Marshallese poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner speaking at the UN Climate Leaders Summit in 2014

People's climate change march

http://democracynow.org - New York City is set to host what could be the largest climate change protest in history. Organizers expect more than 100,000 people to converge for a People's Climate March on Sunday. Some 2,000 solidarity events are scheduled around the world this weekend ahead of Tuesday’s United Nations climate summit. We spend the hour with four participants representing the labor, indigenous, faith and climate justice communities: Rev. Dr. Serene Jones is the president of Union Theological Seminary, which recently voted to divest from fossil fuels; Lidy Nacpil is a member of the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice; Clayton Thomas-Muller is co-director of the Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign in Canada and a member of the Idle No More campaign; and Estela Vázquez is executive vice president of 1199 SEIU, which is expected to bring thousands of union members to the march.



 I'd love to hear from any UUs who were at the march.

Interesting comments from Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, President of the Union Theological Seminary.

People's march in Manhatten for positive world changes in climate change policy on 09/21/14

Is weeping a spiritual practice?

Linda McCullough Moore tells a poignant story in her book of short stories, This Road Will Take Us Closer To The Moon, entitled, "Freeing Spirits". This is a story about attending a rememberance ceremony at the college in the narrator's town where they are freeing the souls, after sixty years, of the people we killed at Hiroshima by making floating laterns which they launch out on the water.

Moore writes, "I'm thinking that if it's that simple, why didn't they do it sixty years ago?"

I'm thinking, why did America do this to begin with?

And I am reminded once again of our Unitarian Universalist second principle of justice, equity, and compassion in human relations and weep.

Weeping. My spiritual practice for today.

Can you find the truth trying to teach pigs to sing?

Bob was called into his supervisor's office and asked, "Have you stopped stealing from the company yet. Just answer me 'yes' or 'no'. I don't need to hear justifications, explanations, rationalizations!"

Bob said, "I can't answer 'yes' or 'no' the way you have asked the question. If I say 'yes' it implies I have stolen from the company in the past and have stopped, and if I say 'no' it implies that I have stolen in the past and continue to do so."

"I don't want any of your smart mouth and double talking," said the supervisor. "I just want to get to the bottom of this situation where things are missing and our accounts are short every month."

"I can't help you," said Bob.

"You're a liar and a thief!" shouted the supervisor. "You're fired."

And Bob being a Unitarian Universalist believed in the free and responsible search for truth and meaning, but this was not the way to go about the search. Bob said to his supervisor, "You can never find the right answers if you don't ask the right questions. With the kind of leadership you are providing to this company, it will go down the drain eventually. It can't survive with its current managerial mind set and practice."

"That's right, college boy, you're the smart one who's got all the answers. We'll be better off when you're gone," said the supervisor.

What's the moral of the story? As Jesus said, "Don't throw pearls before swine." As a wise friend of mine said, "Did you hear the joke about the farmer who tried to teach his pig to sing?"

"No, I haven't," I said.

"Frustrated the heck out of the farmer and annoyed the heck out of the pig."

We both laughed vigorously. I think they call it  "guffawing."

Literacy in the world

I'd rather be used than be alone.

In her ninth story in her book of short stories, This Road Will Take Us Closer To The Moon, Linda McCullough Moore tells the story of a woman dating a man she met on line whose wife has died and who takes her into his dead wife's bedroom to show her his dead wife's clothing.

The title of this story is "Something about darkness; something about light." The second paragraph reads as follows, "Any chance of some light?" I say. A half-burnt votive candle, a boy's flashlight, a bent match. Perhaps a drawn-out flash of lightening in the summer sky. I am not particular."

It is a poignant story about grief and sadness, loss and sorrow witnessed by a woman considering this man as a possible next partner.

The story ends this way:

"He slides the dresses on the hangers down a pole, takes one out, replaces it, and then another. He picks a third and holds it up critically, then turns and holds it out to me.
     'This one,' he says. 'Try this one first.'"

The end.

And you are left wondering can she be the replacement? Will she be the replacement? Should she be the replacement?

Life is like that, right, where we try to avoid the acceptance of loss by replacing the person or thing we were attached to. Don't worry about putting your 13 year old aged dog to sleep. We can go to the pound and get a new one next week. Or can we?

This might work if you will wear her old clothes. And for approval and acceptance we are willing to turn ourselves into something or someone we're not to get the other person to like us. As a young teen age client told me about her promiscuity, "I'd rather be used, than be alone."