Does Burbania = Middle School?

A long, long time ago, I moved to Burbania with my wife and (back then) two children.  I had--with the exception of a 9 month internship in Grosse Pointe, Michigan--never lived in the 'burbs.  I am a country boy and have inhabited a number of small towns in Maine both growing up and as an adult.  When I wasn't part of the rural landscape (like parts of college and grad school), I lived in cities (Montreal, Chicago). I was, therefore, a bit unprepared for the basic social dynamics that come with settling in to this kind of place.

You see, our arrival had clearly created something of a ripple in the social fabric.  I don't think this has anything existentially to do with us.  I believe every new arrival in these parts creates ripples.  Everyone, it seemed, was trying to figure out what to do with us both as individuals and as small, tightly knit social groups.

Things sorted themselves out, of course, but there was this confusing phase.  We would be invited to an event at one person's house...and then not invited to another event at another house that had the same people attending.  Our kids would get to go to certain childrens' birthday parties...but not others.  Book Clubs were like that, too.  Really, anything one might describe as a "club" was. Sports teams--ostensibly randomly assigned--would end up with all my sons' friends on the same one...and my son on another.  I spent hours on the sidelines essentially by myself, or talking to another person who was essentially by him/herself.  They, too, were usually new to town.

Like I said, things worked out, rather painlessly.  Both my wife and I have jobs.  Some of my closest colleagues and their families live in the area.  The fact is, we have a broad range of affiliations and friendships.  We also have each other, which is the very best thing.  Also, I now know to bring a book to youth sporting events.  My kids, too, have found places for themselves and seem to be fine.  That said, in the midst of all the confusion around "finding a place", I remember thinking to myself, "Wow, this is just like middle school".  Knowing this is good.  After all,  anyone who has actually been to real middle school should have low expectations for the adult version.

In the very small towns you hang out with whomever there is to hang out with.  There aren't enough people to be picky.  In the city there is so much to do, why would you want to limit yourself to one group? Middle and high school (and college for some) seemed to me to be where you get to worry about who is "in" and "out".  That is when you gossip and have comically serious conversations about who to exclude (or include).  That is where the social standing of your friends (and spouse) still matters.  Then we grow up and move on...right?

Um...right?

 Turns out, in Burbania there is still a strong streak of tribalism and "clubiness" that I don't understand.  I am including a link below to an article from Boston Magazine that examines one--rather extreme--slice of the suburban social scene.  I think it is a worthwhile read for everyone.  The reason that it rises to the level of brief blog post, however, is that if you read the article looking for "institutions of exclusion" (my term) that help to define these small social groups, one of the ones you will find is the church.  It is a heartbreaking story, actually.

The fact is, the church must work hard to keep itself off this list.   It is easy for a congregation to end up becoming--or appearing to become--an exclusive social club.  This is a bad thing.

Sure!  People are allowed to hang out with who they want.  However, a church, regardless of its size or theology, is there to serve the broader community.  It must be open to as many people as possible.   The liberal church--at least in theory--throws its doors and arms wide open to create a diverse and loving community.  It should not be reduced to being defined as "the place where those people go" unless those people are then defined as "open, welcoming, spiritual, accepting, and loving".

Anyway, here is the article.  If it appears to be about folks aspiring to be rich socialites, that's because it is.  It isn't really my experience and it may not be yours. However, in the socially stratified world we Burbanians get to move in, many of the same principles still hold.  People shouldn't be reduced to burying their noses in a book and hoping no one notices how alone they look.  Pastors and other church leaders need to remind themselves of this.  Every. Single. Day.

Marathon Day

I was planning to post this afternoon about the Boston Marathon.  I usually do since it gives me the chance to pretend to be a sports reporter and post pictures of the race.  I may still post those pictures but not today.  Today I am posting the letter I wrote to the congregation this evening while keeping the church open for drop ins.  It has been quite a day.  Blessings and prayers to you all...

 

 

Dear Members and Friends,

I watched the Boston Marathon, as I always do, from the steps of First Congregational Church in Natick. As most of you know, it was a beautiful day. I marveled at the number of people both running and watching. As the athletes went by I couldn’t help but be impressed by the strength of the human body and the human spirit.

As you know, the Marathon didn’t end the way it began and now we are all left to grapple with the act of violence that has marred such a great and peaceful event. My thoughts and prayers are with all of you, with the runners, the victims, and the many volunteers and emergency workers who have now been called into service. Right now we do not know who did this or why. Right now, for many of us, the feeling of shock and grief are just about all we can handle.

When events like this happen, I try to reach out to the people I love. I try to find people to talk to. I try to listen and I try to pray. I urge you to do the same. When a tragedy occurs it draws us closer and we find strength in that. If I can be any help—or if the church can be of any help—let me know. I would love to hear from you. Also, tomorrow the church will be open from 9am-11:30am if you want to sit and think or pray in the silence of our sanctuary. I will be in the office if you would rather chat. We can even talk about everything but the Marathon if you want to. Whatever helps.

So hang in there. Hug each other. Reach out to those you can. Accept the fact that others will reach out you. Show that our human race is capable of beautiful things. I and the church are around if you need us. Remember—wherever you are—that you are not alone.

Yours in Faith and Hope,

Adam

"Hoping": The Pageant Sunday Homily

Someone asked me for this sermon yesterday so I have tried to make it fit into a readable form.  Like Bill Clinton I am a text preacher, but also like him I  both digress and I write it out as I would speak it.  This means that even in this form, grammar and punctuation serve the cadances of my voice rather than the rules of writing.  I hope it doesn't drive you crazy but--trust me--it reads better than what I bring to the pulpit.

Finally, liturgists will wonder if I am confused about which week the "hope" candle is lit.  All I can say is that we are liberals and we let our lighters choose what theme they would like.  This year there were two hope candles.  I don't think anyone ended up minding...

Hoping
December 16, 2012
Rev. Dr. Adam Tierney-Eliot

OK, So...  Here's the thing; this hasn't been the most “Christmasy” week for me.  It started OK with the annual caroling  trip to Leonard Morse Hospital on Tuesday and a Christmas service at Riverbend Nursing Home on Thursday morning.  But, you see at breakfast on Thursday, I was the victim of a comically random (but still quite painful) cooking accident that left me half blind and in the Emergency Room of that same Leonard Morse Hospital.  I can give you the details at coffee hour if you want them...and if you haven't already read about it on Facebook.  Then later that evening I nearly collapsed at the CVS over on West Central Street.  Let's face it, nothing says the holidays like creating a spectacle of yourself in front of total strangers in the middle of the night.

Then, of course, there was something in the news on Friday.  Something happened in Connecticut that left me (and many of you) wondering about this whole human endeavor.  We found ourselves questioning everything we think we know about the world and about humanity.  In that moment--and really for most of the weekend after--it was hard to envision the angels and the shepherds.  It was hard to embody that seasonal sense of Peace and goodwill to all.

In those moments it is hard to imagine what to do or think or say...even on Pageant Sunday.  We all go through times like this.  whether it because of personal crises...or we share in a national tragedy...or if it is simply the gradual wearing down of our better natures from too many problems at work or at home...or too many trips up and down Route 9.  In these moments we ask ourselves why.  Why do we live in a world where bad--even unspeakable things--can happen to us and where people can do unspeakable things.

We live these sorts of days plunged into the muck of human existence, traveling paths of darkness made no brighter because of their familiarity. We ask with Ann Weems, Where did the angels' song go? and we do not know where to look for the answer except, perhaps, to come to church.  Except to come to church on this Sunday because what we do know is that the kids will come out (as they did this morning) and tell us a story.  It is the story they tell every year.  It is the story we tell ourselves and each other now and at other times.

Most of us here today may be a little weak on the Parable of the Sower.  Am I right?  Can I see some hands?  That's OK...it's why you have me.  But you don't need me for the Christmas story.  The Christmas story we all know and it is a story most specifically about one thing above all others.  It was the theme of our Advent candle today.  It is a story of hope and hope is what we need in the dark times.  All those other good things that we talk about: Faith, joy, peace, even love?  They thrive off Hope.

It is hope that the people of Israel were trying to preserve when Isaiah made his promise that someday, somehow someone would come and bring about an era of peace and justice.  His authority Isaiah says will grow constantly and there will be endless peace for the throne of David...He will establish it and uphold it with Justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forever more.

This is the hope that gets us out of bed on tough days.  It is the expectation that things will get better and that maybe even a glorious future awaits.

And it is hope in that future that draws us to act.   Barack Obama once said that  In the unlikely story that is America there has never been anything false about hope.  Here in the church we might want to broaden that “unlikely story” a bit to include all of humanity but the fact remains that hope drives us to find a better way and a better world even when it feels like we are having to begin over and over again and again.

You know, things started looking up for me in the Christmas and Advent department as the weekend went on.  Fighting my way through traffic with one eye closed didn't help.  However my vision did improve  (just don't make any sudden movements on my right side today)...and last night I found myself not at the Epiphany Concert rehearsal I expected to attend but instead at the Candlelight Vigil on the Common for the people of Newtown, Connecticut.

I was there with my eldest son and a bag of old, mostly-used pulpit candles to contribute to the cause.  Many of us brought extra candles.  Slowly as people trickled in we lit them up and then walked around the periphery of the Common.  I was in front, but as I looked back I could see that our line stretched halfway around the park, a long, moving, flickering row of lights underneath the colored holiday lights in the trees and the menorah for Hanukkah almost completely lit.

Then when we gathered back in one place by the gazebo we took a moment for people to offer up prayers.  Each prayer was a prayer for action, understanding...and a prayer for hope.  This was when Advent returned for me standing in the cold dark, mostly with strangers praying and hoping and planning in support of other strangers we will never meet.

As we broke up into smaller groups and eventually drifted toward home, I think we all realized that for as long we we can light those candles in the darkness we can keep hope--and our humanity--alive.

We don't like to talk about it, but really, there is a bit of Lent in our Advent and Easter in our Christmas.  They are like a peanut butter cup.  These two holiday cycles are both about struggling through darkness and emerging in some sense reborn out of the tragedy and suffering we encounter in life.  For many of us this hope for rebirth is what draws us here.  In spite of and because of our doubts.

No matter what the niceties of our theology might be, what the children told us this morning in their pageant is that even in dark times--times like those that Mary and Joseph and the Innkeeper lived through...times like the one we are living through right now--there is always the chance of a miracle. There is always a chance that things will get better.

We just have to find the strength to work for this chance.  We have to find a way to keep it in our hearts alongside the pain and the joy that come with being alive.  We must move through this world with the hope and determination to make these dreams for a better world come true.

No. It is Not too Soon.

There was a time when I wrote a much more political blog that has since ceased to be (Parsonage Life).  Since then, my web interests veered in more spiritual directions.  I felt that the world had plenty of blogs in which folks spouted off their beliefs spontaneously and sometimes without adequate forethought.  I didn't want to be like that.  So with Burbania Posts I have tried to keep things more thoughtful, perhaps, but certainly less political.

However, I do feel right now, like something needs to be said about gun control in the wake of the still-developing story in Newtown Connecticut.  No.  It is not too soon. 

I realize that there are folks who like to talk about how "guns don't kill people" claiming that "people do".  However, that is half the story.  The fact is that people kill other people with guns.  Guns are more efficient than other methods.  They are fast.  They are easier in many cases to conceal.  If you want to kill a whole lot of people at once...  You use a gun.  There are other ways, of course, but most of them are regulated or outright illegal to own.  What happened today (and what has happened in numerous other places) was possible because of the national permissiveness around firearms.

That needs to change.  We need to change the culture of weaponry in the United States.  We need strict regulation.  No half-steps, either.

Part of the cultural issue, in my opinion, has to do with a misplaced sense of religion.  There is a segment of our society (a well-funded segment to be sure) who sees guns as icons of our national religion.  They see the Second Amendment as scriptural and unchanging.  To them it is a bulwark ensuring the existence of their hobby and their right to--in their minds--protect a nation from whomever they see as an enemy.  Some folks even think of it as a sort of crime-prevention technique and wish more people carried guns around.  The fact is, they would save more lives if they carried portable defibrillators. 

None of this gun culture makes sense in a rational world.  More guns on the street do not prevent more gun crime.  They just don't.  Like the Bible, the Constitution is open to interpretation as we encounter situations that the writers of those documents never anticipated.  Sorry, its just a fact.  We--liberals and conservatives--do this all the time with the Bible.  The Second Amendment certainly isn't a holier document than that.  Finally, guns are not holy relics.  They are machines that cause death.  That is their job.  That is their function.  There are plenty of dangerous things that we as citizens are not allowed to own unless the government has given us special permission.  Guns are dangerous things and should be tightly regulated.  This isn't a video game. Their impact is permanent.

That is all I have to say right now.  I hope that some of our political leaders are able to shake off the always-attractive NRA money and stand up for regulation and--frankly--for reason and sanity in a time and on an issue that could use some strong, sound leadership.  I am heartbroken thinking of the victims of today's shooting.  I cannot imagine how the families and friends of these children and teachers must feel.  I find myself praying for them...constantly.  This situation is ugly and tragic and preventable.  I also pray with all my heart that we get our acts together to ensure that this doesn't happen again.

This Is My Tent

I put it up yesterday evening after considering the very real possibility of the end of the Dewey Park occupation.   It is my old "pre-kids" tent and now it lives next to our house on what passes for our front lawn.  We had to hunt around a bit, but it was worth it.  Occupy has meant a great deal to me and to my family.  It has given us an outlet for our frustration over the direction of this country.  It has given many, many people a voice.  Of course, the various local encampments have already done their part.  The movement isn't ending because the camps are gradually closing.  In fact, it has gone suburban.  As tents get taken down in the cities, it is important to put them up here in Burbania.

Over the last few months, the tent has become a symbol for many.  However it is one that stretches back into the past.  For many folks it conjures up images of "Hoovervilles".  For others (myself included) we are called back to the divestment protests of the 1980's.  There are other connections, too.  I don't know what it means to you, but on the lawn this one occupies, it stands in part for freedom and mobility.  It is too small to carry all the stuff that weighs us down, yet it is a shelter and comfort.  It reminds us of all that we have.  It reminds us that all we have won't fit in the future.

 For me, at least, there has always been another association that has relevance here.  It may be why I made the effort find it.  The tent for me is spiritually significant, too.  The fact is, in many traditions--and for many individuals of no particular tradition--the tent means something more.

In the faith traditions I am most familiar with, Paul the Apostle was a tentmaker in a community that knew a lot about tents.  If you read the Hebrew scriptures--Exodus in particular--tents are everywhere.  Mary and Joseph, traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem would have had one.  Traveling back to Nazareth, that tent would have sheltered their new baby.  John the Baptist would have had a tent, too.  There was little call to mention tents in these stories.  It would have been obvious that a transient people had them.  Jesus--that wandering laborer no doubt often unemployed--would have had a tent, too.  The tent is a basic tool and home for displaced people in difficult times both then and now.

So I set up my tent.  Right now that is all there is.  There isn't a sign to go with it.  Maybe I will put up lights later this week.  Maybe I won't.   It faces the road and the rush hour traffic.  I don't know what people make of it.  This is the only tent in our neighborhood not rolled up for winter, so it isn't entirely clear that it serves any purpose or has any meaning on its own.  I also don't know how long I will let it sit there.  It will remain, at least, through Advent.  Christmas morning might make a good clear end-date...

My hope is that over the next few days there will be other tents on other suburban lawns.  That way each of our tents gains more meaning.  It would be nice (if you have a lawn and a tent and are so inclined) if you put yours out as well.  Then perhaps people will think a bit before turning back to shopping lists and expeditions to the mall.

Anyway, this is my tent.  What are you planning to do with yours?

Occupy Burbania II

I have been pretty pleased with the state of our young people lately, so I was disappointed to hear about the riot at Penn State.  I have met too many impressive college students and recent graduates--both liberal and conservative--to make any generalizations right now.  That said I am not happy.  Yes Joe Paterno was fired.  Yes he is a famous football coach.  He is also a famous football coach who failed to report a case of sexual abuse and by his silence contributed to a cover-up that has hurt many more children and families.  I'm sorry (but not really).  He had to go.  I hate to think of the message this riot sends to victims of such abuse.  If I didn't know better I would ask if perhaps there was something else kids could be protesting these days.  Of course there is, and they are.

My college professor friends occasionally tell me about all their students who don't quite understand what is going on in the world around them.  They are interested in their careers or dating or sports.  They don't read their assignments much less the newspaper.  Big ideas are lost on them.  I believe these people are real and exist on every campus in the nation.  Penn State is not unique in this.  Still, that is not the whole story.  The pictures in the New York Times yesterday were of Penn State students calling for Paterno's firing.  I assume they still go there today.  Also, I continue to see these folks marching and speaking in other ways much closer to home.

This past weekend we went in to Boston for a couple hours to take part in a march.  We had a good time and I am glad we went.  That said, our experience was the sort that critics of Occupy--particularly those on the left--would recognize.  We went down for an event publicized on the web, both on Facebook and on Occupy Boston's official page.  Apparently it didn't happen.  We ended up hanging out with a few other folks from the 'burbs who had also seen the notice and eventually there were enough of us for a short tour of the financial district.  I would say that we were roughly 100 in number.  That number includes me, my wife, and our three kids, making us 5% of the 99% on that morning.

On our way to lunch afterward we ran into another group of about 100 protesters who apparently checked the MoveOn.org page and started from somewhere else.  There was rumor of another small march somewhere else in town as well.  We never saw them, but it doesn't mean they weren't also there...

I suspect that this will be the norm for while.  It is getting colder.  Life is getting more frantic for those of us with children who also work and live some distance from downtown.  There are problems with winter coming, too.  These smaller marches--at least for now--keep the movement on the minds of many. I think how the Occupy movement adapts will say a great deal about its viability for the future and its ultimate impact on our national discourse.

Part of this adaptation, of course, has been to branch out into surrounding communities.  We had our first "Occupy" meeting on Sunday afternoon.  It was a very suburban affair.  We met in the library.  The regular activists and civic leaders were joined by others interested in the "brand".  There was a reporter from the local paper and a camera from a local TV station.  There was some concern from some folks that there would be an encampment somewhere.  Really it looks like we will be doing more episodic things that give people here a chance to participate without turning their lives upside-down. 

One suggestion I liked was the idea of putting tents and signs on our lawns.  This would keep the movement in the minds of our fellow Burbanians while allowing us the opportunity to utilize our comfy beds.  It is also culturally sound.  We live in separate houses.  Why wouldn't we occupy the 'burbs in a way that is spread out as well?

Either way, the conversation continues.  Last night we had a philosophy group discussion about Henry David Thoreau, Adin Ballou, and their influence on movements like Occupy and the Tea Party.  This worked for us as a way to discuss some the issues we find important.  We will be doing this again (and probably again after that).  Agree or disagree, Occupy has gotten people out here thinking big thoughts.  It is a great feeling. 

Thank you scruffy college students.  Keep up the good work.



More on Protest Music...and a Blog to Check Out

So, I was reading the New York Times this morning as an accompaniment to my yogurt and herbal tea when I noticed an article about the intriguing lack of protest songs.  The article points out that many of the artists currently writing in the protest genre are older folks (with the exception of Everlast, but he isn't exactly young by music standards).  Also, there was a sense that both the audience and the record companies don't like the controversy music like this might cause. Perhaps, too, songs about economic justice are just harder to write than peace songs.  Finally, there was a nod to social networking bring people together in a way that music used to.

There was something else in the article that got me thinking.  Someone pointed out--citing recent works by Green Day and Pink--that protest songs seem to be more easily written during Republican administrations.  There is a person to embody the issue.  On the other hand, Obama is someone that many of these potential protest writers voted for.  Some folks had high hopes.  Some of us (including me) just had regular hope.  Obviously, it has been a frustrating few years for the 99%, which is at least part of why the occupation is happening.  Plenty of protesters are angry with Obama, just not in the Tea Party kind of way.

 With that in mind, I wonder if this is a case where the religious tradition of lament may be of assistance to our occupy songsters.  That is, maybe not a fight song, but the blues...


Anyway, here is the link to the NYT article.  It is worth the read.

Here--just in case you didn't read it--is the link to my previous post on this subject.

And...drum roll...here is a link to the new blog of my friend Peter Boulatta!  Peter is doing quite a bit of "occupy" blogging right now but, as a fellow clergyperson, I know that he has other plans as well.

Occupy Burbania?

Sometimes it feels like two worlds doesn't it?  Folks who have participated in the protests  at the various "Occupies" do not, for the most part, actually sleep there.  We come in from our various lives when we can.  We bring ourselves, our voices, our children, our food and water.  We do our part (and blog incessantly).  Then we go home.

Now some folks no doubt go back to communities where people are curious about what is going on at the occupation.  Maybe there are even people going in and coming out at various times throughout the week.  One non-geographic community I am a part of is exactly like this.  That would be the loose association of liberal clergy all across this nation who have embraced the new movement.  In Burbania, though, interest and understanding are harder to come by.  We go into the city by train or car, passing full soccer fields and busy shopping districts.  Then we come out and it is as if we had never left.

I think we have a challenge in getting to the folks who live in suburban America.  Suburbs (particularly past the "second ring" of 'burbs that wrap a major municipality) are inward-looking places.  They have their own (usually very local) issues, their own interests and concerns.  It is easy out here to forget the suffering of other people.  In fact, the culture in some ways encourages us to do just that.  In many parts of the 'burbs things like unemployment and homelessness are balanced by worries about which kid gets the big part in the school play, who scores the winning goal, who has cleaned up the fall leaves...and who has not.

Still, there is no point in complaining unless you are going to do something about it.  The first step, I think, is to identify some of the challenges that exist in getting the word out and helping people understand what the movement is about.  The place to begin is with cultural issues.  There are certain streams in our lives that make it difficult for Burbanians to relate to the Occupy movement.  Actually, they exist in each of us regardless of our geographical location.  When I list them it might make sense for us to consider how they play in our lives.  Do we embrace them?  Do we struggle to keep them in perspective?  Do we ignore (and therefore unreflectively integrate) them?  I for, one, have noticed my reaction to these streams changes over time.

Good Order: The suburbs are a place where structure is given a great deal of authority.  "Good" suburbs are places where people feel they have a great deal of control over their environment.  "Bad" suburbs are--not surprisingly--the opposite.  A "bad" suburb has too much of the city in it or it is a little too country.  The goal, it seems, is to approximate Mayberry as much as possible (kids, ask your parents).  I know it looks like it is rural in a sound-stage kind of way.  But it isn't.  The goal is closeness and closedness.  That is what people mean when they celebrate how "everybody knows each other".  There is a place for everyone we know...and everyone has their place.

Occupy is not about order.  It is about disturbing that order so that people can look at things differently.  Chaos is something we see in the city (diverse populations, traffic, crime) and in the country (weather, nature, and, yes, diverse populations again).  If you live in a place where good order and social stratification are basic building blocks of society, this chaos is frightening.  We can, and do, fixate on side issues that then loom large in our minds.  Is the park clean?  Did somebody step on the plantings?  Did someone really spit on someone else?  Why is everyone yelling?

The Aspirational 1%:  Not everyone who sides with the 1% are themselves wealthy.   As we know, there are many folks in that 1% who side with the 99%.  Why then, wouldn't it also go the other way?  There is a stream in our culture--often unexamined--that declares the good (even just) life to be the pursuit of as much wealth as possible.  These folks can be found in all strata of middle and upper-class 'burbs.  It is part of life.  People's parents and grandparents believed it, too.  The rules are simple and we all know them.  It is better to own than to rent.  It is better to live in a "good" suburb than a "bad" one. You must trade up in cars and houses regularly or be left behind. Your job need not be one that returns anything back to society, nor do you need to contribute your time and money in other ways.  If you make enough, then some lemon bars for the PTO every once in a while (along with assistant coaching) should cover your social obligations.  Particularly if you obey the law.

Occupy attracts a different group of people.  I already mentioned the clergy.  We are not alone, though, are we?  Teachers spring to mind as a much abused group in this category, but there are others.  The problem is that if your view is that what you make is what you are worth than it must also be true that there is something wrong with people who make less.  It is a challenge to the Burbanian model that literally does not compute.  There are people, for example, who honestly believe that folks are protesting so that they personally can get a job.  In this aspirational stream there is no concept of a fleet of boats being lifted together.  No understanding of union in its broadest sense.  No wonder the message seems so vague to some observers.

Busyness: I don't even know why I bother with this one.  If you live in Burbania, you know what I mean.  We are on a roll the minute we get up until the minute we get to bed.  Because of this we don't always have the time to examine and reflect.  We cannot stop even if it means missing the most important social movement in the last decade.  I am not judging, believe me, I know how hard it can be to get out of work and realize that for the next four hours you will be a catering and bus service for the fam and after that...you will go back to work for a couple hours.

What we need is clear communication.  We need ways to find out what is happening "out there" (in my case about 15 miles away) that are clear and at least somewhat accurate.  This brings us to yet one more stream...

Poor Communication: As I mentioned earlier, the 'burbs tend to look inward.  We are worried about our lawns and our kids.  Past that things become hard to understand.  Now, this isn't to say that there aren't millions of us who are interested in the world around us and trying to do the right thing.  The fact is, we do go in to the city to protest and we do engage in a vast number of activities in our community to make the world more just.  That said, it is hard to learn about the world outside the suburbs, particularly about Occupy.   This has to do with the weak information stream that we get from the press.

Here is an example.  This Saturday I participated in a march in Boston that had thousands of people.  I mean, it was HUGE.  We started up on the historic Common by Park Street Station.  Then we worked out way through the Financial District to Dewey Square where the encampment is.  We made a lot of noise.  We stopped traffic.  However, press coverage was...light.  It turns out Deval Patrick (our governor) decided he needed some Occupy glow and went down with his coffee to stroll around the encampment while nothing else was going on.  That was the story of the weekend.  Patrick talking to handful of people in a fairly empty tent city.  Unless you were in Boston that day, you might get the impression the movement was a rather ho-hum affair.  The reality was far different.  As I have mentioned in an earlier post, we have seen the same thing around the demographics of participants.  According to the regular press, everyone is an unemployed student.

The press, by its own admission, was slow to notice Occupy Wall Street and then the rest of the movement.  They have also been, by its own admission, slow to figure out how to cover the event.  Many articles are defensive reports on how there aren't any demands.  We are making their job hard and it bothers them, so they say the movement is complicated.  In reality it isn't all that complicated.  There is a fairly steady and consistent economic critique.  Also, there is some good modeling of an alternate democratic process in how the movement runs.  Yes, there are specific demands in certain areas that vary.  Any movement this large will be like that.  It isn't a problem, but it is chaotic, egalitarian, and at times hard to describe in a sound bite.

It should be noted that one of the ways around the information gap is the internet.  I get a great deal of news that way.  On Facebook I have "liked" the Occupy movements in Boston, New York (Wall Street), Worcester, Bangor, and Providence.  I also get updates from friends and acquaintances in each of these places and in many others.  I read articles (pro-, con-, and mixed) that are easy to find.  Still, for many folks social networking is just email-with-pictures and blogging is a mystery.  For them other solutions need to be found.

Occupy the 'burbs...in a way.  I am thinking that the mission of occupiers who go in to the city and then come out is a simple one.  We need to talk.  We need to bring up in friendly suburban ways that we went to the march.  We need to give people opportunities to discuss in ways that make them comfortable.  Mostly, though, we need to give the movement a face that our neighbors recognize 'cause we're not all that bad.

The question then becomes where we do these things.  That is up to you.  I see people at the kids' schools.  I see them picking up and dropping off.  There isn't a lot of time, but I do try to let them know where I have been.  I also see people at church.  Church is a good place for discussions, actually.  It is part of our mission to come together as a congregation.  It is also a place that naturally attracts people looking for something more in their lives.  Church people expect to resist the inward-looking streams.  I believe they hope that we will help them do that.

These places may not work for you, of course.  I think the important point, though, is to remember that the real work isn't walk around with a sign.  The real work is changing the world for the better.

Good luck.  Keep the Faith.

Occupy Music!

I realize that most regular readers are aware that this is not my first protest rodeo.  Primarily (but not exclusively) thanks to a politically active family, the Labor Movement, Divestment, Jackson '88, and the two Gulf Wars, I have had ample opportunity to participate in direct action as manifested on the American left from the mid-1970's until today.  The reason that I bring this up is that during that same time I have also experienced the decline of the great institution known as the protest song.

I miss it.  When I was a young person being dragged to rallies and marches in support of striking members of the United Paperworkers International, I remember singing.  I remember, in particular, that when the old people sang, they knew the words.  When the young people (Boomers) sang they needed the words written down or shouted out in advance.  The people just slightly older than me didn't sing at all.  When I was older, similar (mostly UPIU or Democratic Party) events showed evidence of the same trend.  As the years passed, there was less singing and more chanting, more yelling.  This is not to say that chanting and yelling aren't legitimate means of expression, of course.  However, I do wonder where the songs went. 

I think they went the way of technology.  I have mentioned this before in reference to the hallowed tradition of hymn-singing, the last place random everyday folks are expected to produce music.  With the recording industry in its various permutations came music as private entertainment.  We might sing now, but it isn't in public.  It is in the car.  "Singing in public" now means a whole family singing together in the car and making a whimsical Facebook Update out of the experience.  ("Sang Lion Man today with little Timmy.  He's gonna be a rock star!")

Churches now hang on with really loud organs and persistent pastors with ukes.  In the world of protest, though, we are silent.  Yes, I know I can google Billy Bragg, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, and so on.  But they are pros.  We on the other hand, do not sing, if only because we are out of practice and do not know the words.  We also aren't all that interested.

This woman brought her ukulele to the march this Saturday.  It looks to me like a concert-sized Lanikai.  First she seemed to be trying to get folks singing.  Then she used it as a rhythmic accompaniment to the chanting.  Neither worked out so well.  Mostly because we were stuck in a knot of Boomers who weren't going to let their nostalgia tour be derailed by some protest full of  noisy youngsters.  When we moved closer to the action, we lost track of her.  At the encampment there were also a few other musicians around.  Each, though, was giving a brief concert to themselves or a few friends.  No one was trying to reach out.

I should say, though, that I do have some hope.  Ukulele-woman was, after all, giving it a shot.  There was also a banjo guy apparently learning Blowin' In the Wind (that should make the Boomers happy).  Most of my hope comes from my experience with the DIYers in the uke community.  Here technology becomes an asset.  It is easy to find protest songs on the web.  It is easy to find Chord progressions, too.  It is easy to bridge the cultural divides and to start a "collection" of songs all people can sing.  Gen Xers and Millenials are learning ways for the Internet to bring us together rather than comfort us in our isolation.  Music--it is clear--is a part of this.  So I urge you to occupy music yourself.  Learn a protest song and teach it to someone else.

Here are some suggestions.  These are just starters, by the way, and you should do the legwork yourself.  It is good practice.  If you do not know the tune, YouTube is there to help you.  Once you know that, you can google the name of the song and the word "chords".  Yeah...I know...you figured that out.  Then, feel free to make suggestions here.  I am occupying music, too.

This Land is Your Land (Woody Guthrie)
There is Power in a Union (Joe Hill but everyone thinks Bragg wrote it)
Blowing in the Wind (Dylan)
Union Maid (also W. Guthrie)

Good luck people!  Keep the faith...

Occupy Boston

 So yesterday I spent a few hours occupying Boston.  We started at the Common with mostly student groups and then picked up folks representing various other organizations as it went along.  MassUniting (a coalition of community groups), for example, was listed as a co-sponsor.  This was the same march that eventually ended up in the standoff at the Charlestown bridge.  Of course, if they had put people to work to fix the bridge there would have been plenty of room for everyone.  Needless to say, that was the point....

Actually, my wife and I had stepped out slightly earlier.  If we knew what would happen, maybe we would have hung in there a little longer. However, the kids were hungry and tired.  There was homework to be done and, of course, the two of us had work in the morning.... 

Funny thing, though, to hear and read about Occupy Boston (and the other "Occupies") one might think that all there is to them is a few hundred unwashed hippies on the ten-year plan at their local college or university.  I find this odd. I (as most of you know) am a middle-aged small church pastor from West Dullsville and as I looked around the crowd, I am darn sure I was not the only one.  OK, maybe they weren't all middle-aged pastors but there sure was a lot of grey on quite a few respectable looking heads.  In fact, I don't need to "get a job" do I?  Still, I was there.  Also, my kids weren't the only under-18-year-olds blocking traffic yesterday.  I was pleased to see them take time from suburban kid pursuits to engage in a little direct democracy. 

So...there were older people and younger people making their voices heard and their presence felt.

Furthermore, what's so wrong with college students?  Yes, they were there, and I have heard them referred to in a variety of derogatory ways for their perceived "laziness".   Some folks were concerned that they didn't present well. It is true that they weren't dressed for the Young Republicans meeting.  But wouldn't it be weird if they were?  On the whole I found them to be polite and helpful.  Many of them were certainly working hard, too.  They kept my sons hydrated, gave them cough drops when they couldn't yell anymore, and generally were as welcoming and friendly as young adults can be.  They were good company.  I would hire them, even if they did happen to trip over Rose Kennedy's flowers.

This demographic breadth is important, by the way.  The fact is, Occupy Boston is the result of legitimate concerns and experiences expressed by people who come from a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives.  Someday (perhaps soon) the encampment will go away, but the situation that brought it about will not.  No doubt there are--right now--any number of pundits trying to pat us on the head and move this movement off the stage, but the problems are real and the message remains even if the messengers change...or aren't quite what some folks would like.

As one Burbanian to another, I would recommend that you go down and see the encampment for yourself.  It isn't very far and they could use the support.  They honestly feel that they are camping for all of us, for the 99%.  I feel that they are, too.  And when we march, we march for all of us, even if we don't all agree.  There is a schedule of events (that does change from time to time), but going over to say "hi" would also be appreciated.  If this isn't your bag, give me a call.  If I have the time maybe I will go with you...

However, do bring them some water or a blanket or something, would you?  It's not all that comfortable a place to be right now.

Here are a couple links:

First the link to MassUniting.  The group affiliated with them that I know best is Mass Community Action Network or MCAN.  I worked with them to help found and interfaith group in the Framingham/Natick area.  Yep...church (and synagogue and mosque) people.

Also, here is the link to Occupy Boston.  Here is a story from the Boston Globe with interviews from some of the not-students who were arrested.

Football Season

So the sports world has been a bit surprised by all the public interest in the NFL since their lockout ended.  I don't know why.  The new contract is the product of many hours of conversation and compromise in light of the current global financial situation.  Neither side chose to paint the other as greedy,  godless and un-American beings bent on destruction of our nation.  Nor did either side choose spectacular capitulation as a negotiating strategy (yeah, you know what I'm taking about).  That meant respectful dialogue, give and take...you know where this is going...

Anyway, so sue me for taking refuge in football prognosticating.  It has been a rough week in many respects and it will get rougher. 

My first installment has to do with the rather tricky subject of division selection.  Regular readers know that I am too lazy to cover the entire league and instead choose two divisions from each conference.  Hopefully, they turn out to be the most interesting.  Last year was a mixed bag, with the AFC East and the NFC North delivering (though in different ways) and the "Wests" (both AFC and NFC) proving their minor league credentials once again.

At this early date, therefore, I have only decided on two divisions.  The other two might get cut...

First the Keepers:

AFC East:  The early storyline here is the arms race betwixt the Jets and the Pats.  Both teams have made key acquisitions in the last couple of days.  Both are viewed as marquee teams likely to challenge for the Super Bowl.  The past few years have seen the Pats win the division and the Jets move ahead of the Pats in the playoffs.  Very exciting stuff.

Of course, there are two other teams.  The Buffalo Bills continue to aggressively pursue a move to Toronto by proving that they could be a reasonable farm team for Toronto's CFL Argonauts.  The other team (Miami Dolphins) has so far decided not to compete much this year either, avoiding any temptation to get a quarterback to play for them (Denver's Kyle Orton being the most obvious upgrade).  They also have taken on Reggie Bush, a high-quality RB when he is well and when he ummm...doesn't carry much.

Players to Watch:  Chad Ochocinco (Pats) and Darelle Revis (Jets)

NFC North  The soap opera the Vikings provided us last year should continue for a while longer until QB Donovan McNabb shows what is "left in the tank".  I am going out on a limb and saying that there is plenty in there.  It will be up to the coaches, though, to scheme in ways that work for him.

The Lions are looking better all the time.  However, they haven't given much thought to the offensive line, so we can expect to see a plethora of QB's this year.  Jay Cutler of the Bears will get his chance to show that he is not the whiner many people think he is.  I never had this opinion of him, actually.  However it seems traditional for Bears fans to despise their QB's.  Why?

Finally there are the Super Bowl defending Packers.  Not a bad lineup of teams and only one (the Vikings) bothers to have cheerleaders.

Players to watch: Donovan McNabb and Jay Cutler

And the other two divisions.

AFC West These teams are traditionally horrible.  There is just some really bad football that gets played by these teams.  The only reason to watch is because of the odd-but-intriguing elevation of Tim Tebow to sainthood in Denver.  If Orton doesn't get traded (he is slightly better than Tebow but doesn't paint bible verses on his eye-black) maybe there will be a QB controversy.  Otherwise the Chargers will likely win the division so no real need to watch.

Of course Tebow could turn out to be good which might pull me back.  However, I am thinking next season will be a break-out year for him.

NFC West Boring....(snore)...

OK, Tavaris Jackson (Seahawks) may turn out to be interesting...

Links:

Here is a link to my post about Cutler and the Myth of Toughness

And the Argos

I Have Seen Google +...And It's OK...

OK, so perhaps it is a bit early to start reviewing something that apparently most people don't know exists and that is still in testing mode.  However, I have been testing it and I have found it to be...well...OK....

I have been following its development in the news and online for a while now and knew I would want to try it.  I have issues with Facebook and wouldn't mind at all finding a different social networking option.  My problems with FB are many so I won't go into all of them now.  However, some of my biggest problems are addressed by Google + so it is worth bringing them up.

It has always felt to me that Facebook is best understood as an epic reunion party.  A good portion of the most enthusiastic users I know log on to find old friends and old flames in order to discover that they, too, have kids, go to the beach, and watch Little League.  Having never seen the attraction of normal reunion parties, this isn't a big draw for me.  At a virtual party like this our lives are flattened.  They become shallow. I have written about this before.  The past is drawn into the present and we end up sharing things with folks we only dimly recall (or have never met) that we wouldn't normally share.  We don't really know them anymore.  On the other hand, we choose not to share things with others because there are so many witnesses.  I am someone who likes to keep the past where it is.  I also like to know the people I am communicating with.

One related problem I have with FB is that we are all "friends".  This is the levelling thing again.  Most of my FB friends aren't friends, really.  Some of them were in the past.  Some (hopefully) will be in the future.  However,  a friend is someone who calls or writes or drops by when they are in town.  The friends (here I mean real friends) who don't do these things are usually people I live close to and see anyway.  Yes, I know that some friendships have been rekindled thanks to FB.  However, I wonder how much it contributes to making us lazy social slobs who don't ever get around to visiting.   Also, if you spent time with these virtual "friends", would you realize that there are good reasons why you don't call or write or visit?

Finally, FB theoretically can be used for networking around jobs, hobbies , and interests.  However, it seems like it is an "either/or" proposition.  I have a weblog (obviously) which I link to FB and, I hope, interesting things to say.  Every once in a while a colleague I have never met attempts to "friend" me, partly (I think) so that we can connect in clergy sorts of ways.  The problem is, that person never gets to see my web links and interesting professional thoughts because they have "hid" me and my inane chatter about the kids, etc.  No doubt others have hid me because they don't want the blog posts and shop-talk. That then requires two FB pages.  My Burbania Posts FB page has a whopping 14 members...

So along comes Google +.  Right now it is populated by the sort of people who find new computer things fun.  In fact, this process has made me realize that I am one of those people.  Mostly we write about being there.  It is like moving into the new dorm at college.  "Hey!  Check out the cool fridge!"  "Cable and Free-Wi-Fi!"  It is awesome, Dude.  We are also breaking things and waiting for maintenance to come fix them.  However, even in its limited buggy state, it isn't hard to see the potential for someone like me.

The big selling point is their use of "Circles". You can put people on Google + into affinity groups based on shared interests and how you know them.  Each circle can be added or removed from any post.  People can be added or removed from each circle.  So, if I have folks who I think want regular updates from the blog, I can put them in a category for it ("Colleagues", "Friends", "Eliot Church" depending on the topic of the post).  If they are more into beach pictures, that can happen, to ("Friends" and "Family" definitely, "Colleagues" not so much, though some are in both circles).  I will probably even add a "Burbania Posts" circle.  That way they can get blog posts and nothing else if I (and probably they) wish.  

Remember, you can add or subtract groups at will. You can also move people around.  The circles are not static.  That colleague you  have suddenly been spending lots of time with?  They can be friends, too.  That buddy from 8th grade who moved to town?  Let's see if they come to the picnic you invited them to.  It also makes things easy for those of us who need to maintain work/life boundaries (clergy, teachers, etc).  Not sure your students should see that picture?  Don't let their circle in (though that will require and level of organization that may be difficult for many).

So that is the difference I see.  I think there are going to be plenty of people who will not be interested in this sort of networking.  For them, the FB system works well and they have invested a great deal of time into that online persona.  Because some of them are, in fact, my friends and family, I will stick around FB.  However, I see the appeal of Google + and will use it, too.

Instead of a reunion party, Google is trying to make something closer to a denominational convention.  There is a big area where everyone can mill around.  There are also smaller areas for workshops and other gatherings based on affinity and interest.  There is even a place for people who want to sneak out to grab a coffee and just chat in real actual life.  The people in that last group are called "friends".

On Fasting

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?  Isaiah 58:6

The boys recently asked me if we could do some sort of fast during Holy Week.  I was surprised.  We had been talking about Ramadan and I had mentioned that fasting (though few people actually do it these days) is also a part of the Christian tradition.  These days we like big meals on our holidays.  Displays of excess are meant to show our joy or, at least, our wealth. They thought it would be a nice lead-up to Easter if we took a little time to deprive ourselves.

This morning I read a column by Mark Bittman.  Turns out he is fasting this week as part of a Bread for the World campaign to draw attention to what proposed congressional budget cuts will do to the marginally-fed people both in this country and abroad.  It underscores, for me, an issue that I have found infuriating about the "national austerity" language politicians are throwing around these days.  The folks who talk about belt-tightening no doubt feel they are making some sort of sacrifice--maybe one fewer ski trips next year--but the kids still have their own cars to drive themselve to Yale, Harvard, and Sarah Lawrence (or whatever).  Meanwhile the ones who make the actual sacrifices are pretty much ignored.

I cannot take this fast this week because a) I just heard about it today and b) I just (like today) turned the big 4-0 and there are some culinary requirements to be made of me.  Besides, the donut I am eating right now is all that stands between me and the stereotypical existential crisis that strikes Americans during this sensitive time.  However, I am planning to honor my sons' request and Bittman has helped me to refine my thinking on the subject. 

So here are the (or my) reasons to fast this Good Friday...

1) It makes us think about God.  In particular, it makes us think about the Holy Week story.    Holy Week is a reflective time, meant to make us consider some big-picture questions about our lives and our relationships.  Good Friday may be a great day for picking up those Cadbury eggs but the party is on Easter.  The joy of Easter comes from surviving hard times--times of famine--before the happy times.  There is no resurrection without death.  While a brief fast is nothing like crucifixion, it does remind us of (and allows us to participate in) the actual "reason for the season".

2) It makes us think about the suffering of others.  Yeah, cheerful thought, I know.  However, the fact is that Bittman and his friends are right.  There is a great deal going on in the world that our Burbanian minds blithely skip over on our way to the kids' soccer practice.  What if, for just a short time, we stood in solidarity with them.  What if the fast we chose was their reality?  That word "their" encompasses a large portion of humanity, including many Americans who can expect life to become much more difficult in the near future.  The fact that they will also be blamed for their own difficulties by many powerful people is one more reason to stand with them.

3) It makes us reconsider how we live.  I am big into this "considering how we live" business.  It is a continuous theme in my sermons during Lent.  I am sure some church members would say it is a theme all the time.  It was the original purpose of this blog. 

The fast Isaiah chose at the beginning of my post was to "loose the chains of injustice".  There is quite a bit more to that than sincere thoughts when the subject comes up, sending money to faraway places, and voting.  Our cars, our homes and our diets (how, what and where we purchase) contribute to the national and international unequal distribution of food and wealth.  We have sinned, people.  We are guilty of other people's pain.  Fasting gives us time to meditate on that important and unavoidable (if unpleasant) fact.

4) It puts us in touch with God.  Yes, I know I already wrote this but it needs to be repeated.  When we are hungry we are in touch with the hungry people of the  world--God's people.  We are in touch with a suffering God in the midst of God's own creation.  We are reminded that there is something bigger and more important than the commute, or the meeting, or the contract, or the petty fights we have with both loved ones and  strangers.  Holy Week--including Palm Sunday and Easter--is the holiest time in the Christian faith (hence the name).  Fasting reminds us of this spiritual ground.

I looked online for some fasting plans.  The Catholic Good Friday fast (according to at least one sight) is one meal and two snacks.  The kids think this is cheating.  Like skipping lunch and calling it virtue.  I suspect we will come up with a compromise position.  Right now I am thinking of dragging them to Maundy Thursday Communion and fasting from that point until dinner on Friday.  They are kids, so they will get liquids and perhaps some sort of light breakfast...and a fruit-break.  I don't want them getting all grouchy, after all...

I would love to know what others do, if anything.  I would love it, too, if folks joined us.

Here is a link to Mark Bittman's article

Here is a link to Bread for the World

Here is a link to the farm where we get our CSA share.  Our buying group takes turns picking up in Framingham and then leaving the food on the parsonage porch.  If your fasting leads you to some sort of action and you are in the area, feel free to join our group.  It is open to anyone for whom it works.

Sacred Spaces II: My Wandering Seminary

     It took me a long time to graduate from Meadville/Lombard.  Or, at least, it felt long.  I entered in 1994 and graduated in 2000.  Many of my courses were taken at Bangor Theological Seminary and I interned in Grosse Pointe Michigan.  Both Bangor and Grosse Pointe were too far to be part of the M/L community during those years.  However, I really and truly was a residential student. 
    
     We (my wife and I) lived in Hyde Park for two years while I was in seminary and loved it.  Among the things we loved were the old buildings that housed the seminary.  I have thought about these buildings often over the past decade.  Good times, mostly.  When I  attended Chicago Theological Seminary on the way to my DMin, I would occasionally drop by M/L just to be in the same old space.  I will miss being able to do that.  The faculty had changed from my time, with the exception of my M.Div. Advisor Neil Gerdes.  I didn't have to go to M/L to see Neil, though, as he has the same job at CTS.  It really was the buildings that drew me back.  They were (and are) a tangible connection to my time there.

     Of course needs change and spaces change.  The seminary is at a new point in its evolution and now it must move on.   As I have said before, I do believe that M/L will be fine in its new form.  It won't really be the seminary I went to, but that is OK.   I am just worried about the name.  I'm not sure it is the sort of thing to be left up to a "branding agency."

     All of this is just so I can post a link to the blog some M/L folks have set up for people to share their memories.  It is a nice idea. I, for one, remember how hot it was during the famous heat wave.  I remember hiding in the lowest part of the library stacks because it felt cool...even though the stacks were over ninety degrees.  It is an oddly nice memory in the midst of all this snow.
   
      Here also is my previous rant about the name thing.  Before we choose something like "PassageWays" or  "SunRise" or whatever branding people do, could I put in a vote for its current name?  I like the sound of "New Theological University".  It tells a story and, no, it doesn't need to be changed later on.  After all New College Oxford has done OK.

The Myth of "Toughness"

On Sunday I watched the NFC Championship game between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears.  Jay Cutler, the Bears starting Quarterback was pulled out early in the second half in favor of first, Tod Collins and next, Caleb Hanie.  This did not surprise me.  Cutler was clearly injured.  Blood from his throwing arm was staining his uniform, after all.  It turned out, however, that the bigger issue was his knee.  He tore his right MCL and could no longer plant his leg effectively to throw.

You would have thought, to hear the commentators and fans (and later current and former players), that instead of being injured in a football game, he had committed an unforgivable sin.  He had "quit" on his team.  He had failed to show "leadership" by not playing until he was "carted off the field".  More sports cliches were used to similar effect.  Poor confused Brett Favre was brough up repeatedly...as someone worthy of emulation (!).  I, for one, cannot see what the big deal is.

Look, I watch a lot of football.  I like a good game, but I, at least, don't see how it helps anyone to permanently injure a player merely to prove that that person has "toughness".  Professional sports--honestly--were they to disappear tomorrow would have absolutely no effect on the rest of the world.  It is entertainment, we would find other things to do.  The response from the players was particularly disturbing in light of the their union's current and much publicized concerns about injury.  Football is a dangerous game.  The union--representing the interests of the players who put themselves at risk--is trying to create a safer work environment.  Why generate gallons of peer pressure to make it more dangerous?  Why make the goal of safety harder to attain?

The real culprit here is the myth of toughness.  As kids we are trained by our parents to value this aspect of ourselves.  I don't have to tell you the social hierarchy of America's school system.  We all, dear reader, had a place in it at some point or other.  The "tough" varsity athletes reside at or near the top to the unending pride of parents and teachers.  The less "tough" make a place for themselves on the science and theater clubs or the debate team.  So given this culture and background, why, in that moment of manufactured drama known as "NFL Championship Sunday" wouldn't we seek out a villain? 

Incidentally, now people are blaming Cutler's personality for the situation.  Turns out he doesn't "let people (meaning the press) in".  Hmmm...I wonder why?  Is "letting people in" part of his contract?

I see two conflicting desires on the part of the media and the fans here.  On the one hand, we want these sports figures to be "role models".  We worry about this a lot.  We don't ask this from our artists, of course. I was big fan of Metallica and the Who as a kid and no one thought I would follow their lifestyles.  We do not (though we reall, really, should) even consistently ask it of ourselves as parents.  We assign that task, apparently, to physically gifted strangers.

We get all upset about steroids and other drugs (and yes, we should).  However, have we really considered the reason they are a constant issue in sports?  We tell the pros that they must be held to a "higher standard" than we hold ourselves to.  Yet we also perpetuate the "toughness" myth that makes it so hard for them to succeed.  Did Lance Armstrong "dope" during his remarkable run of Tour De France victories?  Honestly I would be surprised if he didn't.  The Tour--like a lot of other competative venues--is an OSHA violation in progress all because we want to see the "toughest Tour yet".  Lance was told to be "tough".   He was told to be a role model.  The requirement for role models in our world is simple...winning.

This is what we teach our children when we let them to play hurt--and many of us do.  It is what we tell them when we fill their free time with parent-run competitive pursuits--and many, many of us do.  This is what we tell ourselves when we push ourselves too far and wind up on crutches. 

This myth pervades our culture, not just in sports but everywhere.  We want to appear tough, we want to be seen as competitive at work and among our friends, with our neighbors at home and with Iraq and Afganistan abroad.  We swagger as much as we walk in our relationships. We don't want to collaborate or solve problems, we want to win.  How is that workin' for ya?

Perhaps we could try something out as a society.  Instead of raising up toughness as a great an necessary attribute, why don't we replace it with empathy?  What if our role models were people who could listen to others and make sound decisions?  Why don't we encourage each other to care?  Perhaps we should  be in touch with each other and with our own needs and feelings.  What if we praised Jay Cutler for knowing that his injury wouldn't make him the best option for the game?  Maybe the world would be just a bit nicer to live in.  Perhaps we could do with a little less toughness.

Here are a couple of links to stories about the Cutler situation.

This one is by Solomon Wilcots

and one by Frank Tadych

Athenaeum Flood

The Boston Athenaeum flooded yesterday.  According to the general email and the Athenaeum website, it started with a plumbing problem on the first floor--the "public" section where much of the art (and the Children's Library) is kept.  Then the water seeped down into the basement stacks.  They library be closed for a while as they assess the damage.  Possibly thousands of books will be affected in some way.  Water is the bane of libraries--even dampness--so the books will need to be taken offsite and (hopefully) dried out enough to return to circulation.  The library, itself, will need to dry out, too.

The Atheneaum is a private library with a large reputation and an impressive collection of books--mostly in the arts and humanities--that cannot be easily gotten elsewhere.  I have always admired it.   It serves as a lighthouse for those pursuing disciplines that often fall out of vogue.  These days the arts and humanities suffer in the public eye for the frequent absence of immediate financial return.  This fact alone makes it important to have institutions of scholarship, education, and  preservation that are like this.  They help to show that contemplation is not dead and that broad, dynamic thought is still essential to the American life.

I joined this year as part of my staybattical.  Partly, it was because I thought it would be good for Norm, and it has been.  Mostly, however, it was because I wanted access to the sort of works that I would need for my research into transcendentalist Christianity, preaching, and the creative act.  They have some great material, some of which I have referenced in my previous posts. 

My athenaeum year has been a wonderful experience.  I have found the collections to be fulfilling, the silence to be gratifying, and the architecture inspiring.  In fact, I think I will keep a membership next year.  One of the more pleasant side effects of my Fridays with Norm is that, while he does his own work, I sit in one of those first floor chairs (or sometimes on the second floor) and outline my sermon.  There will be plenty of sermons to outline in the future.

There are, of course, other attractions.  If I just wanted to write, after all, there are plenty of desks closer to the parsonage.  In addition to the books, there is art.  One of my favorite seats, in fact, is the one right below John Singer Sargent's portrait of George McCulloch.  There is also the beauty of the space, and there is the location to consider.  Occasionally I gaze out the window at the view of the Granary Burial Ground.  The cemetery, itself, is quite the spectacle  It is busy in the summer and fall with tour guides in period costume giving the talk about Paul Revere's two gravestones. It is a  a grey, cold, quiet in winter. All of this helps elevate the soul and brings it closer to Creation.

Reading an old book from the Athenaeum--the kind they keep in the basement stacks--puts one in touch with history, too.  The book on my desk as I write this still has its original circulation card.  There are a number of illegible signatures along with a number of legible dates: June 4, 1886, October 11, 1886, September 13, 1888, October 8, 1894, December 2, 1897.  The list stops then.  I wonder who has read this book before me?  Who were they?  What were they like?  The book's topic would indicate they were most likely liberal clergy.  I hope its fellow-books have survived the deluge.

The library is private, but you can join.  If you are under 40, an individual membership costs $115 and a family membership is $175.  If you are over 40, then it is $230 and $290.  It is is worth it, believe me.  It may also be worth making a donation, if you can.  After all, there will be quite a lot of cleaning up to do and, honestly, many people benefit from the library's existence even if they don't belong themselves.  Just think of all the papers that have been researched and written there.  Imagine all the sermons.

Of course, once you join, it is hard to leave.  Fellow-member Nathaniel Hawthorne claimed to have shared the reading room for some time with the ghost of Unitarian minister Thaddeus Mason Harris a "small, withered, infirm, but brisk old gentleman, with snow-white hair, a somewhat stooping figure but yet remarkable alacrity of movement."  Rev. Dr. Harris' portrait still (hopefully) hangs on the first floor...

Here are links to

The library's website (it will open on the membership page)

And Thaddeus Mason Harris (from the Dorchester Atheneaum website, I do not know if he was also a member there)

Hawthorne, I think you all know...

That New Theological University

One of the things I should probably be paying more attention to is the continuing development of the "Theological University" proposed by the Andover-Newton and Meadville/Lombard seminaries.  I have the honor of working with two ANTS graduates at my church.  I graduated from M/L with an M.Div about ten years ago.  I serve a UCC/UU congregation.  You get the idea.  I should be all excited, I guess.

However, much of the communication (mostly from M/L) seems to be geared toward alleviating concerns.  As a natural constituent and as someone who serves an ecumenical (or interfaith) institution myself, I am not all that worried.  Now, there will be things that I miss.  For the record, I will miss the campus.  I had some good times there.  That having been said, it is clear that the way things were is pretty much unsustainable in the future.  Ah well.  The seminary where I received my DMin, Chicago Theological Seminary is also moving out of their old building.  Granted, they are building a new one across the Midway on land either on or near the old Ryder Divinity School site.  Ryder was the seminary of Lombard College so it all comes full circle doesn't it?  It is a hard time for seminaries all around.

My only major concern is the name.  Even with just two seminaries merging we see a wide variety of traditions that can be broken down in any number of ways.  There are American Baptists and the historically-Baptist Universalists, for example.  In addition, we have the Unitarians and the Congregationalists.  However, only the most out-of-touch ML alum would think that Congregationalism is all there is to the UCC.  There are, for example, the Christians, who are spiritual descendants of the people who helped the Unitarians found Meadville Theological School.  They eventually left and founded Antioch, I believe.  Then there are the Germans: the Evangelical Synod and the German Reformed. 

All of these traditions have rich histories with their own heroes and legends.  Naturally this would be very fertile ground for seminary names.  If we wanted to go the way of people names we could think Niebuhr or Tillich.  Perhaps Ballou, Hedge or (please no) Emerson?  Beecher University, maybe?  There are some fabulous place-names as well.  You get the idea. 

The problem, of course, is that all sides would have to agree...and I hear they have hired a consultant.  Consultants like eighties business names apparently.  M/L, for example, calls its education model "TouchPoint".  That sounds like a vaguely creepy cellphone name to me.  It is a consultant name.  So if I were a betting man, I would probably put my money on something like "PassageWays" or "FaithPartners" for the new school.  I can't wait for the color scheme on the team uniforms.  Paging Crockett and Tubbs?  Expect a school seal involving hands clasping flames, branches, birds, and/or each other. 

In fact, if it is going to be this way, why not just pay me now?  Feel free to make other recommendations.  The last time M/L tried to merge with somebody I suggested it take the name of William Howard Taft.  Fortunately, no one thought I was serious...

For the UU's I am posting a link to the UCC Tribute Song.  It rocks in a goofy sort of way.  All my kids can sing sing it.  Try not to get too upset when they mention pre-twentieth century people who are (gasp!) also claimed by UU's.  The truth is most of them were both...or neither.  

Hmmm....     

Adams Theological University?

Thinking About Yesterday...and Praying.

I really don't know if I have anything new or different to add to the conversation about what happened in Arizona yesterday.  I am praying for the families whose lives have been turned upside-down by this tragedy and  for the people of Gabrielle Gifford's district who are no doubt trying to make sense of all this.  Most of the responses I have seen this morning talk about the language of violence that has seeped into (or invaded) our political rhetoric.  I am thinking about that, too.  It is sad.  It is wrong.  It has been happening for a long time. There have been plenty of people who have noticed this trend, spoken up, and found themselves ignored for comments deemed "politically motivated". 

Some of those people who spoke up found themselves embroiled in yesterday's shooting.  Giffords, herself, spoke out about the subject after the now-famous Sarah Palin "crosshair map".  Some of the people who ignored her complaints then are saying better things now.  I hope they mean it.  Perhaps now we will be willing to re-think how we communicate our differences.

As for the rest of us, we could try to be more caring and gentle, too.  We all carry some responsibility for the environment we live in. Some of what I see in the political rhetoric is the logical outgrowth of the way we "regular" people treat each other in public and in private.  There are times when simple and minor differences are viewed as an assault on our own personhood.  I have been around the 'burbs long enough to see those shouting/shoving matches between "grown-ups" at kids sports.  Like all of you, I have found myself in the gossip mill from time to time.  We have all seen acts of selfishness and verbal abuse between adults.  Yes, children, too, but the fact is bullies often grow up to be bigger bullies. Often they are the ones who set the tone of our discourse.

So today if you are driving, don't cut people off.  Better yet, driving or not, let someone in ahead of you in line.  Compliment someone else's kid at hockey today. Move more slowly, more carefully. If you have worries, try to keep them in perspective.  Think about someone else.  Reach out. Hug your children.  Turn off your TV.  Try being fully human at a time when we clearly need the practice.  The fact is, we are all human beings and disagreeing on matters of faith or tax policy or whatever else we deem insurmountable in the moment is no reason to treat each other the way we do. 

Here is a link to an article I found this morning in the New York Times.  I was particularly captured by the thoughtful words of Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik.

Be good to each other, people...

Randy Moss (and a bit about the election)

I was going to write more about the election but, honestly, I don't feel qualified.  Mostly because I live in Massachusetts.  When I watched the results last night with my family, it felt like there were two elections in two mostly separate worlds going on at once.  The local news announced and analyzed Democratic victories across the board.  Democratic incumbents won their races and the open seats were filled with Democrats, too.  Then we would flip to another (yet nearby) "bizarro world" (that's a Superman reference, not necessarily a value judgement) and Katie Couric et. al. spoke breathlessly about the demise of the Democrats, the rise of the Tea Party and so on.  Our regional cable station (New England Cable Network) was much more like the local report.  New Hampshire returned to the New Hampshire of my youth.  Otherwise, lots of "blue".

Even Barney Frank was Barney Frank.

So I am going to write about something strange that did happen in these parts.  It is the ongoing saga of Randy Moss, Wide Receiver-at-Large.  Most of the sports press--and virtually all of the league executives--like to buy into a very sanitized, 1950's-styled story of life in the NFL.  Team owners are jocular, well-fed older men who look benignly down from their heated boxes on Sunday and cheer on the happy employees of their business venture.  The coaches, Lombardi-like, guide their faithful charges, teaching them about the sanctity of the game and the occasional life-lesson like "There's no 'I' in 'Team'".  The fact that these employees are adults pounding the living snot out of each other, that they will suffer lasting effects from this pounding, that they have struggles and opinions, loves and losses that don't always fit into this story is unfortunate for the narrative arc, but not something that seems to move the NFL Public Relations minds all that much.  Owners who do not fit the detached elder image (Al Davis of the Raiders) are also painted differently...as unpleasant exceptions.

Players and owners--or at least some of them--feed into this.  The Quarterback who thanks Jesus for guiding his football to its intended target, and the awe-shucks attitude of the big time playmaker in the press conference after the important win are a couple of examples.  So too is the attempt to read tremendous (even divine?) symbolism into the Patriot's post-9/11 Super Bowl win.  Parents think they have found  role models for their children and they rejoice.  However, there are others, and we are told quite clearly that we should not love them.  Many of these players are Wide Receivers.  T.O. and his friend Chad Ochocinco, Ocho's old college roommate Steve Smith who plays for the hapless Panthers and, of course, Randy Moss.  Randy's crime was wanting to get paid for being one of the best at what he does.  So he complained in a press conference after his team (the Patriot's) had scored a big win. 

Shortly thereafter he was traded, by most accounts not because of his press conference but because he didn't fit in the new offense.  This is true, by the way.  The Pat's wanted to get back to a shorter passing game.  It won them three Super Bowls.  Former Patriot (and Super Bowl MVP) Deion Branch  returned to his original team after hitting pay dirt in Seattle because his skill set fit the new/old offense better.  Then Randy went to the Vikings, somewhat symmetrically his original team.

Now (about a month later) even the most casual observer has noted that Moss is no longer a Viking.  He didn't like it there.  The Vikings are melting down.  They have a formerly-brilliant QB (Bret Favre) who is literally falling apart on the field.  Off the field, this prototypical awe-shucks ironman is caught in a "sexting" scandal.  Their coach is a bit weird himself.  The players are depressed.  Moss reconsidered his love for Minnesota, said some things they didn't like (implying that the 6-1 Patriots are better than the 2-5 Vikes, for example, and that the Pat's have a better coach), and got fired.

To many people, Moss doesn't fit the mold of what a "good athlete" is supposed to be like today.  They aren't supposed to think for themselves.  They aren't supposed to be showboaters.  They are supposed to be grateful for the opportunity to play.  No doubt Randy is grateful.  But he doesn't want to do it for free.  It hurts.  He wants respect for what he has done in the past and what he still can do.

The fact is, the world doesn't fit into the tidy narratives that some folks wish it would.  What doesn't fit the narrative causes discomfort.  So Randy and "T.Ocho" and others like them are trivialized and put down.  What if they were dancers or rock stars? Would we complain about them then?  I think we would not.  The narrative for brilliant artists is different.  We do not expect them to embody some sort of traditional view of America like we do with our athletes.  They are allowed to be prima donnas.

Some athletes (like some other sorts of people) love the molds we put them in and some do not.  Just as there are non-conformists in the rest of our nation, they exist in sport as well.  During this time of "returning to our core values" and "taking back America" from other Americans, maybe it is worth a moment to lift up our non-conformists.  Celebrate the "different" people in our lives.   Our diversity is our strength, after all, and the story of these loud, entertaining, funny, and often obnoxious sports heroes present a different story from the packaged one.  They tell a different story both for the NFL and--since the NFL wants to be "America's Game"--the country itself.

Randy Moss will be picked up by someone soon, perhaps the Dolphins, maybe the Titans, probably not the Pat's (though they all seem quite fond of him).  I am looking forward to watching him play again.  He brings something important to the game.

Barney Frank will be appearing on a TV near you as he is very much alive and well politically.  Here is a link to his acceptance speech.

Update:  It was the Titans.  This is a good fit.  The coach (Jeff Fisher) is the longest tenured coach in the NFL (he is the only coach they have had since moving with him from Houston).  Fisher will be someone Moss respects.  Also, the Titans are contenders...  Here is the story from the NFL's official mouthpiece.

PS I know these are pictures of Fenway and not Foxboro, but I work Sundays and the Pat's used to play there oh so long ago...