by WUUC | Oct 20, 2016 | Minister Blog
She said, “You’ve lost a name, not a person.” She is Marci Owens who used to be Marcelas Owens. When Marcelas’s mother became ill with pulmonary hypertension, she ended up missing so many days of work due to her illness that she lost her job and consequently her healthcare. She became an advocate for health care reform but died before seeing or benefiting from the Affordable Care Act. Her son, Marcelas, picked up her torch and became a tireless advocate for health care reform. At age 11,he and his grandmother were invited to the White House for the signing of the Affordable Care Act.
Now 17, Marcelas is a transgender woman named Marci. Her statement above was in response to her grandmother’s lamenting the loss of the little boy, Marcelas. His grandmother actually went on to say that she also loved that she has gained another granddaughter.
Marci nailed it as far as I’m concerned. Transgender folks haven’t been lost, they have been found. They have found themselves. Their name and gender may change but their personhood has not been lost. And yet, it can take time for family and friends to realize that what they perceive as being lost was really a case of being found. It is not uncommon for parents to go through grieving the child they had originally known as one gender. They have to celebrate and let go of that child and welcome and embrace a differently gendered child into their hearts. But as Marci said, what has been lost was a name, not a person.
So today I celebrate not just Marci but her grandmother who loved her grandchild so much that she gave herself over to both grief and joy. May we all follow her lead.
Peace, Shalom, Salaam,
Rev. Lo
by WUUC | Oct 11, 2016 | Minister Blog
One of the wonderful things about traveling to other congregations is that I get to hear colleagues preach. On my recent trip to Fairbanks, Alaska to participate in the installation of the minister there, I was able to attend worship on Sunday morning. The Rev. Sarah Schurr, one of several Congregational Life Staff for the Pacific Western Region, was the preacher. The title of her sermon was, “Three Drops.” She talked about being an idealistic 23-year-old social worker who was going to save the world. But it wasn’t long before she realized that all she could do was be three drops.
Sarah went on to explain that drops of water can wear away stone. But only if they drop in the same place, consistently over time. She could offer three drips on one rock or one issue as opposed to saving the whole world. That got me to thinking about WUUC taking on the identity of being three drops of water in our world. That we would either focus on three areas of ministry for the year and drop away at it or that we would focus all our energies on one justice issue and drop away at it together for that year. Imagine what could be worn away…
Even if WUUC doesn’t adopt this identity, I find the three drop metaphor one that any of us can individually incorporate into our lives. Can we focus our lives and our living on three areas we want to affect and apply our “drops” there consistently over time? Would we be more effective at bringing about change if we narrowed our focus and channeled our energy? The choice of where to drip one’s drops is completely up to the individual. But drip and drop we must…
As the singer-songwriter Holly Near invites us:
“Can we be like drops of water falling on the stone
Splashing, breaking, dispersing in air
Weaker than the stone by far but be aware
That as time goes by the rock will wear away…”
Rev. Lo
by WUUC | May 13, 2016 | Minister Blog
For years I used to speak college classes about being lesbian and about some of the realities of being a minority without equal protection. I always emphasized the role that Christianity played in this country when it came to ensuring that GBLTQI persons were not afforded equal rights. Without fail, someone would raise their hand and say, “I’m a Christian and I don’t discriminate.” I would respond, “Then the burden is on you to speak up and not let right wing conservative Christians define or claim what it means to be a Christian.”
I find myself wanting to utter a similar sentiment to progressives and Democrats and Independents during the presidential primary and election campaign: “Don’t like the candidates and what they espouse or stand for? Then speak up and do something.” Let’s not just sit around in disbelief or horror and wonder how we got to this point. We’re here and it is up to us to act.
No church may endorse or sponsor a political candidate without putting its tax status in jeopardy. (We are allowed to take a position on any ballot measure or referendum or voter initiative.) That said, as Unitarian Universalists whose principles endorse the democratic process, I suggest we get busy. Get busy ensuring that Americans engage in the democratic process, educate themselves, and vote. If we do not and those who are traditionally marginalized by society do not, and if those who make up the vast swaying middle of sentiment do not, we will have no one to blame but ourselves come November 8, 2016.
This is no time to withdraw from a system from a lack of belief or trust in it or to make a statement. Others will rush in to fill the participation vacuum, skewing election outcomes. This is the year to make our system be accountable by engaging with it. The depth of what is at stake this election season is tremendous, far reaching, and long lasting.
Engage, educate, get out the vote, and vote.
Peace, Shalom, Salaam,
Rev.Lo
by WUUC | Feb 11, 2016 | Minister Blog
I read an article over the weekend that had caught my attention because the title asked, “Why Give Up Chocolate for Lent When You Can Give Up Plastic?” Why indeed I thought to myself. As UU’s, we don’t tend to have a Lenten practice. And those who do might chose not what to give up necessarily but what to do.
Last year someone turned me on to a Facebook page in Duvall called “A Month Without Plastic.” I learned a lot from the page about ways to switch over from plastic to other materials. I find it a full-time job to give up plastic. So I made the decision not to throw away all the plastic I already have but to whenever possible, avoid buying new plastic. That means that even though I happen to love arugula, at this time of year, it only comes in the clamshell plastic containers. Containers that are not recyclable. I will not die if I wait to eat arugula when it is in season here and available at farmer’s markets.
The truth is, it is cheaper for the industry to produce new plastic products than to recycle plastic. So recycling when it comes to plastic is not always the most ecological choice. Not using it at all is almost impossible given that it seems to be in everything. And call me paranoid but I am not convinced that the recycling of plastic doesn’t release fluorocarbons into our air.
So this year, I am not going to give up chocolate for Lent. I will however, continue to reduce the buying of plastic anything. How about you? You game for a season of chocolate and less plastic? Maybe we should start a Facebook group…
Peace,
Rev.Lo
by WUUC | Feb 5, 2016 | Minister Blog
The beauty of the morning was all around me. I was looking as usual for the raptors that hang out in the bare trees by the flooded fields and river this time of year. As many as 12 at a time. The fog was once again thick, lingering, soft tendrils wisping away as warmth and light settled in. So it was a rude awakening to see a flying object head my way from the large truck in front of me and the trailer it was pulling. At first I thought it had been thrown. Then I realized it must have worked its way out of the front loader that was on the trailer. The object was a plastic water bottle. I sighed. Yet another one thrown to the earth to hold interminably.
When we had our high winds and heavy rains earlier, I had seen the aftermath as I drove this route: long pieces of black plastic used to generate additional heat for plants were strewn along fences. It seemed as if the new vista would be plastic. It reminded me of a kids’ book Lori has that illustrates with photographs where all of our stuff ends up. The picture I remembered was a landfill full of plastic.
This morning NPR has a story about a French swimmer who having swum across the Atlantic will now try to be the first person to swim across the Pacific. Among the obstacles he might face in addition to 20’ waves and sharks was the floating garbage patch mostly consisting of the world’s plastic.
Naomi Klein, most recently author of This Changes Everything :Capitalism vs. the Climate gave a speech to a graduating college class this past spring. One of the things she said was, don’t focus on individual changes one can make such as recycling and trying to stay away from plastic in any form. Fight, demonstrate against, challenge, take on the corporations whose actions- remember the Supreme Court granted them personhood- are really destroying our climate, our environment, our earth, our lives. So getting all upset as I had about the one plastic bottle flying out of the front loader and the plastic lined fence was really just an exercise in futility if I care about change.
This past week I had the first of my 9-month once a month online class about UU Theology and Social Change. In preparation for the first class we were asked to answer this question: “What time is it on the world clock?” Now, I knew about the atomic clock. I was unaware of the world clock. It is a creation of the late activist, Grace Lee Boggs and her husband. They visualized the last 3000 years of human history where every minute represented 50 years. Their point in developing this clock and question was to say that revolutions and massive social change constitute only 4 or 5 minutes out of our entire history. They argued that, activists should turn our backs on protest organizing because it “leads you more and more to defensive operations” and “Do visionary organizing” because it “gives you the opportunity to encourage the creative capacity in people and it’s very fulfilling.”
Which brings me to the realization that if we are to increase the minutes of social change and justice, we will need to do so with the tools not of my petty irritation but by creativity and imagination. And use those two skills to do in essence what Naomi Klein told the students to do: speak truth to power. This is not to say that any of us should give up our individual efforts to live more consciously of our daily impact on the world climate. Doing so allows many of us to live authentically and in allegiance with our values. But we cannot stop there. We have to do something to increase the movements for justice and change so that on the world clock, they occupy more and more of human time. The time? It is now.
Rev.Lo
