The Oracle

August 9, 2004

For the past three months I’ve been trying to paint our back decks. It has been the weather with which I have been fighting. It probably goes without saying that I have not been very successful in fighting with the weather. But this is not an actual battle against the vast meteorological system to which we have been subject to over the past three months. After all, the seemingly endless rain has been relentless in taking causalities: Outdoor weddings, picnics, fireworks, amusement parks, hiking, biking, camping, fishing and the many, many outdoor activities of the summer, including painting decks!

When I have expressed my discontent with people, they have replied they or their cowardly spouse didn’t even bother buying the paint they were hoping to brush onto their house or deck. They didn't see any reason to have the cans sitting around unopened. They simply threw in the white towel, and declared the rain the winner without a second thought. But, "NO!" I screamed deep within my heart. I have been looking at that ugly, peeling deck for too many years. In previous vacations I have been traveling too much to even consider the huge project. But, this summer, this summer, I knew I wanted to stay home and dedicate a week to turning our decks into the truly lovely aesthetic addition to our home that they were meant to be, and I wasn’t going to let a little rain get in my way! Those decks were going to be painted even if I had to dodge the pounding rain drops. I was prepared to go out into the battle field and in the lull of the storms, paint like a mad woman.

They say the journey is more important than the destination. I’ve said this! Yet, there was no doubt in my mind and heart, as I brushed on the last bit of paint on the last corner of our deck, that I was truly satisfied with the destination and that the journey was brutally frustrating. I WANTED to enjoy the journey, truly I did. I imagined happily content home-owners slowly brushing carefully selected colors onto their precious property. I imagined they didn’t have a care in the world but doing a good job and being proud of their project, and enjoying the gift of time and space to work with their hands. I imagined all this while scrutinizing the sky and weather.com on the computer, knowing that I didn’t have the gift of time.

It took me six days stretched over six weeks to paint that blip-ping deck. And I know I will have to do it again next summer because the deck didn’t have time to dry out before I painted it, nor did the paint have time to dry in between rain drops. To heck with the journey. That deck looks great all finished right now as the raindrops pummel the fresh coat of paint. As I look at it from the inside of my humid and musty home, I know eventually I will appreciate the journey. But, it may take a while before the appreciation sets in. Perhaps when I can actually sit on my deck? Perhaps when the snow melts come spring and I see how the decks have survived their journey through a northwest Pennsylvania winter? I don’t know what they will look like next spring, but I don’t care right now, because I’m planning my next journey to a place with a dry destination.

Religious Education at Home

"I got one!" shouted my daughter.

Lightening bugs.

A summer ritual.

Joseph Campbell in his book A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living writes about rituals. "What can we have for rituals? Well, what do you want to have a ritual for? ¼ All a ritual does is concentrate your mind on the implications of what you are doing."

After breaking away from my former church, I remember feeling a bit lost without my Sunday morning rituals. How wonderful it was when I found my home at this UU church! I love the new UU rituals: the gathering of the waters, the flower communion, chalice lightings, sharing of joys and concerns, songs, meditations, sermons .¼ These rituals of worship give me a spiritual grounding each week and renew my awareness of life and love.

And now I watch my children celebrate the lightening bug season with their mason jars, perforated lids, and grass covered feet, and I open myself up to the ritual. My gaze falls onto my pumpkin vines curling out around our garage, and I think about our next ritual. Soon, we will be scooping out the slimy contents of our home grown pumpkins, drawing, and cutting out faces. Life is so full of rituals. Embrace them, celebrate them, and reflect on them. They bring us such a richness and fullness to our everyday routines.

Religious Education at Church

Sunday, September 5, will also be registration day for our RE program. Registration will be held during coffee hour in the Parish House, and our RE teachers will be present. We hope all travelers and vacationers will return and join us to welcome in our new year!

Sunday, September 12, will be the first day of regular RE classes.

Note to all RE teachers

The complete play and other parts of the service appear now on our Website: www.uumeadville.org, for May 30, 2004 under the section of Seremons Online. Read it now, if you missed it, and be glad it is there for future use. If you don't have a computer but would like to read the playlet, I'll be glad to make a paper copy for you. Call me at 336-5014.

UUs at Chautauqua:

August 15: Mike McGee, of Arlington, VA, a past Meadville minister.

August 22: Paul Johnson, of Shelter Rock N. Y., we’ve heard him before at Chautauqua.

August 29: Daniel Budd, of Shaker Heights, Ohio, who has preached at least twice for us here.

A sign-up sheet will be avail-able at the church office. Interested? Plan to be at the church parking lot by 7:30 A.M. Sunday. It’s about an hour and a half drive to Chautauqua Institution, and at least a fifteen minute walk, from the parking lot to the Hall of Philosophy. The service starts at 9:30. Yes there is usually a coffee hour following the services!

You’re invited to come to beautiful Chautauqua Institute on Monday, August 23 to see the musical Fiddler on the Roof. Bring a dish to share and enjoy a pot luck supper before the show at the Stupiansky Condo (9 Whitfield #1) at 6 p.m. Walk over to the play, then return to the Stupiansky’s for a pot luck dessert.  The cost for the play is $25, $45, or $55, depending on the seats. The price includes a gate pass into the Institute, starting at 4 p.m. Order tickets online (ciweb.org) or by calling 716-357-6250. Don’t delay in ordering your tickets – they are going fast. There is a $5 hand-ling fee per ticket order, so you may want to combine your order with other folks who will be attending. Call Wynette Kommer (336-5014) or the Stupiansky’s (716-357-4283) with your RSVP by August 1.

September 11: Welcome! Wine & Cheese

October 23: Tentative date for pledge dinner (Parish House)

I was reminded of this when I went to a rummage sale at St. John’s Missionary church. There was a whole rack of Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes – laces and velvets – for they still dress up for church. I once asked my daughter, Emlyn, who had grown up in a UU church, why she switched to an AME Zion church. She told me it was because the women always wore white dresses, gloves and hats to church (and, oh yes, there was a pool table in the basement).

Dress wasn’t the only thing that made Sundays so different back then. It was a day of rest, and loud noises such as lawn mowers and chainsaws were not tolerated. Stores were closed, although, in case of emergency the local pharmacist would open to fill prescriptions, and movie theaters were not commonly running.

This caused hardship, of course. Jews who observed the Sabbath had to close on both Saturday and Sunday, cutting them out of the competition for weekend business. Resort areas, such as Cape Cod, were badly hurt by the "blue laws" because the majority of the tourist trade was on weekends.

Then came the controversy. Malls were springing up and wanted to open on Sunday. Their help preferred to be able to go to church and have Sunday dinner with the family. The minister of a Unitarian church protested the blue laws by insisting that the police arrest his entire congregation for breaking a law, still on the books, requiring every male to carry a rifle to church to protect the women and children from attack by natives. The result was a complicated law allowing family businesses with less than 3 employees to stay open, some businesses could open at noon, and some could open but employees could refuse to work on Sunday morning. Jewish businesses could open as long as they were closed on Saturday.

Now shopping is often an alternative to sermons, gloves are worn only in the winter, and hats are as rare as dry days in a Meadville spring. Twenty-five years ago, I was shocked to see a woman giving a reading from a UU pulpit wearing the skimpiest of red hot pants. Now, while I wouldn’t consider it tasteful, I would not be as disturbed, and the sight of children so moved by the service that they got up and danced, much as I have seen adults do in the Black churches, delighted me, and most of those who watched.

I still would appreciate the Sabbath quiet of old, now so commonly broken in mid-meditation by a revving motorcycle or an over-amplified car.

I’m housebound with physical disabilities and the early months in Meadville will hopefully be spent sleeping – I’ve a lot of rest to catch up on if my health is to improve. Therefore I won’t be able to attend services for maybe my first year in PA and instead am saying Hi in the church newsletter. Hi.

Your wonderful Mary-Lib has been sending me the newsletters. So many cool goings on in your community. She and I also discussed how I might be of service: After I’m a bit better, I hope to host monthly moon groups in my home – that’s also a way I can meet some of you and still stay home.

I’m moving to Meadville to pursue a dream I’ve worked toward for years: a piece of land – with trees – that will nurture some balance to the busy life I’ve been leading.

The busyness is from my involvement in the goddess spirituality movement in widely disparate capacities from little classes in my home to the 5 week national tour just finished to promote a book. (I’m a writer. As to the housebound tour, you sit in your living room, wherever it may be, the phone rings, and – voila – you’re live in NY or Atlanta or ....)

Now the Divine wants things a bit quieter, I think. After all, a new adventure begins in Meadville and you never know where a new adventure will lead you.

See you,

Francesca De Grandis

In April, the Finnish Techno-logy Award Foundation awarded him the Millennium Award for Technology, which carried with it a cash prize in excess of $1 million, the largest fee he has received for his work, which he has deliberately tried to keep free and accessible to all.

Berners-Lee heads the World Wide Web Consortium, based in Cambridge at MIT. For a more detailed story on the knighting of Berners-Lee, see: http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/o7/16/internet.inventor.reut/index.html.