Solstice

It's dark. Yes, the sun is taking its sweet time in reaching the horizon, but that's not what I'm talking about. Anxiety about the economy, politics, and terrorism dominate the headlines. For those of us on the left, climate change is the label we use for a whole rash of ecological concerns. We have burrowed so deeply into our depression that we cannot even contemplate a brighter future.

There are four candles burning on the dining room table this morning. They shine brightly and cut through the gloom. On a sunnier morning I'm pretty sure I wouldn't notice them.

Perhaps this winter's darkness is just what we need. Perhaps if our despair becomes intense enough we will throw off the covers of our indifference and do something. Or at least try.

After a big day....

Yesterday was a big day. I preached at the early service and then did an hour presentation for the Spokane Humanists. After a few hours at home I returned to the church for a Finance Team meeting. As I reflect on the day I note that taking on future responsibilities rarely seems daunting from the secure distance of two or three months time. Then, as the fateful day approaches, the sense of dread settles like morning fog. What was I thinking? It all went fine, I slept like a log, and this week won't require the same energy output.

In the news....

I just read about the trend in big business to enforce increasingly restrictive dress codes, including standards for underwear fabric (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40703930/ns/business-going_green). I wish to offer a reassuring word to anyone seeking employment with such companies: Don't worry, I'm sure your new bosses will support independent thinking and personal initiative. Like the Army.

Merry Christmoose!

There I was, sitting by the front window of the house when this enormous, dark brown mass eclipsed the light. In the familiar words of Clement Clarke Moore, Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. Well, OK. I took a moment or two to pull myself out of the chair and straighten my aching back. Then I looked out that window. When, what to my wondering eyes should appear? There's a moose in the yard! Come see, Sally Dear!

That's when in the kitchen there arose quite a clatter, Sally jumped when I yelled and knocked over a platter.

OK, enough. But it was cool. It's been several years since Bullwinkle stopped by our place for a visit. He didn't stay long today, in fact, Sally didn't make it to the window in time to see him.

But the evidence was there - a series of moose prints crossing our driveway and yard, just a few feet away from where I was sitting.

I worry when Nature and civilization come into contact, Nature doesn't often fare so well. I hope our big brown visitor makes it home for the holidays....

Approaching the Solstice

It's dark this morning, unusually so. A pineapple express is moving through the area, bringing with it warm temperatures and rain. So, despite the fact the sunrise was to occur a few minutes ago, there is no appreciable difference in the ambient light. The winter solstice is just a week away. The enclosing darkness will deepen just a bit more before the sun will again move slowly away from the southern horizon that has captivated it for the past months.

These weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are filled with holiday parties and multiple activities at church. I welcome the busy and bustle, as it makes the dark days pass quickly. At the same time Evan reminded me yesterday of my advice to him not to regard life as something that will happen later... Today IS your life. Regard it as such.

Though my advice is usually more palatable when I'm dispensing it, I think I'll gratefully accept it this time and value these days for what they are. Too quickly the challenges of the moment will pass and I'll wistfully recall the good times when I was gainfully employed and fully engaged.

As the Longfellow poem exhorts: Let us then be up and doing with a heart for any fate. Still achieving, still pursuing, learn to labor and to wait.

Election Returns

Gloom, despair, and agony on me
Deep dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all
Gloom, despair, and agony on me

I can almost hear Buck Owens and Roy Clark singing this dirge from the TV show Hee Haw. If you don't remember the show, it featured lots of actors and singers dressed up as bumpkins and simultaneously performing and lampooning Country Western music. Most of it wasn't very funny.

Today the bumpkins aren't just singing and acting. They're governing. And though I still don't find it amusing, I can hear the sounds of laughter emanating from executive suites and board rooms everywhere. The unprecedented infusion of corporate money into this election bought exactly what was intended: freedom from taxation and regulation for the richest of the rich and more power for the powerful.

The bumpkins are singing this morning. They think they've claimed a people's victory. But as been true so many times before, they've been used. And unlike the dems, who seem really reluctant to use their power to accomplish anything other than improving their standing in the polls (which did not work, again, by the way), the bumpkins will act to reduce taxes (on the wealthy) and reduce government (which might regulate the powerful). With another election victory or two the Right might just reach their goal of establishing a Christian Nation.

I'll try to be magnanimous. Maybe the bumpkins aren't stupid. Maybe they're just acting that way.

My gloom, however, is not feigned.

Nice Weekend

Megan and her friend Andrew were in Spokane for the weekend. We had a lovely visit, including some bicycle shopping, a session at the REI scratch and dent sale, and good food at the Spokane Farmer's Market, Two Seven, Maggie's and Anthony's. Megan convinced Andrew to come to the UU Chuch yesterday by trying to explain that our family wasn't religious, despite my vocation. I think he understood better after hearing my sermon, which was a reprise and expansion of one done in July about "What I Don't Believe". We had a full house for the second service, which felt really good.

The bicycle shopping episode brought up a challenge that I know I will face for the third time in my life. Megan looked at a bike at WheelSport, where I bought mine. She was somewhat surprised that I not only had their phone number in my speed dial, but that the guys greeted me by name when we entered the store. That fact, paired with my seeing several people I knew at the Farmer's Market led Megan to comment on how much I enjoy knowing people and being known. I resemble that remark.

When we moved from Lawrence, Kansas to Mount Vernon, Washington in 1998 I went from being a public figure to being a total unknown. For the first six months after our move I travelled back and forth between worlds, tripping to Kansas to complete my work, and back to Washington again. The contrast was striking. I was once recognized by the hotel clerk in Lawrence where I checked in very late one night after arriving on a delayed flight. In Washington I was totally unknown. In truth I enjoyed fame far more than anonymity.

I am completing the first quarter of my interim year at UUCS. I am fully engaged - a bit too much so - and enjoying my role. In nine months I will drop off the map again. There will be more time for my own pursuits, and more flexibility in Sally and my schedule. There will also be the experience of checking the email in-box again and again for the messages that never come, and being recognized by children in the grocery store who ask their parents, "Didn't we used to know that man?"

Like living without a steady income, I'm confident that I will eventually master the challenges of going incognito. Still, Megan's observations this weekend give me pause.

Late Summer Travels

Sally and I have taken a couple very nice, brief trips to mark the end of our cool Spokane summer. Last week we drove to Kennewick, picking up Megan, and then continued to Corvallis for a couple days with Erin. We had a lovely drive through the Columbia gorge. The low angle of the sun made the water appear deep blue green. Traffic wasn't difficult through Portland. We arrived in Corvallis and road our bikes the two miles from the hotel to Block 15, the shrine to micro-brewing that became my home away from home for the next three days.

While in Corvallis we were able to visit Erin's new house and meet, for the first time, her roommate Kyle. The farmer's market in Corvallis is always a hit, as is the opportunity to peruse the many lovely stores and shops downtown. My favorite acquisition this trip was a new stainless steel travel mug, the "JoeMo". It is really nice to drink from, and keeps the coffee very hot.

We returned from Corvallis via Hood River, where Megan, Sally and I met my brother Tom and his wife Debbie for dinner on Sunday evening and coffee on Labor Day morning.

After a couple days in Spokane Sally and I drove to Lethbridge, Alberta. We ate our way through eastern BC, and then joined Sally's engineering colleagues for an ag conference in Lethbridge. Though Lethbridge is said to be the sunniest locale in Canada, we arrived in a steady rain. I can't help but think of the parallel between this circumstance and those climate-change deniers who use snowstorms as "proof" against climate change. Anyway....

The program year at the church now begins in earnest. I think I'm ready, and know it will pass quickly. At my age a year isn't such a long sentence. There's no hope of parole, good behavior or not, so I'll just do my best, and try to enjoy the journey.