I just updated the tagline for this blog to read “A postmodern heretic’s explorations in eco-spirituality and ecojustice.” This small change was prompted by three things. First, I find myself wanting to focus more and more on these two topics. Second, I’m less interested in writing about Unitarian Universalist denominational politics, history, or other purely denominational concerns; or writing about religion more generally. Third, I think I’m moving in the direction of posting more visual images relating to eco-spirituality and ecojustice. I’ll try this new focus for a while and see how it goes. Your comments and feedback are welcome, as always.
Update, 6 August 2024: Nah, I changed my mind. Back to the old tag line.
I’m attending a week-long seminar on bryophytes at a natural history institute in coastal Maine — which I like to refer to as “moss camp.” We go out collecting for an hour or so, then spend the rest of the day in the lab trying to figure out what we’ve collected. I spend about equal amounts of time staring through a microscope, and poring through dichotomous keys.
Identifying bryophyts has proved to be challenging. To begin with, the dichotomous keys can be frustrating. They use terms like “complicate-bilobed” and phrases like “Leaves keeled and conduplicate.” Different dichotomous keys sometimes use different terms for exactly the same characteristic. Then there are taxa which are frustrating — to identify Sphagnum moss to species, our instructor told us to make slide preparations of a stem leaf, a branch leaf, the stem stripped of leaves, and a section of the stem; and then after an hour or so of staring through microscopes, three different keys gave three different answers because the taxonomy isn’t settled. Usually by mid-afternoon, the three of us in the class have to get up and walk out of the lab to clear our heads.
The beauty of the bryophytes makes up for the frustrations of taxonomy and morphology. It’s another whole world….
Hylocomium splendensA folded leaf of Ptilidium pulcherrimum, showing cilia
“Effect of the Edge on Eastern Cottontail Density: Urban Edges are Harder than Agricultural” studies Eastern Cottontail density in urban preserves in Mexico City, and concludes that this species of rabbit avoids the edges of urban preserves (perhaps due to noise, light, etc.). This effectively reduces the amount of land habitable by these rabbits in an urban preserve.
“The Bee (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) Fauna of a Transmission Right-of-Way in a Highly Developed and Fragmented Landscape of Central New Jersey” sampled bee populations in a power line right-of-way. The authors conclude that power line rights-of-way probably offer habitat for bees that would otherwise be lacking in a highly developed landscape. Unfortunately, 13% of the species found by the researchers were introduced or invasive bees. I was also struck by the observation that highways result in high bee mortality: “Roads can be substantial barriers to the movement of bees, and can cause high mortality that increases as roadway speed and traffic volume rises….”
As urban areas increasingly dominate our landscapes, obviously this kind of research is increasingly important. Since most of you reading this live in an urban or suburban area, it’s worth dipping into this journal to learn about some of the unforeseen effects our urbanized lifestyle has on other organisms…if we’re gonna feel guilty about eating meat, maybe we should also feel guilty about contributing to worldwide bee decline every time we drive on a highway.
I wrote this post while I was experimenting with cyanotype as a way to get people to look more closely at plants. I updated it several times, with the final revision on 21 August 2025.
(Updates: 30 May; 12 July 2025; 17 July; 20 July 2025. Final revision, 21 August 2025.)
Cyanotype books
Many of the books on cyanotype available online are self-published. The following two books come from reputable publishers.
Cyanotype: The Blueprint in Contemporary Practice by Christina Anderson (Focal Press, 2019), covers everything you need to know about cyanotypes — setting up a “dim room”; how to coat your own cyanotype paper; recipes for classic cyanotype, new cyanotype, and other formulas; how to tone prints; and more. Anderson tested over 100 different papers to see which worked best for cyanotype, and there’s a whole chapter on paper. The last chapter of the book showcases artwork by contemporary cyanotype artists. This is a must-have book.
Finding paper that’s good for cyanotype can be a challenge, since not only must the paper stand up well to repeated wetting, but the pH of the paper is also important. See Christina Andersons’ book for comprehensive information on papers.
One of the inexpensive papers Anderson recommends is Canson XL Watercolor paper. This is currently my go-to paper, and I can recommend it. Widely available at places like Michael’s and Dick Blick.
At a week-long summer art workshop, three of us loved Fabriano Medievalis paper. It’s slightly cream-colored, which sets off the Prussian blue of the cyanotype nicely. However, it does not stand up well to toning, or long wash baths.
I’ve also used Yasutomo “Sketch,” which produces similar results to Hahnemuhle Sumi-e, but is much less expensive. However, it’s very fragile in water and tears easily during the developing process — you can forget about bleaching and toning this paper. If you’re on a budget and very patient, maybe give it a try.
Cyanotype in the classroom
Lawrence Hall of Science sells “Sunprint Kits” with 12 pieces of 4 inch square cyanotype paper and a clear acrylic overlay sheet. Cost buying direct from them is US$5.99 per kit (do not buy from Amazon where the price is higher). This cyanotype paper develops quickly and requires little water to develop — perfect for classroom use. They also sell refill packs of 12 sheets of cyanotype paper for US$3.99, as well as 8-1/2 by 11 inch cyanotype paper. The kits and refills are ideal for class use — inexpensive enough to allow people to experiment.
My younger sister the children’s librarian uses 5×7 inch “Nature Print” cyanotype paper from Dick Blick. It’s just as good, but I’ll stick with the Lawrence Hall of Science paper, because my purchase helps support their science education mission.
Cyanotype websites
Many of the cyanotype websites appear to be “AI”-generated slime. Others are too basic (“Expose the cyanotype paper, put it water, look at the result!”). But I found the following websites to be worth a look.
Cyanotypes with plants
Cyanotype by Angela Chalmers, a PDF, gives instructions on making cyanotype photograms using plants. Great ideas, and the author’s photograms are gorgeous.
The “Koraks Tinkers” blog has a post pointing out the difference between collimated vs. diffuse light when exposing cyanotypes. Direct sunlight provides collimated light, while an overcast day provides diffuse light. This difference is less important when making contact prints from a negative, but will produce quite different results with 3-D objects. Cloudy skies = diffuse light, and blurred edges. Clear skies = collimated light, and sharp edges.
UV light boxes
A UV light box allows you to expose cyanotypes indoors, or at night. I finally decided not to build a UV light box (no room for one in our tiny apartment), but here’s some info I collected while researching them.
Cyanotype of two mullein leaves. The leaves were dampened before placing on the paper, so this is a partially wet cyanotype process — this yields the greenish hues seen above — and a longer exposure would have revealed more details of the veins in the leaf.
The following sentence by J. M. Berger has been widely quoted: “If you believe that only ‘the other guys’ can produce extremists and that your own identity group cannot, you may be an extremist yourself.”
The original context of the quote provides more nuance:
“In the United States, the term extremist is frequently hurled, shorn of context, across racial and partisan divides. Many in the wider West contend that the entire religion of Islam is inherently extreme, arguing for policies that range from the curtailment of civil rights to mass internment. Within Islam itself, furious debates rage about which sect, movement, or nation is normative and which is extremist. These debates influence the study of extremism. There are perhaps three times as many academic studies referencing jihadism as there are referencing white nationalism. Pseudo-intellectuals, some in positions of political power, have argued that white nationalism is far less important than jihadism, despite the fact that white nationalism has a far longer and more deadly history. And they have shaped policies accordingly. If you believe that only ‘the other guys’ can produce extremists and that your own identity group cannot, you may be an extremist yourself. History provides ample evidence that extremism is part of the human condition and not the exclusive province of any single race, religion, or nation. Not all violence is extremism, nor are all of humanity’s countless wars, conflicts, and atrocities. Many cases are ambiguous, but some clearly align with our modern understanding of the word. The diversity and ubiquity of the problem can be seen in a review of historical outbreaks of significant violence driven by ideological belief.”
— from the book Extremism by J. M. Berger (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2018), p. 2.
Because Yvonne asked me to, I put together a timeline of UU history. Instead of focusing on White male ministers from wealthy urban areas, my timeline includes people and events from outside the mainstream of UU history.
13 October 2025: Updated in an attempt to give at least one entry for every decade
Timeline of Unitarians and Universalists (mostly North American)
Because race is so important in the U.S., racial identities of U.S. individuals are generally given. I note with sadness that there are very few working class people mentioned on this timeline.
18th century
1736 Naomi Isaac, an “Indian” (possibly Massachusett) joins the liberal church in Cohasset, Mass., which later became Unitarian
1773 Caleb Rich (White) becomes minister of a new church in Warwick, Mass., that has a universalist theology
1775 John Murray (White), Universalist minister, serves as a chaplain in the Revolutionary army
1779 The Independent Christian Church (Universalist) organized in Gloucester, Mass., one of the earliest Universalist congregations in the U.S.
1785 King’s Chapel is the first Unitarian congregation in the U.S.
c. 1795 The scientist Joseph Priestley (White) holds Unitarian services in Northumberland, Penna.
c. 1795 Prince (no last name), a Black man, joins the church in New Bedford, Mass., as a full member
19th century
1823 Mary Rotch, a White Quaker in New Bedford, Mass., is expelled from Quakerism for being too liberal; she joins the Unitarian church, where she later influences Ralph Waldo Emerson
1838 Nathan Johnson, a Black Universalist in New Bedford, Mass., shelters Frederick Douglass on the latter’s first night of freedom
1843 Adin Ballou, a White Universalist, founds the Hopedale community, a utopian pacifist community in Mass.
1859 Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, a White Unitarian, opens the first kindergarten in the U.S.
1860 Samuel Jackson, a Black Baptist minister, asks to bring his entire congregation into the American Unitarian Association, but because he and his congregation are Black, he is ignored
1863 Olympia Brown, a White woman, ordained by the Universalist General Conference, the first woman to be ordained by a denomination (rather than just a congregation) in the U.S.
1871 Magnús Eiríksson, an Icelandic theologian living in Copenhagen, openly espouses Unitarian theology; this eventually led to the Icelandic Unitarian movement
1876-1878 The U.S. government invites Protestant denominations to manage American Indian reservations; the Unitarians receive the charge of Ute tribes in Colorado
1883 Poet William Carlos Williams, a Hispanic Unitarian, is born
1887 First Unitarian service is held in the Khasi Hills of India, led by Kissor Singh (South Asian)
1894 Watari Kitashima (Japanese) ordained by the Unitarian church of Vineland, NJ
1895 Eliza Tupper Wilkes, a White Universalist minister, is the first woman to preach in Stanford University’s nondenominational chapel
20th century
1902 The American Unitarian Assoc. publishes an essay promoting eugenics, written by David Starr Jordan, the White president of Stanford Univ. (Jordan was a member of the Palo Alto Unitarian church)
c. 1915 Sylvie Thygeson, a White Unitarian, helps open a birth control clinic in St. Paul, Minn.
1917 Adeniran Adedeji Isola (Black) founds the Unitarian Brotherhood Church (Ijo Isokan Gbogbo Eda) in Lagos, Nigeria
1918 Unitarian minister William Short Jr. is arrested for draft evasion, because he’s doing peace activism; when he appeals to the American Unitarian Association to confirm that he’s a minister, they throw him under the bus
1922 Abigail Eliot (White), an LGBTQ Unitarian educator, brings the nursery school concept to the U.S.
1923 The first Flower Celebration is led by Norbert and Maja Capek, ministers at the Unitarian church in Prague, Czechoslovakia. This ritual is later wrongly called a “flower communion.”
1930s Probably a third of all Unitarian and Universalist churches close due to the Great Depression
1932 Poet Sylvia Plath, a White Unitarian, is born
1935 Utah Phillips is born; a member of the Industrial Workers of the World labor union and a musician, he became Unitarian Universalist as an adult
1937 Unitarians and Universalists cooperate to create a new hymnal
1937 Concerned that Leila Thompson, an ordained Unitarian minister, is running for city council in Berkeley, Calif., as a Socialist, American Unitarian Assoc. officials do their best to disavow her
1942 Unitarian minister Norbert Capek dies in the Auschwitz concentration camp
1947 Stephen Fritchman, a White minister, is forced out of his job editing the denominational magazine due to accusations that he is Communist
1948 Imaoka Shin’ichiro (Unitarian) and Shigetaro Akashi (Universalist) found the Japan Free Religious Assoc. in Tokyo
1950s (date uncertain) UU ministers officiated at some of the earliest UU same sex weddings
1956 Christopher Moore, a White minister at First Unitarian in Chicago, founds the Chicago Children’s Chorus, an interracial chorus which rapidly became one of the best children’s choruses in the U.S.
1950s Religious liberals in the Philippines affiliate with the Universalist Church of America
1961 Unitarians and Universalists consolidate into one denomination; the new UUA bylaws have six principles
1964-1976 Rev. Andrew Yoshinobu Kuroda leads Japanese language services at All Souls Unitarian church in Washington, DC
1965 Year with highest Unitarian Universalist membership in the U.S.
1965 Victor Carpenter, minister in the Cape Town Unitarian church of South Africa, delivers sermon opposing apartheid
1965-1970 Unitarian Universalism loses half its Black members during the Black empowerment controversy
1977 Ysaye Maria Barnwell founds the Jubilee Singers, a gospel choir, at All Souls UU church in Washington, D.C., the first Black-led UU gospel choir
1977 First Unitarian of Los Angeles publishes the first Unitarian hymnal with Black and working class music in it
1980 The first Water Ritual takes place at a feminist gathering of women; later, it was wrongly called a “Water Communion”
1985 The UUA adopts new non-sexist bylaws with seven principles
1991 Cheng Imm Tan, an Asian immigrant, ordained as a UU community minister
1993 The UUA publishes a hymnal containing Black spirituals, the first official denominational hymnal (Universalist, Unitarian, or Unitarian Universalist) with non-White music
21st century
2004 Unitarian Universalist Association of Uganda is formed
2005 Last year of growth in U.S. Unitarian Universalism
2008 Carleton Pearson, a Black Pentecostal minister who became a Universalist, brings his congregation to the Unitarian Universalist church in Tulsa, Oklahoma
From about 2010 on, enrollment in UU children and youth programs declines steeply
2017 Peter Morales, the Hispanic president of the UUA, is forced out over allegations of racism
We’ve been hearing Barred Owls at night near where we’re camping. Late this afternoon, I heard a juvenile owl out in the conservation land behind the campsite. I followed it as best I could, hoping to see a baby owl. Then I heard one of the adults calling not too far away, and suddenly I became aware of two eyes staring at me.
An owl! I managed to get this photo before the own flew away.
Last year, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the U.S. Surgeon General, issued an advisory report on social media and the mental health of kids:
“The current body of evidence indicates that while social media may have benefits for some children and adolescents, there are ample indicators that social media can also have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents….” — Social Media and Youth Mental Health (U.S. Surgeon General’s Office, 2023)
This is not just a public health concern. It’s also a religious concern, or should be. In a recent opinion piece, Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin writes:
“A religious temperament might mean questioning our utter reliance on such technology: creating islands of time, like the Sabbath or Sunday, when we would liberate ourselves from technology and being more self-aware of how we use our tools, which have become our toys…. That [old] rabbinic statement that has become a cliche: ‘Whoever saves one life, it is as if they have saved the entire world.’ If regulating access to social media will save the life of one kid, it will be worth it.”
We now know that social media has serious adverse effects on adolescent and pre-adolescent health. So let’s do something about it.
