Cusack's Law of Communication Levels

Highest:
Face to face, speaking in normal tones, making eye contact.

Next Highest:
Telephone, prefer land lines.

One down:
mail via snail (USPS or Fed Ex)

Lower still:
Email

Bottom of the communication barrel:
texting

What's That Sound?

I have always thought of long term marriage like a tall tree. Funny, I never thought of new ones like a sapling, but that works too. The comparison comes to mind when you hear of one ending... it's like a large tree just went over, and whatever the reason, there has to be some sadness.

I recently found out about a divorce in my family, we thought of the long partnership as strong and solid. After losing track of them for about a year, then getting back in touch, it appears a great deal of muddy water 'done past under that bridge. In fact, their whole family is in shambles.

The grief around that is, family is the thing you want to protect, not risk. The things we do (or don't do) effect people close to you for generations.

Sorry about that.

Having experience with Mid-Age Crazy (and thus knowledge of what it can do), I hold no judgement on anyone. Just sadness.

End of a Church Era

Well, it hit me tonight as I was dismantling the music corner of the sanctuary: this period is over.

"Our little church" is clearing out, selling most of our stuff, and returning to a simpler, cheaper time. It is a 15 year long story, and how it goes depends on who's doing the telling.

As a church leader, I was the first to say "we gotta leave this place" I knew (and know) it is the right thing to do now. With every end there is a new beginning, this is no exception. We believe a new, better, stronger church will be the end result of our present actions, but we will take time to honor the people that gave so much over the the years, the campus is full of things that are stories of themselves. I know most of those stories and in taking them down so quickly, am reminded how fragile we are.

Secrets of a Super Scooper

At the tender age of 15 I worked at the Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop in Oak Park Il. I got good at the skill of "soda jerk" (some would say better at the second part). I scooped a perfect 2.5 oz. serving every time, made excellent ice cream sodas (most living people would not know what that is), pretty much the whole menu, even cakes!

The one thing that came to me tonight in my meditation was hand-packed pints and quarts. You see our ice cream was sold by weight, not volume. The ice cream went into the quart container and weighed let's say 26 oz.

When I first started I would pack the container, customer watching in delight as I got to the top, I would weigh and see how close I was. Well, if I was over I had to take some out.

Customer: :-(

I would point to the sign "Ice cream is sold by weight not by volume".

customer: :-((

One time the boss, Mr Fitzpatrick took me aside and said just watch me and you'll never have another unhappy customer.

It was pretty simple; you throw a few slivers in the bottom, and as it gets to the top you have to force the last of the ice cream in.

customer: :-)))

Everybody happy!

New Discovery!!!

Scientists have uncovered a new break in reality: "Humans should have, MUST HAVE a screen with a movable image before them at all times" declares Dr. Henry Higabothem, noted researcher.

Luckily, we live in a time that allows our eye sockets to be bathed in moving 2d images nearly all of the time.

While waiting in line to get into the drive in movie theater (Toy Story 3), we were behind a mini van where the kids were watching Toy Story 2 while waiting to get in to see the new flick. OOOKAAAY.

And the super market has got our back; I think mine has about 112 flat screens to let me know important things about the food I'm buying. Tell the truth, that's a guess. I block them out.

The carry-around DVD player, the one we used to watch on our way home from the video rental shop, has been replaced with glasses that give us the Panavision view 24/7- We never have to take them off! Awesome.

The guy that used to be at every social event watching as he taped on his videocam, has been replaced with dozens of people thrusting their phone at you (or whoever). Concentration and excitement focused on the tiny screen.

How about the big high-dollar music festival? The peeps in the first few rows (instead of enjoying seeing the performer close up) are craning their necks back to see them on the big screen instead!

What's your favorite? I gotta go, big stuff up on Youtube.

Who's Got it Bad?

I was listening to one of the few radio talk shows I can still stand, it's a little program that comes on an hour a day. It's mostly about personal finance. The host stays off politics, people are polite, and even though the host gets repetitive, I generally learn a little something by listening.

Well, this week a man called up to explain that he had worked hard, saved half a million dollars in his retirement account, owned his house free and clear, owned his lake house free and clear, owned his two rent houses free and clear, and it just made him so unhappy that the value of these things had fallen!

The host asked him questions (thinking there was some logic maybe), but this man saw the down side of all his triumphs; "the rent houses had to be painted", etc. The host suggested that the man was better off than 98% of us dealing with the great recession, and that he not let the fact that things were not totally perfect steal his joy.

This phone call stayed with me all week. The man may have been clinically depressed, maybe he just had a downer personality, or maybe he worshiped at the alter of consumerism: "you are defined by what you own, how much money you have, etc."

If so, he bet on the wrong horse.

A bit later that day, I was driving down the street in an area just outside of downtown. I saw a street person pushing a shopping cart. In it looked like this person's possessions; a few odds and ends most of us would gladly drop off at Salvation Army just to get rid of. The woman was carefully adjusting her cargo to ride smoothly as she pushed it to wherever she was headed.

A report from the mountain top

To do this task justice, I should have a full daily briefing. Each day at SWUUSI is much like a week of normal life, and here we are at the beginning of day 3 already. Oh, our not-quite-a-week is also over in the blink of an eye. Ask Einstein about this.

I did mention we are being shown a road map to a new Unitarian Universalist Church. This is something long overdue in my opinion. UU Churches do not get a great deal of direction from the top down, so with each on their own, evolve or DE-volve into something not a church at all. When I feel it is necessary, I will define my terms; being aware some terms are buzzwords for some people.

I will make some assumptions from time to time. Like you know what a church is and why they exist. (What was that cracking sound I just heard?) and plow ahead to make some quick points.

I like a phrase Rev. Aaron White used several times during his sunset talks so far. “We exist to provide TRANSFOMATION of individuals through the power of Love and Justice. Meaning, if you take what we are preaching and teaching seriously, it WILL change your life. This is from a young man who statistically has no business being anywhere near a UU church. 28 year old males do not seek out a church life ordinarily. Yet, he is on his way to being a national leader in this movement. Why? Because this church changed his life.

After giving it some serious thought, I realized it also transformed my own.