The front-page pictures are a revelation. A new day has dawned, to be sure. So, when are we going to jump on the “civil union” bandwagon?
Funny, now that the law is in force and happy same-sex couples are tying this sort-of knot in courts and in houses of worship, I am feeling the pressure of ceremony. It’s getting very personal. No matter what the state calls it, I am given over to musing on “marriage”. What’s it for?
Oh sure, there’s the legal protections. That is certainly a good reason to do it. And it will be a grand excuse for a party with family and friends… another sound reason. The materialist in me pesters with fantasies of Pottery Barn and the like gift registries, even though we have enough stuff and would probably opt for some charitable option. Well, a girl can dream, can’t she?
Deep down, though, I think we should “civil unionize” as, like I say in all those ceremonies I’ve conducted for others, an “outward symbol and expression of a sacred and awesome union of hearts, which this religious community may bless and the state may make legal, but which can be kept alone by abiding will and generous faith.”
It is in the spirit of such loving commitment that we have already been joined. The glow of romance and newness has long worn off. Stress, testiness, difficulties - they're all part and parcel of that “sacred and awesome” union, too. We will affirm it all.
Someday soon…
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
on Valentine's Day
Don’t get me flowers for this one day.
Chocolates, champagne - I love them both but they just won’t do.
What I want is LOVE -
not romance or flirtation but that love that matters.
Because it matters if I love
or not.
It matters if you love
or not.
I have to believe it makes a difference
whether we love
or not.
Otherwise, why love?
Unconditional. Unprovoked.
Love.
It is yours at your birth.
It is all the universe can endow.
It is all we have to offer.
What we make of it is our human gift, or our failing?
Do we make a bond of it? Or a war?
Do we use it to measure who is lacking, who is gifted?
Love is not a weapon.
Love is a force
Untamed wild
And possible.
Chocolates, champagne - I love them both but they just won’t do.
What I want is LOVE -
not romance or flirtation but that love that matters.
Because it matters if I love
or not.
It matters if you love
or not.
I have to believe it makes a difference
whether we love
or not.
Otherwise, why love?
Unconditional. Unprovoked.
Love.
It is yours at your birth.
It is all the universe can endow.
It is all we have to offer.
What we make of it is our human gift, or our failing?
Do we make a bond of it? Or a war?
Do we use it to measure who is lacking, who is gifted?
Love is not a weapon.
Love is a force
Untamed wild
And possible.
Monday, February 12, 2007
This Amazing Life
So, it's been a while since my last posting. The winter holidays have come and gone, and it’s Darwin Day!
Back in August, Mary and I visited the American Museum of Natural History’s most excellent Darwin exhibit. Shortly after that, I wrote a sermon inspired by a short phrase that I read on one of the panels at the Darwin exhibit. I didn’t write it down, but here’s the gist of it:
The more I look, the more I am filled with wonder at this amazing life.
This amazing life… what a treasure it is, what a gift. And how easily we human beings can squander it! I’m sorry, but those fools in Washington DC who have so stupidly took us to war - so unadvisedly, so irrationally, so almost cavalierly - continue to stun me with their obtuseness. Will they be aided and abetted by another “do-nothing” Congress?
Call me naive, but I just don’t get it. How can intelligent human beings, with the capacity for wonder and compassion, do what they do? How can we not have evolved to a more cooperative, interdependent state of being? As a minister, I preach, and teach and comfort and care… and when I start to look beyond my small sphere of influence, I wonder… what’s it all for?
But, as I preached back in August, I still believe in an essential goodness present with creation, within each of us, that we must continually hold to, lift up and affirm. We are but a small blip on the great span of creation and evolution. Yet we still matter – we are a part of all this grandeur, all this complexity. The more we see its sweep and vastness, we know we are connected – in the cells we share, the history etched in our genes. In this most amazing life, we matter most especially - and most importantly - to one another.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese,
harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place in the family of things.
(from reading SLT # 490 by Mary Oliver)
Back in August, Mary and I visited the American Museum of Natural History’s most excellent Darwin exhibit. Shortly after that, I wrote a sermon inspired by a short phrase that I read on one of the panels at the Darwin exhibit. I didn’t write it down, but here’s the gist of it:
The more I look, the more I am filled with wonder at this amazing life.
This amazing life… what a treasure it is, what a gift. And how easily we human beings can squander it! I’m sorry, but those fools in Washington DC who have so stupidly took us to war - so unadvisedly, so irrationally, so almost cavalierly - continue to stun me with their obtuseness. Will they be aided and abetted by another “do-nothing” Congress?
Call me naive, but I just don’t get it. How can intelligent human beings, with the capacity for wonder and compassion, do what they do? How can we not have evolved to a more cooperative, interdependent state of being? As a minister, I preach, and teach and comfort and care… and when I start to look beyond my small sphere of influence, I wonder… what’s it all for?
But, as I preached back in August, I still believe in an essential goodness present with creation, within each of us, that we must continually hold to, lift up and affirm. We are but a small blip on the great span of creation and evolution. Yet we still matter – we are a part of all this grandeur, all this complexity. The more we see its sweep and vastness, we know we are connected – in the cells we share, the history etched in our genes. In this most amazing life, we matter most especially - and most importantly - to one another.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese,
harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place in the family of things.
(from reading SLT # 490 by Mary Oliver)
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