In the grand scheme of things, it’s such a small matter. But it’s a matter that has been looming large in my consciousness. I have to go for gum surgery tomorrow. It’s not that bad — they will cut up my gums, stitch them back up, my mouth will be sore for a couple of weeks, then I’ll be fine. I have to get up an hour earlier than usual tomorrow morning for the appointment. I actually had anxiety dreams about gum surgery last night. I can’t get settled down to go to sleep tonight. It’s such a small matter when compared to the grand scheme of things, but it’s immediate enough that it doesn’t seem that small right now.
Email [curse | blessing], part four
The fourth installment in an occasional series where I think out loud about using email effectively. First installment.
Anarticle in today’s New York Times unequivocally answers the question that is the title of this post:– email is a curse. A front-page article by Brad Stone titled “Tell-All PCs and Phones Transforming Divorce: In the Digital Age, It’s Growing Hard to Hide Dirty Secrets” tells all about how email is changing divorce proceedings.
One man, suspecting his wife of cheating, installed a piece of software on her computer that took a screenshot of whatever was on her monitor every 15 seconds, and sent it back to him via email. She thought no one was watching; he discovered that she was having an affair, and that she and her lover were seeking sex from strangers via the Internet. Another woman checked her doctor husband’s email account — he had shared his password with her — and discovered that he was having an affair with a much younger medical resident, and that he bought a three million dollar condo so he could tryst in style. By the way, it turns out both these strategies for gaining access to email are perfectly legal.
The Times reporter quotes divorce lawyer David Levy as saying, “I do not like to put things on e-mail…. There’s no way it’s private. Nothing is fully protected once you hit the send button.” Actually, nothing is private once you type it into your computer. The Times reporter also quotes a private investigator, James Mulvaney, as saying, “Every keystroke on your computer is there, forever and ever.” Mulvaney claims that the only way you can erase data from your hard drive is to “throw your computer into the air and play skeet with it.” [Commercially available neodymium-boron-iron magnet can erase floppy disks and the magnetic stripes from credit cards; one would imagine that a strong neodymium magnet could erase the contents of a hard drive if placed directly against the disk; but I digress.]
This brings us back to the single most important rule for email: Do not write anything in an email message unless you would feel comfortable seeing it on the front page of the local newspaper. Or in court, for that matter.
Exhibit
Years ago, I read this huge book by Allan Kaprow about happenings. So here’s a recreation of a happening by George Brecht, as best I can remember it from that long-ago book. (2:49)
More Brecht scores/scripts: Link. A “performance” of one of Brecht’s works on the Web: Link.
Note: video host blip.tv is defunct, so this video no longer exists.
Avarice and inhumanity
While researching today’s sermon, I found excerpts from a 1774 sermon by Elhanan Winchester, who was preaching Universalism in the 1770’s here in New England. This 1774 sermon was on the evils of the slave trade, and I would have expected that a Universalist preacher would emphasize the radical egalitarian aspects of Universalism, i.e., that God loves all persons equally, that all persons share in the same final destiny, and therefore allowing slavery goes against God’s intentions for humankind.
Perhaps Winchester makes that argument elsewhere in his sermon, but in the excerpt I read, he condemns slavery because it is founded on the “base and ignoble” principle of avarice. And, says Winchester, “avarice tends to harden the heart, to render the mind callous to the feelings of humanity, indisposes the soul to every virtue, and renders it prey to every vice.” Since Winchester did believe in some future punishment for sin, perhaps he is warning us that falling prey to avarice could result in punishment after death (up to fifty thousand year’s worth, in his theological system).
I’m an Ultra-Universalist myself (that is, I reject the idea of any punishment for sin after death), but I can draw a somewhat more subtle theological point from this. Any action that causes us to do evil, any action that “hardens the heart, renders the mind callous to the feelings of humanity,” makes us less human — it drives us further from God, if you prefer traditional theological language; or if you don’t like traditional theological language, it drives us away from love and loving relationships and so makes us less than human.
And if Winchester is correct, that avarice is one of the most base and ignoble of human sins — or to put it another way, that avarice quickly makes us less than human — this would imply that a free-market economic system based on self-centered interest could slip easily into avarice, which does not bode well for the morals or humanity of a people living under such an economic system.
(I’ve included more of Winchester’s words below….) Continue reading
“Project Footstool”
A peek at some of the 146 works of fabric art hidden away in the sanctuary of First Unitarian in New Bedford. I particularly like the diversity of styles — some of the works are reflective of fabric art from that era (rough textures, subdued colors), others reflect a more traditional sensibility, and some are just outrageously bright. 3:24
(This video was scheduled to be posted last Friday, but I ran into technical glitches and had to re-shoot parts of it — now you know why the opening title says “Friday Video,” even though today is Wednesday.)
Note: video host blip.tv is defunct, so this video no longer exists.
PodCamp Boston 2
Coming up soon: PodCamp Boston 2, from 7 p.m. on Friday, October 28, through 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 28. According to their Web site, “PodCamp Boston 2 is the new media community UnConference that helps connect people interested in blogging, podcasting, social networks, video on the net, and new media together for three days to learn, share, and grow their new media skills.” Link to PodCamp Boston 2.
Although I’ll be tied up Saturday during the day, looks like I’ll be able to attend the rest of PodCamp. I’m going for three reasons:– (1) I love new media; (2) I’m fascinated by the UnConference phenomenon; and (3) I’m still trying to get organized to do a weekly video on this blog and maybe PodCamp will provide enough info and inspiration for me to make it happen.
If you’re planning on going, post something in the comments to this post, and maybe we can get together.
Classic church growth methodologies (that don’t work)
An earlier post on Carl George’s church growth books: Link
This past week, I was leafing through Carl George’s book Prepare Your Church for the Future. I was particularly struck by some of the things George says in the second chapter of this book, a chapter titled “Tally What You Inherited.” George claims that every church “embodies growth strategies that can be both identified and analyzed.” Then he proceeds to list sixteen different of the most common church growth methodologies. To my mind, four of these methodologies are of particular relevance to Unitarian Universalist congregations. These four existing and common growth methodologies are Sunday school, feeder and receptor patterns, next-door-to-the-right-institution syndrome, and capture by committee involvement.
Below you’ll find my brief notes on these four popular Unitarian Universalist growth strategies. Unfortunately, as I’ll detail below, these have not been effective growth strategies for us. We have also managed to screw up so-called Small Group Ministry, a growth strategy based on Carl George’s work, and I have some thoughts on that as well. But first, four classic growth methodologies that don’t serve us very well….
Two trees
The last thirty days have been dry here. The dirt in our little garden beside our building is powder dry, and half of the flowers have died from thirst. When you walk around our neighborhood, you can tell which people have automatic watering systems for their lawns, because their grass is green and soft, while everyone else’s grass is golden brown and crisp.
At church today, we had our usual ingathering worship service, where everyone is invited to bring a small amount of water from their summer adventures and add it to a communal bowl. When the worship service was over, we took the bowl out beside the church, and the children of the church helped spread the water around the big old cedar tree growing there.
More water probably got on the children than got to the tree, and as soon as we were done, the children tore off to run around in circles once again. Cora and I stood there watching them, and we talked about how dry the last month or so has been. Cora said that she had heard that trees older than a hundred years are beginning to have a hard time with the lack of water. She pointed out some of the signs of lack of water on our big old cedar tree: loosened bark and cracks in the wood, which can provide access to insect pests.
Trees are having a tough time of it in general these days. Trees face a variety of invasive pests — the Eastern Hemlocks are dying from Woolly Aldegid infestations, and if the Asian Longhorn Beetle escapes its present quarantine in New York City, we’ll lose the maples, willows, horse chestnuts, and more. There’s global climate change, which some people predict will adversely impact many trees. And trees face other human-caused problems, like road salt which builds up near roads and kills trees. It makes sense to keep our trees as healthy as possible, so that they will have a better chance of surviving road salt, global climate change, and invasive insect pests.
So I said to Cora that I guessed it would be a good idea to ask our church sexton to put a hose out this week and water our big old cedar, and the oak tree, too. She said she thought that would be a good idea. We went back to watching her daughter and the other children run around under the trees, and it occurred to me that Cora had played under those same two trees back when she was a child growing up in our church.
Roremian snark, and an anecdote.
I’m reading Settling the Score: Essays on Music by Ned Rorem, the American composer. Rorem, who was brought up a Quaker, writes with equal parts snark and common sense. Amidst all the snark about musicians and composers, he comes up with some snark about religion:
Insofar as the church becomes action it dispenses with ritual. Catholics react, Quakers act. Quakers never use music and are the most social progressive of church groups. By underplaying the motionless symbol of the Trinity, Quakers emphasize the need for political movement. When they reinforce that need politically, they do so in silence.
Wow! Take that, Mother Teresa.
Then, a little later on in the same essay, Rorem offers this delightful anecdote from his childhood:
Although Quakers, our parents used to send Rosemary and me to other denominational Sunday schools from time to time. That was squelched when we came home and confectioned crucifixes. Nonetheless, on holidays our family attended Catholic or High Epsicopal services “for the pageantry.” One Christmas, arriving late at Church of the Redeemer at 56th and Blackstone, Father asked the usher: “What time did the show start?” “We don’t refer to it as a show,” was the chilly reply.
Ahh. I now have a vivid image of that usher in my imagination….