was utter crap. I stopped, and finished reading a depressing mystery novel in which the whole world is depicted is corrupt and where evil remains unpunished. That put me in a bad mood, so when I sat down to write, absolutely nothing came out. So I made dinner, and had a mug of tea for the caffeine. Felt better, but still couldn’t write, so I took a short walk: down to the end of the pedestrian bridge over Route 18, where I stood and looked out over the harbor. By now the sun was low in the sky, and in its light even the fishing boats, usually so squat and ugly, looked beautiful. I headed back home, still grouchy; but by the time I got home, the mood had lifted, and I went upstairs and sat down and wrote the whole sermon in under two hours. And with the holiday on Monday, perhaps I will have enough down time that I won’t have this problem with next week’s sermon.

An alternate definition of religion

Amazingly enough, the battle between the atheists and the theists is still going strong. Someday, perhaps the atheists will realize that all they are doing is playing the Christian game, by letting the dominant Christian tradition define what religion is. So here’s an alternate definition of religion, from the introduction to The Twenty-first Century Confronts Its Gods: Globalization, Technology, and War, a collection of scholarly essays edited by David J. Hawkin (SUNY Press, 2004):

It is difficult to define what religion is. It seems easy enough at first: most would say that religion entails belief in a god or gods, involves ritual and worship, and has a system of beliefs…. Yet this definition does not include, for example, Theravada Buddhism, which does not have a transcendental being in its belief system. Nor does this definition reflect that in popular usage the term “religion” is used very broadly (as in, for example, references to New Age “religion”). Paul Tillich recognized this when, in Dynamics of Faith, he defined religion as being grasped by an “ultimate concern.” What Tillich meant was that for most people all other concerns are preliminary to a main concern that supplies the answer tot he question, “What is the meaning of my life?” What makes this primary concern religious is that it is the primary motivating concern of one’s life: it makes an absolute demand on one’s allegiance and promises ultimate fulfillment. Using this definition, we may distinguish three types of religion. First, theistic religions, in which the object of ultimate concern is a transcendental being (as in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Second, non-theistic religions, in which the object of ultimate concern is some higher principle or abstract power (as in Theravada Buddhism and some types of Hinduism). Third, secular or quasi-religions, where the object of ultimate concern is such that it resembles theistic or non-theistic religions. What the person holds as ultimate concern gives that person’s belief a character (often unintentional) similar to that found in more traditional religions.

I’m not sure that my own faith community, Unitarian Universalism, fits neatly into this broad-brush typology of religions, since we have both theists and non-theists. You could argue that what holds Unitarian Universalism together (if indeed something is holding us together) is a higher principle, thus plunking us into the category of non-theistic religions. I’d be more likely to argue for a fourth category that mixes theistic and non-theistic approaches to religion. In any case, the real point is that the atheist/theist debates only work within the context of the first type of religion, the theistic religions; and we’re not a theistic religion; therefore the atheist/theist debate is a waste of time within Unitarian Universalism.

Boston book lovers, take note

MacIntyre and Moore Books has moved from their Davis Square location, to a new store near Porter Square. They’re in what used to be Unicorn Books, on Mass Ave heading towards Arlington, in the same block as the U.S. Post Office.

Utah Phillips

Utah Phillips, the folk musician with the big white beard and the great stories, has been having some health issues recently. Last Wednesday his son, Duncan, posted a letter from Utah here — the gist of which is that Utah Phillips is doing better, but still faces major health challenges.

Like many of his fans, I like Utah Phillips not just for his music and his hilarious stories, but for his integrity and for his commitment to social justice, and yeah, I’m proud to claim him as a co-religionist (he’s part of the Unitarian Universalist congregation in Nevada City). Looks like I won’t get a chance to hear him in concert again, but at least he’s still alive and writing songs and podcasting.

People across the country are hosting benefit concerts for Utah Phillips — Pete Seeger and Dar Williams held a benefit concert for Phillips back in April, at which time Seeger pointed out that folk singers don’t get health benefits as part of the job. There’s a benefit concert coming up in Chicago on June 14, and no doubt more to come.

I almost never post other people’s videos on this blog, but — in case you’ve never experienced him live, here’s a taste of Utah Phillips singing and telling stories at what must have been one of his last appearances before he stopped performing. The story about his daughter (about five minutes in) is hilarious:

Or you could listen to this, his most famous story.

The joy of science

I’m reading a new biography of Maria Mitchell, Maria Mitchell and the Sexing of Science: An Astronomer Among the Romantics. Mitchell, the first American woman who was a professional astronomer, and probably the most famous American woman scientist of the 19th C., said this about the joys of watching the skies:

“The aurora is always a pleasant companion, a meteor seems to come like a messenger from departed spirits and even the blossoming of the trees in the moonlight becomes a sight looked for with pleasure. And from astronomy there is the enjoyment as a night upon the housetops with the stars as in the midst of other grand scenery. There is the same subdued quiet and grateful sensuousness — a calm to the troubled spirit and a hope to the desponding.”

I suspect I’ll have more about this biography after I finish it.

(Mitchell plays a minor role in my mother’s family folklore. My mother’s family comes from Nantucket, where Mitchell spent the first four decades of her life; and Mitchell left the Quakers to join the Nantucket Unitarian church where my mother’s family attended worship. I remember hearing about Mitchell as a child — mostly I remember learning to pronounce her first name “muh-RYE-ah,” not “mah-REE-ah.”)