July/August 2003

In this world a [person] must either be anvil or hammer.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

• Sermon: If I Had A Hammer, by Peter J. Luton
• Have you transformed your life?
  • Choosing Time, by Arthur House
  • Growing Into the Inner Self, by Geraldine Zeleny
  • Choice, by Leanne Turner
  • Living for the Cause, by Jan Knock
  • Transformation, by Henry Burt Stevens
• Member Profile:Lowell Steinbrenner, by Eliza Blanchard
• Sidebar to "From Your Minister", by John Nichols
• Golfing With Monkeys, by Rev. Jane Rzepka
• REsources for Living, by Dan Harper
• Announcements
• No Postage Due, by Virginia Rankin

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If I Had A Hammer

by Peter J. Luton, minister, East Shore Unitarian Church, Bellevue, Washington

Much of ministry
Is a benediction
A speaking well of
Each other and the world
A speaking well of what we value:
Honesty
Love
Forgiveness
Trust
A speaking well of our efforts
A speaking well of our dreams
This is how we celebrate life
Through speaking well of it
Living the benediction
And becoming as a word
Well-spoken

The words of UU minister Susan Manker-Seale remind us that our churches and our ministries to one another are about raising up what is good and right and beautiful. About nurturing what is healthy, rather than dwelling on what is diseased. We affirm that promoting good truly does combat evil, and that praising what is right produces more and sweeter fruit than damning what is wrong. And so we need to be optimistic. We can be realistic, but hope must always be part of what we're about as a religious community. Hope for healthy spirits and communities, hope for happiness and a world made more peaceful through our loving, compassionate, justice-building hands. And so, in my efforts to encourage speaking well, I have often praised the Quaker saying about "going for the God in the other person, rather than shooting at the devil." As Unitarian Universalists, many of us strive to begin our engagement with the world by honoring the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Both are commitments to speaking well of life.

But sometimes…sometimes I just wish I could be blunt, brutally honest, even, dare I say it, to speak with no sweet regard for how someone might be taking my words. A while back I was feeling niggled on, nibbled at, picked upon and pecked apart by a thousand details, trifles, petty complaints, irritations, and fussy-butts demanding not only my attention but my sincere recognition of the importance and significance to them of each piddling thing. I found myself imagining myself alternately laughing and yelling at each person as he or she dumped another piece of twaddle at my feet. I could almost hear my voice saying: "Oh, grow up!" and "You expect me to care?" and "Go away! Leave me alone." Not very ministerial, I have to admit, but then I remembered that Jesus, after all, told the physicians to heal themselves. And he walked away from the crowds when they got too demanding—walked across water, as I recall. And he regularly yelled at hypocrites for honoring the letter but not the spirit of faith.

Haven't you ever felt sick and tired of suffering fools graciously? Haven't you just wanted to whack them upside the head and say, "Shut up, you superfluous waste of space!"? Or am I alone it that little fantasy?

We don't have time for nit-picking; we have too many other important things to do. We have wounded people to comfort and heal. We have children to raise in the ways of peace and love and truth and beauty. We have justice and equity in the wider community to establish. We have the liberating gospel of liberal religion to share. We have laughter to voice and joy to express and gratitude to offer. We have life to live.

So I've been thinking about what I would do and say if I were really able to speak my mind and impose my will. I've been pondering what it would be like if I had a really big hammer—if I were just able to take the blunt instrument approach to solving all problems. I've toyed with the idea of accepting the appointment to sit on the throne, to be King or (dare I dream it?) God. And if I had the authority and power and didn't need to be nice and didn't care what people thought about me, and didn't worry about losing my job or my family, then perhaps this is what I'd do.

First, I'd fix something that has seemed to me a fundamental flaw in the universe since third grade. It involves the times tables. I think that 6 X 0 ought to equal 6, not 0. If you have six and you increase it zero times, you still have six. I think if we cleared that up, a lot of things would be different around here. It may seem trivial to you, but it's important to me, and if I were in charge, it would be important to you, too.

Second, I'd address a problem in our own Unitarian Universalist house. If I could, I'd tell the humanists and the theists to stop bickering. I would tell people to get over the old theological debates about supernaturalism, God, the limits of reason, the knowability of the truth. I would make Unitarian Universalists respect and appreciate the variety of religious experiences and ways of knowing that abound in the world and in our own faith tradition. We have too many other important things to be doing to waste our energies nit-picking one another to distraction over issues about which absolute certainty or infallible truth cannot be known.

If I were King, I'd declare—as did King John Sigismund of Transylvania, our one and only Unitarian King—that religious freedom is the law of the land and that no one can coerce or condemn another person for what he or she believes. And I'd go it a step further; I would require that people not only tolerate, but also wholeheartedly rejoice in each other's spiritual paths.

If I were God, I'd let myself get worked up. I'd get worked up by people's stupidity and selfishness and narrow-mindedness. I think it is our inability or unwillingness to grow our minds and hearts and souls that is the root of all evil in the world. I think psychiatrist and author Scott Peck was right when he said laziness is the real original sin. Spiritual, moral laziness and the choice not to engage with ideas and people and ways of being in the world that challenge our all too often all too narrow perceptions and prejudices. Spiritual and moral laziness and the choice to not grow, but to remain safe and comfortable, encased in our cocoons. I think prosperity and privilege breed laziness. I think Americans are very prosperous and privileged. We can be very lazy. We believe we've already got the answers and created paradise on earth. Our narrowness fosters intolerance.

Intolerance is something that I wouldn't put up with if I were in charge. Intolerance in our world, in our nation, in our state, in our community, in our churches, all of it is an abomination in my sight. Intolerance is born of ignorance parading as truth. Intolerance feeds much that is wrong in our world. It feeds racial, ethnic and religious oppression, war and discrimination. Intolerance justifies dehumanizing people who are or appear to be or might be different. It gives sanction to hate and to not caring what happens to other people because they are somehow inferior, other than, beyond the pale, outside the acceptable norms of civilized society.

If I were God, I would show favorites. I would give favors and treats to people with a sense of humor, especially those who can laugh at themselves, and to people who like babies and animals and thunderstorms, because they are afraid of nothing. I'd have a special place in my heart for people who try hard, people who take responsibility and don't complain and whine.

Whiners would not fare well in my creation. If I were in charge of things, it would be a serious crime to say "Yes…but.…" We have been given such fertile and creative minds and sets of emotional and intellectual and spiritual resources that it is just galling to me when we let ourselves be stuck and unable to envision ways beyond our current predicaments. "Yes-butters" refuse to help themselves, and they refuse to make it possible for others to help them. Yes, I know I'm supposed to be more sympathetic, and I assure you that in real life I am, but when I'm functioning as the Supreme Deity—whack, down comes the hammer.

If I were in charge, I would not be a helpless and powerless whiner. I would give us glimpses of the way the world can yet be: I would expose us to things like puppies and babies and music and really good chocolate. I'd send us dreams and visions and tantalizing whiffs of how we might be with one another in peace and fellowship, as when we fall in love or are helped by a stranger or help a stranger ourselves. I'd sprinkle the land with flowers and stark beauty like desert sunrises and sunsets that inspire and soothe the weary soul. I'd give us the opportunity to feel awe and appreciation at the simple fact of being alive. I'd flash beauty before our eyes, and float sugar over our tongues, and send laughter to our diaphragms. In these ways I'd seduce us toward our higher and better selves, our more loving and less selfish selves.

I would also create little ways to embarrass us when we are petty and pitiful so that we remember not to be whiners and irresponsible "yes-butters." I'd make sure others are watching when we walk into lampposts. Our zippers would go south at inopportune times.

I would give people the opportunity to see with another person's eyes, hear with their ears, think with their minds, love with their bodies, so that we would know in every way that we can know how we are intimately and inextricably woven together into a single cloth, a common destiny.

And then I would take my hammer, and tap away at hardheartedness, chipping at the stones in our hearts and the planks on our eyes and the dull cement in our heads. I'd hammer at us as if our hearts and minds and souls were embossed copper until all the rough places were smooth—not flat, but smooth. And I'd tap on our consciousness and our consciences till we chime and resonate with creation, so that we'd never fall asleep to the blessings and responsibilities that come with being free moral agents in the world. And then I'd get a really swell rhythm going, a toe-tapping rhythm so that it would be impossible for people not to sing. And our song would harmonize with the music of the spheres and the hum of the universe, but it would also contain counterpoint and even some dissonance, like the dawn chorus of the birds and the improvisational jazz on Public Radio, so that each voice is uniquely heard and dissonance is not cacophony, but a higher symphony.

If I had the hammer of God, I might even do just what the song says, and hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters all over the world. If you ask me, God could do worse.

Quest July/August 2003 Contents

Have you transformed your life?

Jane posed this question in her column in the February Quest, and invited CLF members to respond. And you did, with stories about flashes of insight and with tales of choices made across the years that led into whole new ways of living. Here is a selection of the wonderful responses we received.

Choosing Time

by Arthur House, CLF Member, Franklin, West Virginia

My epiphany is a gradual and on-going evolution, which has diverged from conventionality over the past three decades. After working for fourteen years teaching public school science, I earned another graduate degree, in music, financed debt-free from thrift and savings, with the intention of teaching at the college level. While searching for this kind of placement I realized that minimal part-time employment as a piano teacher and technician was adequate for a volitional non-consumerist lifestyle. This left me much free time to read, study, bicycle, listen to music, do volunteer work, travel, and socialize. I became a UU. I was then located near New York City to indulge in the available cultural opportunities. But, with decreasing trips to NY, and a need to relocate, in 1987 I moved closer to nature at a country mountain retreat on the eastern border of rural West Virginia, where I continue to live.

My overall epiphany is valuing volitional time over monetary wealth. Our limited lifetimes may not allow us to have both as we seek happiness and personal fulfillment. I choose the freedom to do much which could not be done while shackled to a full-time job.

Growing Into the Inner Self

by Geraldine Zeleny, CLF member, Fort Collins, Colorado

Most of us do not, could not, have a road to Damascus-and yet!

I was in my mid-thirties, drifting along into ten years of marriage, happily and contentedly fulfilling my role as homemaker and mother of two, asking no questions, seeking no answers.

I had entered our dining room on some domestic chore, when I was stopped short by some kind of mental jolt, an inward message that came almost as a declaration, "You do not know enough. There is more. You must find it."

I vividly recall the room, the sun on the orange trees at the casement windows, as I stood there in my own home amid my dailiness, agape in wonderment at what had just happened. I knew I had been turned. I was changed. And so began a quest that continues to this day, even into these elder years. (Editor's note: Ms. Zeleny is 87 years old.)

I began to read. I read in every spare moment. Books at the library were like nourishment, and seemed to pop from the shelves as I read the titles and authors' names on their spines.

I reached for biographies, naturalists, poets, statesmen, theologians, philosophers. I wanted to know what others had felt and thought, what they had found and their reactions. I took notes. I journaled. I questioned.

A friend, sensing my hungers, introduced me to the Unitarian Universalist Church in Phoenix. Then I was on my path of inquiry, instinctively knowing it to be right, and I am still awed by that mysterious miracle of sudden instruction to take a turning, to angle off from the familiar and comfortable, to explore and to expand.

Growing into one's inner self is a tremendous thing to realize and experience. It may be as natural as the sunrise, yet seems as dazzlingly explosive as a meteor shower, as awesomely urgent as the impulse of a flower to bud and blossom, or a tree to leaf, or a child to creep and then stand.

I believe it to be Life talking to itself!

Choice

by Leanne Turner, CLF member, Warren, Ohio

I looked out the kitchen window, pressing the receiver of the telephone to my ear, aware of my mother standing nearby. Aware also of my father in the recliner in the front room. Aware of the five inches of snow on the ground. Aware of their need to recuperate from serious surgeries. Aware of my desire to follow the path I wanted to take. Aware of the growing impatience of the woman on the other end of the line. Aware of possibility and of its arch-rival, reality... I declined her invitation of a position at a retreat center in Costa Rica and made breakfast. In Ohio. ?

Living for the Cause

by Jan Knock, CLF Member Creston, Iowa

I spent three years as the live-in parent/counselor in a group home for mentally challenged adolescents in the early 1970's. Barely out of adolescence myself at 21 years of age, this proved to be a life-altering experience. I loved the focus on "the cause" of providing normalizing experiences for the young people in my charge. During those years I felt a degree of separation from my peers, but never doubted my choice to "be different." The intensity of the relationships I made and the satisfaction gained from what I saw as human rights work was satisfying.

Later I traveled the country teaching cooperative games with the zealousness of an evangelical preacher determined to save souls. My New Games Foundation cohorts and I met in airports large and small, stuffing our earth ball and parachute into the back of a rental car and heading to the nearest YMCA with our message, "Play Hard, Play Fair, Nobody Hurt." I doubt we saved any souls, but I do think a lot of people had some fun.

I've often wondered about my inclination to align with social issues to the point that they provide definition and direction in my life (including a circle of friends, validation of my world views, and work). After years of harboring a nagging fear that something is desperately wrong with me, I recently read about research showing it is in fact psychologically healthy to be involved with a cause.

So there you go.

Transformation

by Henry Burt Stevens, CLF Member, Punta Gorda, Florida

On January 30, 2003 I signed the membership rolls of the CLF. It was the first time I ever signed a church roll. What happened?

The first church I attended, as a very young child with my parents, was the Universalist Church in Morrisville, Vermont during the period 1937 to 1942. We then moved to Orleans, Vermont and my family attended a community Protestant church. By the time I was about 11 years old I asked to be excused from further church attendance, and that was the end of my church experience.

Two books I read in high school started me on my path. The first was Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, and the second was Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton. I have been more of a woods walker than a book reader throughout my life, and although I do have more than two books now, most of the additional books follow themes from the first two.

A year ago I had a heart attack. It was my second visit within six years to the ICU at Bon Secours Hospital; the first visit was for a bleeding ulcer I did not know I had. Close call, that.

As part of my recent cardiac rehabilitation I took stress reduction classes. I found out that stress is stress. Although stress most commonly is thought to be from a negative cause, stress from a happy cause, such as being successful in business, is just as damaging to the immune system. I also learned that we choose what we want to be as a person.

My transformation was that I chose to stop being a happy but stressed person. I stopped my outside activities with business and discussion groups. I elected to stay at home with my wife and be a happy, unstressed person.

I went to meditation classes, as I'd always wanted. I signed up for an American Sign Language class. I've always been interested, and have become quite deaf. I started writing personal essays, such as this one, and having them published in the local newspaper.

My mother, 94 years old, came under hospice care last August and I started making photo family history booklets. (You can view these booklets at http://www.postalstationery.com/FamCon.htm.)

A stray kitten came by the house and is still with us, and will now be with us right along. Queen Lucy.

But a very important happening was finding out about UUism and joining CLF. What a wonderful thing for me. I now have a minister who sees and preaches "everyday transformation." Rev. Rzepka quotes from May Sarton. I find that UUism has a position I can support on marijuana and racial relations.

Being a stay-at-home, I find great pleasure with the CLF-L e-mail list. Every couple of hours one or more thoughtful and informative messages come from fellow CLFers all over the world right to my e-mail inbox. Though I mostly sit at home, I converse with like-minded people from the USA, China, Germany, Spain and many other countries.

Each day the sun comes up and I always take a moment to watch. Tomorrow never comes, it is always today. And it's always a chance to earn, learn and transform.

Quest July/August 2003 Contents

Member Profile: Lowell Steinbrenner

by Eliza Blanchard, ministerial intern, Church of the Larger Fellowship

Lowell Steinbrenner, an engineer, former theology student, and business man, enjoys discussing questions ranging from the religious to the pragmatic. A member of the CLF for over thirty years, he served on the board twice. "I have always supported CLF," he says, "because it is worthy of merit." Mr. Steinbrenner has stepped down recently from his position as Finance Chair. During his tenure, he reworked the accounting system and helped grow the endowment. "Once these were in a satisfactory place and improving, I thought I'd move on."

Mr. Steinbrenner's energy and wide-ranging interests led him in the early 1970s to found a specialty steel company and a UU fellowship that continue to thrive in Ohio. A Presbyterian by birth, he had no involvement with religion at all after college. Once he and his wife had children, however, they felt that "the children should be getting something like religious education." Someone mentioned Unitarian Universalism to him, he inquired about it, and the family ended up in the Youngstown, Ohio, congregation. In 1972 he founded the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Wayne County in Wooster, Ohio. After a number of moves and a number of different congregations, he and his wife ended up in New York State without a brick and mortar church, so he now identifies most as a CLFer.

Like many of his fellow CLFers, he says his path "has been one of personal inquiry, which Unitarian Universalism has provided me." His seeking led him to study comparative theology at Harvard Divinity School, and he earned a Masters of Theological Studies there.

Lowell Steinbrenner has lots of reasons to be satisfied. He observes that CLF "has come a long way, and with Brad Greeley as board chair and Jane as minister it will go much further." We thank him for his wonderful work and wish him the best.

Quest July/August 2003 Contents

by Rev. Jane Rzepka, minister, Church of the Larger Fellowship

Personal theology is important. Years ago, we used to call it religion: "Your religion is important," we'd say. Then society morphed a bit, and the popular word became "spirituality." Now it seems that the word "spirituality" is giving way to the word "theology."

Those who care about etymology will be bothered that in popular parlance, religion, spirituality, and theology seem bound together in one synonymous lump, when technically the words' meanings are distinct. But there's no help for it. Out there in the world, matters of religion are squishy, and most folks don't bother with precision.

Whatever we're calling it, it's vital. And vibrant. Fundamental to our well being. Whether you focus on a god or goddess who holds you, a human role model who inspires you, a natural world that includes you, a spirit that enlivens you, a universe that feels capricious in its randomness, or any other religious perspective, your approach to living will depend on it.

As Unitarian Universalists, we haven't committed to a permanent creed. We won't get thrown out of church if our beliefs change, and moments both of confusion and clarity are par for the course. We are free to experiment with all kinds of religious metaphors, stories and images when describing the human experience, and we develop our own responses. This is where golfing with monkeys comes in.

The monkey scenario illustrates just such human experience. Whoever you are, however you understand the image theologically, spiritually, or religiously, and whatever you think the monkeys represent, those monkeys will drop your golf ball a time or two for good and for ill, and you will need to come to terms with it.

In an interview, I heard Alan Ball, the creator of the TV show "Six Feet Under," use the term "lyric existentialism." Lyric existentialism is a phrase that's a little unlikely, but whatever it's intended to mean, I'm pretty sure it includes monkeys on the golf course. Lyric existentialism has got to convey a light approach to life from wherever you have to play the golf ball. It must have something to say about capriciousness in the world, and finding the get-up-and-go to drive the ball home. Surely it accepts the positives and negatives of the human predicament.

Playing golf with monkeys. For me it's lyric existentialism. For you it might be a cosmic plan unfolding, or something about God's will. Whatever your response, it will be religious. Or spiritual. Or theological.

Quest July/August 2003 Contents

REsources for Living

by Dan Harper, interim director of religious education

It has been said that Unitarian Universalism is a religion of deeds rather than creeds. It matters far less to us what you believe than what you do with your life, so we want young people to learn what it means to live Unitarian Universalism in their day-to-day lives. More specifically, given our commitment to democracy and self-determination, we want young people to learn how to take responsibility for making the world a good place to live.

In the new CLF curriculum plan we devote the fourth part of the year, the three months from July through September, to social action. Sometimes we tend to think of social action only in terms of social service projects, but I suggest (based on the work of Thomas Price) that we think about four different types of social action.

The first is social education, or helping people to understand social issues. Social education can include both learning about a particular social issue and teaching others about an issue. Second is social witness, or publicly expressing your personal convictions about a particular issue. Social witness can range from letters to the editor, to participating in rallies and marches, to getting arrested as a public statement of your views.

A third type of social action is social service, or providing direct services to those who are in need. It is this type of social action in which we most often ask kids to get involved: we ask kids to work in a soup kitchen, or to raise money for a good cause.

A fourth type of social action is direct action, where you attempt to affect the decision-making process. Examples of this type of social action might include writing letters for Amnesty International, contacting elected representatives, and even engaging in civil disobedience. As you can see, social action can be much more than spending a day picking up trash!

I believe that any time we do social action with young people we should start with social education. Let's say you have decided to go volunteer in a homeless shelter-for example, your family wants to go serve dinner to homeless people on Thanksgiving Day. The first step to take is to learn something about homeless shelters. Some preliminary questions your family might try to answer in this example might include: What do homeless shelters look like? Who works there? How many homeless people use the homeless shelter? Maybe you could arrange to visit a homeless shelter as a part of this learning process.

Then, depending on the age and interests of the young people involved, your family might ask some harder questions together: Is it OK to give money to homeless people when we walk down city streets? Why do people become homeless? What experiences of homelessness have people we know had? What are the best ways to help homeless people?

You should ask that last question any time you're planning to do social action: What's the best way we can help? In the example, even though you started out wanting to serve dinner at a homeless shelter on Thanksgiving, maybe as a part of your social education you discover that everybody wants to serve dinner at the shelter on Thanksgiving Day, but the shelter really needs people who will contact elected representatives on a regular basis, and that sounds just as interesting. Any social action project should provide a good match between the needs of the people we're trying to help and our own abilities and interests.

There are two other questions you will want to consider as you plan your social action project. First, is a given project appropriate for young people? Kids need (and want) projects they can understand, and projects where they can see an end result. Second, is a given project really going to contribute to a long-term effort, or is it just another "band-aid" project? Ideally, we want to find social action projects that are real and meaningful. You can answer both these questions by starting off your project with social education.

Finally, here are resources to help get you started doing social action with kids:

Two books available through the CLF Loan Library are great resources: The Kid's Guide to Social Action, by Barbara Lewis and Teaching Kids To Love the Earth: 156 Environmental Activities, by Marina Lachecki and James Kasperson.

The CLF Curriculum Plan, available on the CLF Web site at: http://www.uua.org/clf/recurriculum/index.html has specific suggestions for social action for ages 5 through 12.

Quest July/August 2003 Contents

Announcements

CLF Community Gathering at the Mountain
August 29 - September 1, 2003

CLF proudly announces the first-ever Community Gathering, to take place Labor Day weekend, August 29-September 1, 2003, at The Mountain, a UU retreat center in the beautiful Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. This very special congregational retreat is meant just for you, CLF members! Families with children and teens, singles, couples without children-whatever your family situation, you'll be welcome. We will play, worship, sing, be in dialogue, and socialize together. Come experience the natural glory of The Mountain, with its incredible vistas and ancient forests. Join us for what we hope will be an Annual CLF Gathering!

If you're interested in participating in this program, check the CLF Web site (www.clfuu.org) for up-to-the-minute information.

Special guests include these special CLF members: Lorraine Dennis, CLF Administrator; Denny Davidoff, former UUA Moderator; Laurel Amabile, staff member of the Mountain's Learning Center for Leadership; and Shelly Jackson Denham, staff member for The Mountain and UU musician

Gearing up for the CLF Phone-a-thon

As in the last couple of years, we will hold a CLF Canvass Phone-a-thon in early October. We will welcome some divinity students who will help us make personal contact with you and ask for your CLF pledge for the 2004 calendar year. If you think we don't have your telephone number, please send it along on your reply envelope." You may also ask us not to call you by making a note on your envelope. In these difficult economic times, it is particularly important that we have a successful canvass. We look forward to talking with you about CLF in October.

September's Water Ceremony

Over the summer, many UUs collect a sample of water from a cherished spot for use during a water service that takes place when UUs in the northern hemisphere come together again in the fall. If you are traveling before September, or even if you're not, think about scooping up a bit of water from a special place and keeping it for our water ceremony

Learn more about this special service and how you might celebrate it in the September Quest.

CLF's Unsung Hero Award: Linda Melski

Linda Melski has been described as a dedicated organizer par excellence. She has shown continual dedication to our denomination through her support of UU congregational life in Newton, MA, her dedication to her UU fellowship in Marshfield, WI, her involvement in UUism at the district and national levels, and her support of the ministries by mail and cyberspace of the Church of the Larger Fellowship. The CLF Board of Directors is proud to honor CLF member Linda Melski as CLF's Unsung Hero for 2003.

During the six years that she was a member of the Newton church, her contributions ranged from serving on the membership and hospitality committees and the Women's Alliance and leading two record-breaking pledge campaigns to co-leading the "About Your Sexuality" course for junior high students.

When Linda and family moved to Marshfield, WI in 1983, the Rev. Gerry Krick told her, "Go and build a church!" And Linda took this to heart. She became a driving force behind the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Marshfield, including serving on the Board since 1984, having held every office on the Board, sometimes two at a time!

To sum up her role in the fellowship, her husband John states, "People often assume that Linda is our minister. In many ways, she is."

Linda's active role in her fellowship led to her participation at the district and national levels, from serving on the Central Midwest District's Growth and Support Committee to co-managing the original UUA-GA list serve. She has attended GA almost every year since 1987, and was Chairperson of Hospitality for the 1990 General Assembly.

Finally, Linda has shared many of her energies and talents in support of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, of which she has been a member since 1983. Linda served as chair of the board for two years, and has created and/or managed CLF's variety of list serves. Of her dedication, the Rev. Scott Alexander says, "Linda Melski was a wonderful and active lay member of CLF and an exquisite and hard-working board member. She had plenty of vision for the future of CLF, seeing the need early for us to be up and present on the Web."

To honor the endless dedication and energy Linda has poured into UU activities at the fellowship, congregational, district and national levels for over 25 years, CLF proudly names Linda Melski for the 2003 CLF Unsung Hero Award.

Please look on the web (www.clfuu.org) for the full text of this nomination, including Linda's contributions and accomplishments, which are far too numerous to list in this small space!

Did You Know
that you can have your pledge paid automatically at http://www.uua.org/clf/giving/pledge.html and help keep the church's cash flow going while you relax and enjoy your summer? Or call Lorraine at 617-948-6166.

Quest July/August 2003 Contents

No Postage Due

I am looking at you now, through a dimmer lens
Than that bright day would suggest.
You are standing in the yard, not yet as tall as the
        snapdragons.
Your sun suit has an eyelet ruffle and the straps are
        crossed
To take up the slack over your rounded shoulders.
Your high white shoes imply that you are new to the
        Business of walking.
Your expression is a dreadful manifestation of
        frustration.
I know what you have been doing.
You have been trying to catch a bee
In the skirted blossom of a hollyhock
Again.
And it stung you, didn't it?
We haven't learned, have we, you and I.
All these years and we're still risking, still
Taking joy in possibility, and
Still thinking that we can
Outsmart the bee
With love.

by Virginia Rankin, Moscow, ID

Quest July/August 2003 Contents

Last updated June 12, 2005