Arts & culture – Page 4 – Yet Another Unitarian Universalist

Adventures in cyanotype

(Written on July 3, finally getting around to posting on July 12.)

I’m running an ecology workshop at a small conference at Ferry Beach Park Association in Saco, Maine. One of the activities I did to get participants to see the world in new ways was making cyanotype prints of plants. I was inspired in part by Anna Atkins, who created the first-ever book of photographs with cyanotypes of seaweed.

Thea and Mandy were leading an art workshop at the same time, and they got interested in cyanotypes. So after our morning workshops were over, we did some experimenting. In the evenings, after it got dark, we coated several different kinds of paper with cyanotype emulsion. During the day, we experimented with different compositions using natural object to make photograms. We even took a field trip to the Portland Museum of Art, where there’s a special exhibit of Jo Sandman’s large photograms on platinum-palladium paper.

We didn’t wind up with much in the way of finished art works. But we learned a great deal. As Thea kept reminding us, often the process is more important than the product.

Bhairava

This representation of the deity Bhairava, now in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, was once part of a building in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley. The deity was an integral part of a wooden support that supported an overhanging eave.

A deity carved in wood, with four arms and three heads. — The museum label reads: “Strut with Bhairava, Nepal (Kathmandu Valley), ca. 1700, Wood with traces of pigment…. Gift of John and Berthe Ford, 2021, acc. no. 25.271”

Bhairava is actually one of the forms that the Hindu deity Shiva takes on. H. Krishna Sastri, who was Asst. Archeological Superintendent for Epigraphy (Southern Circle) in the early twentieth century, describes Bhairava in his book South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses (Madras Government Press, 1916), p. 151:

“Bhairava, born of the blood of Siva, is another god of this class [the class of fierce or terrible forms of Shiva]. The Tantrasara mentions eight forms of Bhairava which are fit for worship. His general form shows dishevelled matted hair, three eyes and a red-coloured body. His symbols are the trident, sword, noose and the kettle-drum. He is naked and is represented as being followed by all kinds of demons and spirits and riding on a dog. Hemadri describes Bhairava as a pot-bellied god with round red eyes, terrible face, protruding teeth and wide nostrils. He wears a garland of skulls and ornaments of snakes, thus frightening even his consort who stands by his side. The upper half of his body which is dark in colour is covered with the elephant’s hide. He has many arms and holds all destructive weapons. The Silpasara makes him seated on a jewelled throne under the celestial tree mandara, closely embraced by the goddess.”

I don’t know to what extent Bhairava takes on another form in Nepal, but the Bhairava in the Walters Art Museum does in fact have round eyes, protruding teeth, and wide nostrils. He wears a garland of either skulls or heads, and something that could be a snake is draped around his neck. At one time, his six hands held various items, but those are all lost now — perhaps they included a trident, a sword, and/or other destructive weapons. He is either naked or close to it, and he is riding on the back of an animal that could be a dog. In short, this Bhairava from the Kathmandu Valley seems to be very similar to the South-Indian Bhairava described by H. K. Sastri in 1916.

The Daya Foundation, a Nepalese nonprofit organization, published a blog post last August titled “Bhairav in Nepal.” In that post, they offered this interpretation of Bhairava’s origins:

“The cult of Bhairava, historically, is deeply rooted in the ancient tribal and folk traditions of the Indian subcontinent, where he was initially revered as a tribal deity. Over time, Bhairava’s worship evolved, and he became widely recognized as a territorial protector deity. This transition signifies a profound development in the deity’s role, shifting from a local or tribal guardian to a more expansive protector whose domain extended over larger territories. Bhairava’s transformation into a protector deity is intricately linked with the spread of Tantric traditions within Hinduism. In these traditions, Bhairava embodies the fierce manifestation of Lord Shiva, representing the destructive and protective aspects of the divine.”

In this blog post, the Daya Foundation describe some of the ongoing worship of Bhairava. Among other things, Bhairava is connected with the Nepalese monarchy, “as a guardian of both the spiritual and the civic welfare of Kathmandu.”

Don’t forget Pee on Earth Day tomorrow

One of my favorite holidays of the year is Pee on Earth Day. This delightful holiday is celebrated on the longest day of the year — June 21 in the northern hemisphere, and December 21 in the southern hemisphere.

Why should you pee on earth? If you live in a part of the world where there are no diseases spread through urine (which means most of my readers), peeing on earth is a way to get rid of your urine in a sanitary and ecological manner. Your urine contains valuable nutrients that plants can use, and as long as you don’t eat too much salt, your urine (diluted, or in small amounts) is good for plants. Peeing on earth is a way to remind yourself that you are a part of the great cycle of nature. As Carol puts it, “Don’t throw it away, grow it away!”

Why on the longest day? Because it’s unlikely there will be snow on the ground, and it’s likely the weather will be more conducive to peeing outdoors.

We’ll be on the train from Baltimore back home to Cohasset for much of Pee on Earth Day. I’ll wait to pee on earth until we get home.

Pee-on-earth bumper sticker. Image (c) Carol Steinfeld, used by permission.

Why Are You You?

I’ve got convention brain. What did I do after yesterday’s business meeting? What programming did I attend? With whom did I talk? It’s a bit of a blur.

But I do know that last night I went to a screening of the documentary “Why Are You You?” a new documentary about the now-defunct youth program Young Religious Unitarian Universalists, or YRUU. I was fairly heavily involved in YRUU as an adult advisor from 1995 through about 2003, serving as an advisor in local youth groups, as well as at district and continental “cons” or conventions. As a result, I got to meet youth leaders and youth advisors across the continent, from Alaska to Maine.

The filmmakers interviewed a number of former YRUU youth leaders, and I recognized several of them. I enjoyed hearing their memories of YRUU conferences and programs; I especially enjoyed hearing about how YRUU changed their lives. Given all those hours I spent supporting youth leaders and UU youth institutions, it’s nice to know that those hours weren’t wasted. But the ending of the movie is a little depressing. The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) ended funding for YRUU in (I think) 2007. There was no replacement for YRUU — YRUU was a semi-independent organization with youth leadership, not just another department of the UUA.

Not that YRUU was perfect. The documentary touches on some of its problems. What’s missing are the voices of all those teens for whom district and national YRUU programs held no interest, or those for whom YRUU did not feel safe — I knew quite a few of those teens, some of whom were devoted members of a local youth group. What’s also missing is mention of the adult advisors with poor boundaries — I saw a few too many of those; part of the reason I pulled away from district and national youth events was that I felt YRUU didn’t train adults adequately, nor hold them fully accountable.

Yet these were all solvable problems. The solution was not to get rid of the national youth organization; the solution was to reform that organization. For the past twenty years, I’ve had the sense that Unitarian Universalism broadly construed, especially at the national level, just really doesn’t like children and teens. Children and teens are messy, they take up a lot of time and energy, and if you don’t like them that much, it’s easier to shut them out rather than support them and their families. I feel that the death of YRUU is part of this larger trend.

P.S.: If the issues raised by this film are of interest, you might also be interested in childist theology, a new approach to Biblical interpretation that places children at the center of Biblical interpretation. So… What would it mean to place children and teens at the center of a Unitarian Universalist theology?

South Arabian goddess

The Walters Museum in Baltimore has a small selection of South Arabian art. I’m completely unfamiliar with South Arabian art, and before I went to the Walters Museum yesterday I knew nothing about its long history. According to the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art:

“For over a thousand years, from around 800 B.C.E. to 600 C.E., the kingdoms of Qataban, Saba (biblical Sheba), and Himyar grew fabulously wealthy from their control over the caravan routes of the southern Arabian peninsula and, in particular, from the international trade in frankincense and myrrh. Excavations at the capitals of these ancient kingdoms have yielded spectacular examples of architecture, distinctive stone funerary sculpture, elaborate inscriptions on stone, bronze, and wood, and sophisticated metalwork.”

One of my favorite pieces of South Arabian art on the view at the Walters Museum is an unnamed goddess, who appears in a fragment of a pediment. She sits next to a child deity. Due to the lighting, I found it difficult to take a photograph due to the reflections on the glass case which houses this goddess; I had to do a fair amount of digital manipulation to make her look more or less the way she looks in the museum.

Here’s what the museum label says about this sculpture:

Fragment of a Pediment with a Goddess
South Arabia (Marib), 2nd century A.D.
The upper left side of this composition depicts an imaginary creature composed of an Asiatic lion’s head, a serpent-like body, a fishtail, and wings. A nude child deity grasps one of the creature’s wings with his left hand and holds a short sword in his right hand to control it. A smaller fragment containing the head of a similar composite beast in the British Museum might be the complement to this vignette. The lower right section depicts a nude fertility goddess emerging from vine leaves and grapes. With the increasing influence of Greco-Roman culture curing the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D., new artistic styles and motifs, such as this female deity, became a part of South Arabian culture.
Calcite-alabaster
21.74, gift of Girard and Carolyn Fester, 2014

I wonder if she was really a fertility goddess, or a goddess of wine. I don’t think we’ll ever know.

Happy Flag Day

A company of Revolutionary War re-enactors, one of whom has a sign reading "No Kings."

The photo above shows what the Minutemen were fighting for during the Revolutionary War. They wanted no kings, no dictators, no emperors. They wanted the right to rule themselves, without having some old rich guy, someone who thought he was more important than they were, telling them what to do. That’s what the American flag stands for — no kings, no tyrants, no dictators.

And now, two hundred and fifty years later, King-wanna-be Donny is trying to establish a new monarchy and tyranny. But here in Massachusetts, where the Revolution began, we still don’t want any kings. We still don’t want some old rich guy, someone who thinks he’s better than we are, telling us what to do. Way back in 1776, Thomas Paine described people like King-wanna-be Donny as insolent, poisoned, ignorant, and unfit:

“Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interest, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.”

On this Flag Day, remember the original meaning of the American flag: no kings, no tyrants, no dictators.

Happy Flag Day!

White Rabbit Candy

Kara brought back White Rabbit candy from her visit to China. She gave me a small bag to try.

The candy starts off as very firm, becoming chewy as it warms up in your mouth. There’s an edible inner wrapping made of glutinous rice, which addes to the texture. The original flavor is very mild, milky and vanilla-y, and not very sweet. Interesting. I found out that the candy originated in Shanghai, and I find it reminiscent of the mildness of other Shanghai cuisine.

There were many flavors in the small bag Kara gave me, not just the original flavor. From what I can find out online, there are at least 16 flavors: Original plus Banana, “Brown creamy,” Chocolate, Coffee, “Cooling” (mint), Durian, Lychee, Maize (corn), Mango, Matcha, Osmanthus, Salty plum, Wasabi, Red Bean, Yogurt.

Some of the flavors I liked a lot. One of my favorite flavors was wasabi — it had just a touch of wasabi, not too spicy, a nice contrast to the underlying milky mildness of the candy. My other favorite flavor was what’s called “cooling” (what I’d call mint) — which also provided a nice contrast to the underlying flavor of the candy. Red bean was a little odd to my Western palate, but I did like the way it reminded me of dim sum red bean buns.

Other flavors I didn’t care for as much. Osmanthus was only faintly floral, and overall too bland for my tastes. Matcha didn’t work for me — I guess if you like boba tea this would be good, but I like my matcha unsweetened and with no milk.

The best thing about White Rabbit candy is its mildness. It’s not too sweet; by contrast, I find most American candy far too sweet. And the flavors are subtle, not overpowering like some American candies.

Small paper-wrapped candies on a table top.

Another washtub bass update

I’ve expanded my 2019 post on washtub basses to include two electrified instruments.

You can go read the expanded post, or just click on the image below to check out a video of Barbara LePine’s electric washtub bass in action.

A woman playing washtub bass, and a man playing guitar — Screen shot of “Bucket Babs” playing her washtub bass in her band “Porter McClister’s Box and Bucket.”

More photos below….

Cohasset ukulele festival

Our twice-monthly ukulele group will be hosting a half-day ukulele festival on Sunday, October 5, 2025. More info here.

This entirely free event is being sponsored by my employer, First Parish in Cohasset, in cooperation with the Cohasset Historical Society. We’re able to make this a completely free event, thanks to a grant from the Gleason Music Fund at First Parish, in-kind support from both First Parish and the Historical Society, as well as a generous anonymous donation. We’re also on a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant application submitted by the Historical Society — if that grant comes through, we’ll be able to increase accessibility with an ASL interpreter for the final concert.

If you’re in the Boston area, hope to see you there. Even if you don’t play ukulele, come join us for the free concert at 4:30.

A graphical flyer telling about the uke festival. — Click on the image above for a PDF of the flyer.

Revolutionary War stories, part 3

Continuing a series of Memorial Day posts — part one — part two

I started out this series by saying that sometimes the stories of Revolutionary War heroes and heroines have been partially forgotten, or details have been obscured. In this follow-up post, I’ll tell a little about how I researched the stories of Persis and Allen Lincoln, and the story of Briton Nichols. Maybe this will inspire other people to do some research into ordinary Revolutionary War veterans — a worthwhile thing to do as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution.

One place to start researching an individual is by looking through the local history of a given town or city. During the middle part of the 19th century, many municipalities from the 13 original colonies had local histories written. And in most cases, whoever wrote that local history would be sure to record any local traditions about those who served in the Revolution. So, for example, for the town of Cohasset where I live, Victor Bigelow wrote a history of the town in 1898, and he provided lists of those who served and told many stories of the town’s participation in the Revolution.

That being said, local histories may contain local traditions that have gotten muddled over time, and most local histories contain lots of small errors of fact. So the next step is to see if you can find corroborating evidence from other sources. Which can be a huge job. Cohasset is a small town, but there were more than 125 men from the town who did military service during the Revolution. Volunteer local historians like me don’t have time to research all 125+ individuals who served in the Revolution. You have to narrow your focus to research a few individuals in depth.

But how do you narrow your focus? Here are some strategies:

(1) Research a college graduate, who would be far more likely to appear in the written record than non-college graduates. For example, you can find brief biographies of Harvard graduates in the series Sibley’s Harvard Graduates.

(2) Research famous or semi-famous persons, or persons who are part of prominent families. For example, if you were researching persons from Braintree or Quincy, you could start with anyone related to John Adams; there are lots of published genealogies and published histories of the Adamses.

(3) To research ordinary people, start with unusual person names (such as Briton Nichols) and unusual place names (such as Cohasset). Those will be easiest to find information on.

(4) As you’re researching one person, you might run into a lead from someone else altogether (e.g., when researching Briton Nichols, I discovered Ambrose Bates kept a war diary). Keep note of those other leads so you can follow up later.

Next, here are some research strategies:

(A) Use the power of internet search. More and more 18th century documents are being digitized, making information easily available online. This works best with Search using several different search tools — I start with DuckDuckGo, first with the person’s name and place name along, then adding the following to the search string: site:.archive.org (which searches through the many books digitized by the Internet Archive) and site:.loc.gov (which searches the Library of Congress website). Next, I’ll search Google Books. Finally, I’ll try regular Google search (Google seems to turn up a lot of crap these days, which is why I leave it till last).

(B) Search genealogy sites. I use FamilySearch.org, which is free, although it does require you to set up a free account. Paid genealogy sites may give you more information, but FamilySearch.org is a good place to look for Revolutionary War military service records. Additionally, amateur genealogists may have done additional research on some individuals — but be cautious about trusting the work of amateur genealogists. Always click through to look at the sources they cite, and then click through and look at the actual digitized images for those sources (which is how I found out that Persis Lincoln and Allen Lincoln were married by Rev. John Browne of Cohasset).

(C) Don’t forget your local library. Many local libraries have local history sections. If there’s a librarian who has responsibility for the local history section, get to know that person, and ask for help when you need it.

EXCEEDINGLY IMPORTANT: For each little tidbit of information you find, make sure you record where you found it, including full bibliographic information. Footnote everything! You want other people to be able to review your research. You want citations for every single fact. If you don’t have citations for everything, others will assume you’re a sloppy researcher, and discount your work accordingly.

That’s a very brief overview of how you might begin to research individual people to find out their stories. Good luck — and don’t forget to share your research, so others can appreciate it, and correct any errors you might make, and generally help further our knowledge of Revolutionary War veterans.