Teaching Religion to Toddlers

After carefully picking an age-appropriate book about Jesus (Easter story! – not just the cutie-pie Christmas story which was way easier) and adjusting the book’s version of the story to make sure the history and theology are right, my three year old sweetie looks at me sincerely at the end of the book and says, “So there are not going to be monkeys in our house?” Fun times.

A Little Way to Make a Difference in the World

Somehow, I was made aware of Kyle, a little boy who needs a bone marrow transplant to save his life. Against my better judgement, I (ironically) clicked “like” of his facebook page. He is not much older than my son, so maybe that is why it makes it particularly compelling for me. And for weeks, in my mundane little facebook feed, I’ve been reminded of the bone marrow drives that his family is holding in order to save their son’s life. I mean, when you have a sick child, I cannot imagine also being forced to be upbeat and convincing to try to entice people to be tested to see if they are a bone marrow match. It is excruciating just to think about.

Here is what his website says: Kyle is a sweet four year old boy who loves fish and whales. He also has aplastic anemia and needs a bone marrow transplant as soon as possible to save his life. Right now, every day counts. Kyle is half Asian and half Caucasian, so finding his life-saving match is difficult. With the odds we have to work with, we need to reach about 40 million people in hopes of finding that match. You are key to helping us do this.

This has led to two things for me. First, I’ve put my DNA in the National Bone Marrow registry. You can do so too, here. I will not be a match for Kyle, but I know that there are many more Kyle’s out there so maybe I can be a match for someone else.

Second, I am sharing Kyle’s story here (facebook page is here). I can barely even look at his webpage without breaking down into tears for him and for his parents. I cannot imagine being in such a position.

I hope you’ll consider sharing Kyle’s story and joining the National Bone Marrow Registry.

It feels like so amazingly little to do in the face of something so profound, but I suppose we do what we can do and then just pray and hope.

On Who We Are: Congregations and Beyond, and Beyond

Well good people of the interwebs, Elizabeth’s Little Blog is resurrected! What has drawn me from my slumber, you ask? Two things! The first is the conversation that is going on around Congregations and Beyond, a white paper by the Unitarian Universalist Association President, Rev. Peter Morales. In short, it is asking questions and suggesting we think further about the many people who identify as Unitarian Universalists but don’t take part in congregational life. Here is the conclusion, if you haven’t been following this:

The central conviction driving this proposal is that our core values appeal to far more
 people than are attracted to (or likely to be attracted to) our congregations. We have 
always treated this as a problem to be solved by devising ways to get people to become 
members of our congregations. But the reality of today’s world is that not everyone who
shares our core values will want to become part of a traditional congregation. The fact
 that so many share our values is an enormous opportunity, not a problem. The future
 relevance of our faith may well depend on whether we can create a religious movement
 beyond, as well as within, the parish. I am confident that together we can seize this
historic opportunity for our faith.

I have been working on a very long post in response to this, but instead I’m going to break it up into a couple posts – a series, if you will. And I want to think about this together with the whole “I’m religious but not spiritual” phenomenon that we hear about a lot these days. A few months ago there was quite the craze going on among my minister friends, everyone sharing Spiritual but Not Religious? Please Stop Boring Me by Lillian Daniel. Seminarians and ministers especially loved this because I think Rev. Daniel was saying some things that a lot of wish we could say but don’t out of politeness and kindness. I think the gist of her article was not so much to make fun of all spiritual-but-not-religious folks but more a particular brand which is, “Hey Minister Person! You think you know stuff about faith and religion? Well let me tell you what I have actually discerned by watching sunsets and taking walks in the woods and going to meaningful Yoga Retreats while you have been trapped in your stuffy, old, stale Religious Land.” I get this version of things at parties a lot. The whole spiritual-but-not-religious thing fits well with the whole UU-but-not-in-a-congregation thing in the sense that both are raising questions about what it is we are about and what sort of accountability do we/should we have to community and to history? Both, at their best, I think are dealing with how we do things differently so as to meet people’s needs while, at the same time, not falling into some sort of new age-y whatever-you-want la la la land. How do we welcome lots of people who may not fit well with the Way Things Have Always Been Done without letting go of what is important and essential to living our faith out in the world, our communities, and in our own individual lives?

I often speak of our faith as doing the hard work of love and justice. This may not work for everyone, but it makes a lot of sense to me and the Unitarian Universalists congregations that I have been a part of and have served. So in the coming posts, I’ll reflect on a few of the issues involved in Congregations and Beyond, keeping a close eye on how this relates to a similar spritiual-but-not-religious discussion.

In the meantime, a few ways to follow these conversations:

This is a good collection of the conversations taking place on Congregations and Beyond including blog chatter, UU World, Facebook and Twitter, made by Chris Walton of UU World.

This is the Congregations and Beyond Facebook group.

Stay tuned for Part II.

Tattoo

On the event of my 32 birthday. To remind myself what I’m about. It is nice to have a reminder right there on me.

One funny thing, almost two

Mayor “Just Curious” If Obama is the Antichrist. I need not say more. I think the headline is just great. The article is slightly less amusing, and of course, depressing if you really think about it.

I cannot bring myself to post the second funny thing. It is religious humor. My Baptist relatives would find it terribly offensive. But I cannot gauge how offensive your run of the mill Christian would find it, even with disclaimers. So only one funny thing for you today.

Elizabeth who has so much work to do and just can’t quite get to it.

I just ordered this.

Oh, Jordan, Angela, Rayanne, and Ricki, If only you had lasted more than 19 episodes. But with each sweet episode, all of us other 14-year-olds ached with you. You are not forgotten. Amen.

On another note, this website also sold a shirt with the phrase, “If you got a problem, Yo, I’ll solve it.” I wanted to order that but $22 is A LOT for a t-shirt and of course Jordan took precedence. I was just entertaining my family the other day by downloading 90s songs from itunes and singing along every word, along with some very 90s dance moves. Oh, yes, I know every single word to Ice Ice Baby, Baby Got Back, Nuthin But A ‘G’ Thang, Funky Cold Medina and so on. A few beats and I am back at the skating rink. Oh, those were the days.

Cuddle Parties

I saw this promoted on a UU listserve and it sounds like my worst nightmare. Touching people I don’t know and probably having to talk to them as well.

Grammar Note

Sometimes, I like a blog because it is a place just to “put things out there” that perhaps the world would want to know.

I have always felt like I wasn’t sure if the possessive form of something that ends in s should look like this Dickens’ novel
or like this Dickens’s novel.

I tend to like the second one. So I finally decided to look it up and guess what Chicago Manual of Style says?

Ugg! At first I thought the answer was easy, but it isn’t. There is a whole set of rules depending on if it is a proper noun or not and what the last sound in the word is. For instance, Raoul Camus’s anthology (where the s is pronounced) would look different than Albert Camus’ novels (where the s is unpronounced).

But, lo and behold, rule 7:23 saves us:

7.23 An alternative practice
Those uncomfortable with the rules, exceptions, and options outlined above may prefer the system, formerly more common, of simply omitting the possessive s on all words ending in s—hence “Dylan Thomas’ poetry,” “Maria Callas’ singing,” and “that business’ main concern.” Though easy to apply, that usage disregards pronunciation and thus seems unnatural to many.

So there you have it. According to the Chicago Manual of Style, if you want to make a singular word (or a plural word with a singular meaning, like The United States) that ends in an s possessive, you can just throw an apostrophe on the end of a the word and that’ll do it.

Times They Are a’ Changin’

So I am doing some research about how foundations can set up a system where letters of inquiries, proposals, and such can be submitted online. In my search I turned up this great article from 1997 – only 10 years ago. It is titled: “Why the W.M. Keck Foundation Went Online.” It is a whole article about the cutting edge decision of this foundation to – yes, that’s right – develop a web page. The question at the heart of the article is: What motivates a Foundation to venture out onto the Internet?” and we are told that “her candid responses offer a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse of how this respected foundation established itself on the World Wide Web.” This was only ten years ago. Could you imagine having such a conversation today?

In a week when I had a computer crash and our internet stopped working at the same time, and I am highly annoyed that  my adobe acrobat isn’t working and that Mcafee won’t install correctly, it is amazing to see how much technology is a part of our lives (and how #*%@(#& difficult it is to fix stupid little things on a measly little computer) and how fast it has happened. I know. Not some sort of rare revelation, but I found the article amusing and food for thought.

I can’t believe how disruptive it is when my computer isn’t working well and web pages load too slowly (for some unexplained reason).

I need to go to the beach.

Special Love Your Life Issue

This shouldn’t be funny. But it is in a weird sort of way. Somehow I get Ladies Home Journal (that’s not the funny thing).  I don’t pay for it, it just started showing up one day. Of course LHJ isn’t quite my style, so I just throw them in the “Goodwill” bag and I donate them. I can’t stand to throw away a magazine someone else might read.  But anyway.  The funny thing is that  the May 2007 issue which just arrived today has at the top “Special Love Your Life Issue”.  Yet.  Yet, some of the other headlines on the front cover include “The Best Low-Fat Ice Creams,” “The Most Important Insurance You Don’t Have,” “Sensational Summer Skin: The Safe, Natural Way,” “Win a Free Stress Makeover” and “Deadly Superbugs: How to Spot and Stop Them.”  I guess love your life except for fatty foods (because, really, you know you are too big)… love your life except in that you don’t have the right sort of insurance… love your life except that you could easily be killed by a deadly superbug and your skin isn’t good enough AND you need a “stress makeover” whatever the hell that is.   Thank you LHJ.