Tuesday, December 29, 2009

You're on your own.

I arrived at Mecca at 10:36AM today, 12/29/09, freezing my keister off in the howling frigid wind, and guess what?

No hospitality to be found anywhere.

Door was locked.

It said, "Come in" but the door was locked.

Over the door bell, it said, "Ring bell."

So I ran it.

Guess what?

Nothing.

Nobody home.

Sign on the window says, "UUA bookstore. Open Monday through Friday. 9AM - 5PM."

Nope. It's not open.

Apparently closed according to the web site from 12/24/09 - 01/04/10.

Okay, so my pilgrimage to the Holy Land went bust. Nobody home.

Is it an omen of some sort?

I can't imagine nobody being at the Vatican or in Mecca.

But UUA..............???

Well, I just thought I'd let you all know that you are on your own I guess until the 4th of January. Don't bother coming to Boston for Unitarian Universalism because it is deader than a doornail as far as I can see. I feel kind of like Dorothy looking behind the curtain when she got to the Emerald City.

Needless to say, I didn't get my flaming chalice blessed by President Morales. I'm guessing he's in Colorado where maybe it's warmer.

Great city to visit though. I see a lot of other visitors here too.

Blue Man Group is awesome!

Well, I guess I'll walk more of the Freedom trail.

6 comments:

  1. Maybe they knew you were coming and baked up a fake "Closed for the Holidays" sign David. :-)

    "I can't imagine nobody being at the Vatican or in Mecca. But UUA..............???"

    I guess that's what you get for choosing the fate of joining the Tiny Declining Fringe Religion™ rather than one of those billion member "obsolete religions" like Roman Catholicism or Islam. ;-)

    "Don't bother coming to Boston for Unitarian Universalism because it is deader than a doornail as far as I can see."

    Well you might be overstating things a bit *there* David. Most U*Us will tell you that the UUA is not the be all and *end* all of The U*U Movement™. I am sure that Boston Unitarian can give you a guided tour of some of the "less than dead" U*U churches around Beantown. Oh dear. . . It just occurred to me now that Beantown and The U*U Movement™ were positively made for each other! Former CU*UC Executive Director aka U*U Jihad mole Mary Bennett's subversive sabotage of the UU acronym by inserting Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s "picture of an asshole" between the twin cheeks of The UU Movement to symbolize U*U inclusiveness was even more (in)appropriate and d*effective that I thought up to now. . . I must give Mary a medal or something for her hU*Ugely appreciated services to U*U Jihad which were trU*Uly above and beyond the call of dU*Uty. Maybe I will present her with a nice maroon Unitard as a reward aka bU*Uty for her visually intriguing and really quite U*Useful U*U while I am at it.

    Maybe you should wander over to the Arlington Street Church and see if you can persuade
    Mr. U*U BDSM Desmond Ravenstone to whip some life into it with his bullwhip. . . Who would have thought that Desmond Ravenstone" had so much in common with Jesus? Driving people out of a place of worship with a whip and all. ;-)

    No I am quite sure there is plenty of life in Unitarian*Universalism in Boston than what you encountered at 25 Beacon Street David. BTW Didn't Emerson say something about the corpse-cold Unitarianism of the Harvard educated U*Us at Beacon Street, or something like that, a while back? Be assured that I feel your pain about going all the way to Boston only to encounter "less than welcoming" firmly closed doors at 25 Beacon Street in Boston.

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  2. Dear Robin;

    Like Charlie on the MTA, I think it's a scandal how the people have to pay and pay, but they get shortchanged for their dues by the good ole UUA.

    Oddly, I don't know how the tourist traffic compares to other times of year but I have seen a lot of tourists and the lines at the Boston Aquarium yesterday were 45 minutes long just to get in.

    It seems to me, although, I could be wrong, that the week between Christmas and New Year's is a heavier tourist week than other weeks during the winter so I don't get why the UUA closes down that week. Maybe it is a low traffic week. How many idiots like me would go to Boston at this time of year?

    All the best,

    David Markham

    Have you ever been to the Vatican?

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  3. No I haven't been to the Vatican David.

    Who needs to when we have a scaled down replica of St. Peter's Basilica, in the form of Mary Queen of the World Cathedral/Basilica right here in Montreal? :-)

    "How many idiots like me would go to Boston at this time of year?"

    Forgive me David for I must sin. . .

    One? :-)

    To be honest I am not sure how many tourists going to Boston care to visit 25 Beacon Street. I agree however that the UUA might do well to keep an ahem skeleton staff of corpse-cold Unitarian receptionists etc. at 25 Beacon Street at all times or at least during standard business hours.

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  4. If you need a national organization to be open at all times to feel that UUA isn't dead, or you think that being "on your own" theologically is a problem, it is possible that this just isn't the religion for you.

    I realize that in Catholicism, you have a big international organization holding your hand all the time. Catholicism does have an organization that offers tours of the Sistine chapel once a week at nine euros per person.

    UUism doesn't. I'm a little sorry that UUism isn't meeting your expectations of mindreading and didn't know you were coming. (Even the Vatican expects you to RSVP online, have your credit card ready) But I'm mostly not sorry because your expectations are ridiculous.

    The Vatican still has spaces in its tour for Thursday. If you need a religion with a centralized organization that holds your hand, I suggest you get on a plane.

    CC

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  5. Looks like CC just played the -

    "If you don't like it why don't you leave?"

    card that UUs are so wont to play if and when someone complains about some aspect of Unitarian*Universalism.

    The snark.

    The snark. . .

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  6. Shrug. When someone seems to value things that UUism doesn't offer and not have much use for what UUism does offer, it does seem like a logical question to ask. I used to have a close friend who complained constantly about her husband. I asked her once if she was so unhappy, why didn't she just divorce him? She didn't. But she started thinking about WHY she didn't want to and talking to me about how she loved him and what she appreciated in him and I think that thought process did her and her marriage a lot of good.

    Conversely, when I got to a similar point with the Presbyterians, I did leave and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Not the best, but up there.

    I view churches as like significant others. Not everybody is right for every church any more than every person being a good match for every other person. If I want to live in Peru and raise Llamas and Bob doesn't, Bob and I shouldn't plan to spend the rest of our lives together. If David wants a more "Federalist" model to his church where everything is run out of a strong central office that is his church's Vatican (and that won't close on the holidays), a church based in on a Congregationalist model that is all about decisions and power on the congregational level (where the administrative offices might close since the churches function well enough on their own for a few days) isn't for him.

    I like David and have no interest in seeing him leave. But if someone's not happy for a reason (such as congregationalism) has been part of our church for as long as we have existed, he's likely to be unhappy for as long as he's a UU. And who benefits from him being unhappy?

    Maybe congregationalism is the minor irritation we come to overlook in a beloved spouse. Maybe congregationalism is the equivalent of a desire to raise Llamas in Peru. Those who don't like congregationalism have to answer that for themselves.

    But it's only rational to ask the question if one feels that UUism is "Deader than a doornail" when the administrative offices are closed.

    CC

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