nurture your spirit, help heal our world

Touchstones March 2015

Wisdom Story

The Stream adapted from a Sufi story

In the high mountains, a small stream

crept from a hidden source beneath the

ground. It flowed down the mountain

passing rocky ravines, pine covered for-

ests, lush meadows, and through ponds

and lakes.

Sometimes the stream raced down

through a canyon. At other times ,it

slowed as it flowed through a meadow.

It even disappeared occasionally by go-

ing underground, only to re-appear.

There was no obstacle that it met that

could stop it. The stream was so power-

ful that it even wore away the hard rock

that got in its way.

One day, after flowing many, many

miles, it came to the edge of a desert with

sand stretching endlessly ahead. This

was new, but the little stream had never

been stopped before. Even in winter,

when the ice tried to stop it, the stream

found a way to flow beneath the ice.

“I’ve never been stopped before,”

thought the little stream. “No desert is

going to get in my way.”

The little stream flung its water onto

the sand, but the water disappeared, ab-

sorbed by the sand. It gathered more

water and tried again and again, but eve-

(Continued on page 2)

Introduction to the Theme

Rev. Kirk Loadman-Copeland

Liberation. The word comes from

Liber (“the free one”), the Roman god of

freedom and fertility. Liber is also the

root for liberty and liberal. Liberation

is the act or fact of achieving civil or

equal rights for a particular group and

pursuing the social, economic, and

political opportunities that result.

The dream of liberation is both an-

cient and new. It was that dreaming

that eventually led a man who

stuttered, a man named Moses to say

to Pharaoh, “Let my people go!” And

of course, Pharaoh laughed until the

dream and drive for liberation became

no laughing matter. This dream of lib-

eration is celebrated each year in the

Passover observance that calls for lib-

eration for all who are enslaved. And

the reality is that many in the world

today are enslaved physically, emo-

tionally, economically, and in so many

other ways.

Liberation is the goal of two world

religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. In

Hinduism it is called moksha. As Swa-

mi Satchidananda wrote, “The cause of

bandha and moksha (bondage and libera-

tion) is our own minds. If we think we

are bound, we are bound. If we think

we are liberated, we are liberated. . . . It

is only when we transcend the mind

that we are free from all these trou-

bles.”

Liberation in Tibetan Buddhism is a

curious thing since the country of Tibet

was “liberated” by the Communist

Chinese in the 1950s. There is even an

impressive monument in the square of

(Continued on page 6)

Liberation

Tibetan Prayer Flags

a monthly journal of the Pacific Western Region

Unitarian Universalist Association

Contemplations explores a reading (e.g.,

Readings from the Common Bowl) and our

life in a deeper way.

Morning Practice Quiet your Mind: Sit in a comforta-

ble place and take a few breaths to quiet

your mind and focus your attention.

Engage the Reading: Engage the text

by reading it silently and aloud several

times. Allow the words and their mean-

ing to settle within you.

Contemplate: Consider the reading

and your response. You may want to

write down your responses. Are there

certain words or phrases that especially

catch your attention, words that comfort

or unsettle? Why? How could the read-

ing, its meaning and wisdom, inform

your actions on this day?

Act: Allow the wisdom that resonates

in you through your contemplation of

the reading to inform how you act. What

does this wisdom mean for you life?

What does it mean for this day?

Evening Practice Quiet your Mind: Sit in a comforta-

ble place and take a few breaths to quiet

your mind and focus your attention.

Reengage the Reading: Read the text

one more time to make it present for

your evening practice.

Listen to Your Life: Now, turn your

attention to the day itself. Recall the ex-

periences that were especially meaning-

ful, comforting, or disturbing. What do

these mean to you? These experiences

are the sacred texts of our lives. They

have the power to teach us if we allow

them to do so. You may want to record

your reflections in a journal.

Intention for Tomorrow: Consider

how you would live this day differently

if you could do it over. What would you

change and why? Choose one thing that

you would like to do differently in the

future and set an intention to do so. It is

surprising how powerful this intention-

setting can be in shifting our behavior

and experience.

Email createmeaningnow@gmail.com to

automatically receive a brief reading on

Monday, Wednesday & Friday mornings.

Wisdom Story

ry time its waters disappeared.

The stream looked up and saw the

wind crossing the desert with ease. It

thought to itself, “If the wind can cross

the desert, so can I.” And it tried again

and again without success. In despair it

said, “But I must cross the desert. My

journey can not end here.” It decided to

rest and gather more water to try again.

In that moment the desert spoke saying,

“Your old ways will not work with me.

You will never cross my sands with

what you are doing. You must find a

new way.”

“But I don’t know any new ways,”

cried the stream. “Look at the wind, it

easily crosses over you.”

“Exactly,” said the desert. “You must

let the wind carry you forward. Let it

absorb you and fly you across to the

other side of my sands.” The little

stream was horrified. “Absorb me,” it

said, “you must be crazy. I have always

been a stream.”

The desert just laughed, for it was old

and wise and knew the ways of nature.

“How foolish you are. You were once a

raindrop in a cloud. That is how you got

to the top of the mountain in the first

place.” The stream was astonished. It

had no memory of another existence.

And now it was afraid, afraid of both

the desert and the wind, afraid that it

would never be able to flow again, for

that was what it loved more than any-

thing.

“I’m afraid,” it said aloud. The desert

understood saying, “There is nothing to

fear. The essence of who you truly are

will remain, even as the wind lifts you

up and carries you across my sands.

You must simply be willing to let go.

Liberation is the willingness to let go of

who you are in order for you to become

something else. If you do not let go, you

will be forever imprisoned here, becom-

ing marshland. Your days of being a

stream will be over, but if you allow the

wind to transform you, it will carry you

to your next destination and you will

rain down to become a mighty river.”

The stream thought about what the

desert said. It slowly came to believe

that the wind could be trusted. The

stream decided to stop flinging itself at

the desert and allowed the wind to lift it

skyward as vapor. It became a cloud,

and on the other side of the desert, it

became raindrops. Falling to earth, it

became a mighty river just as the desert

promised. It continued to flow, unaware

that a new change would come when it

reached the ocean.

(Continued from page 1) The Stream

Contemplations

The River Rev. Mark Belletini

The river of our lives flows and

touches a thousand shores for but a mo-

ment, our past, our present, our dreams

of the future. Thus, in the continuing

silence, we express, either in our hearts

or with our mouths, the names of people

standing on the shore… those who have

companioned us on our way, taught us,

challenged us, nurtured us, loved us,

and all those whom we cherish…

The river of life flows, flows like a

scripture text across the page, flows

like a choral anthem floating in the air.

The river of life flows, expressing the

sorrows, joys and wonders of the human

soul no less than the Qur’an, or Jeremi-

ah, the Gita, or any poet. May the river

sing us into life and love and bring our

souls sufficient strength so as to meet the

days ahead…. Source: http://

firstuucolumbus.org/oldsite/sermons/

mb20020310.htm#top#top

2

Day 1: “It is truth that liberates, not your

effort to be free.” Jiddu Krishnamurti

Day 2: “As long as people are going to

call you lunatic anyway, why not get the

benefit of it? It liberates you from conven-

tion.” Gregory Maguire

Day 3: “There’s something liberating

about not pretending. Dare to embarrass

yourself. Risk.” Drew Barrymore

Day 4: “What is the seal of liberation?

Not to be ashamed in front of oneself.” Friedrich Nietzsche

Day 5: “We have only one real shot at

liberation, and that is to emancipate our-

selves from within.” Colette Dowling

Day 6: “I am not a liberator. Liberators

do not exist. The people liberate them-

selves.” Che Guevara

Day 7: “Every empire, however, tells it-

self and the world that it is unlike all oth-

er empires; that its mission is not to plun-

der and control, but to educate and liber-

ate.” Edward W. Said

Day 8: “What a liberation to realize that

the ‘voice in my head’ is not who I am.

Who am I then? The one who sees that.” Eckhart Tolle

Day 9: “Life is painful. It has thorns, like

the stem of a rose. Culture and art are the

roses that bloom on the stem. The flower

is yourself, your humanity. Art is the lib-

eration of the humanity inside yourself.” Daisaku Ikeda

Day 10: “The true value of a human be-

ing can be found in the degree to which

he has attained liberation from the self.” Albert Einstein

Day 11: “As societies grow decadent, the

language grows decadent, too. Words are

used to disguise, not to illuminate, action:

you liberate a city by destroying it. Words

are to confuse, so that at election time

people will solemnly vote against their

own interests.” Gore Vidal

Day 12: “Leaders who do not act dialogi-

cally, but insist on imposing their deci-

sions, do not organize the people -- they

manipulate them. They do not liberate,

nor are they liberated: they oppress.” Paulo Freire

Day 13: “Our great human adventure is

the evolution of consciousness. We are in

this life to enlarge the soul, liberate the

spirit, and light up the brain.” Tom Robbins

Day 14: “Only the liberation of the natu-

ral capacity for love in human beings can

master their sadistic destructiveness.” Wilhelm Reich

Day 15: “Without community, there is no

liberation.” Audre Lorde

Day 16: “I have found that among its

other benefits, giving liberates the soul of

the giver.” Maya Angelou

Day 17: “The greatest humanistic and

historical task of the oppressed: to liberate

themselves....” Paulo Freire

Day 18: “The paths to liberation are nu-

merous, but the bank along the way is

always the same, the Bank of Karma,

where the liberation account of each of us

is credited or debited depending on our

actions.” Yann Martel

Day 19: “Our purpose is to consciously,

deliberately evolve toward a wiser, more

liberated and luminous state of being; to

return to Eden, make friends with the

snake, and set up our computers among

the wild apple trees.” Tom Robbins

Day 20: “I saw all races, all colors, blue

eyed blonds to black skinned Africans in

true brotherhood! In unity! Living as one!

Worshiping as one! No segregationists, no

liberals; they would not have known how

to interpret the meaning of those words” Malcolm X

Day 21: “Freedom is never given; it is

won.” A. Philip Randolph

Day 22: “This was freedom; to feel what

the heart desired with no thought to the

opinion of the rest…. She was free, for

love liberates.” Paulo Coelho

Day 23: “The price you must pay for

your own liberation through another’s

sacrifice is that you in turn must be will-

ing to liberate in the same way, irrespec-

tive of the consequences to yourself.” Dag Hammarskjöld

Day 24: “We create the illusions we need

to go on. And one day, when they no

longer dazzle or comfort, we tear them

down, brick by glittering brick, until we

are left with nothing but the bright light

of honesty. The light is liberating. Neces-

sary. Terrifying. We stand naked and

emptied before it. And when it is too

much for our eyes to take, we build a new

illusion to shield us from its relentless

truth.” Libba Bray

Day 25: “Segregation shaped me; educa-

tion liberated me.” Maya Angelou

Day 26: “In order for us to liberate the

energy of our strength, our weakness

must first have a chance to reveal itself.” Paulo Coelho

Day 27: “There is nothing more liberat-

ing than having your worst fear realized.” Conan O’Brien

Day 28: “The irony of commitment is

that it’s deeply liberating -- in work, in

play, in love. The act frees you from the

tyranny of your internal critic, from the

fear that likes to dress itself up and pa-

rade around like rational hesitation. To

commit is to remove your head as the

barrier to your life.” Anne Morris

Day 29: “We have to talk about liberat-

ing minds as well as liberating society.” Angela Y. Davis

Day 30: “To see your drama clearly is to

be liberated from it.” Ken Keyes Jr.

Day 31: “Gratitude is the ability to experi-

ence life as a gift. It liberates us from the

prison of self-preoccupation.” John Ortberg

Readings from the Common Bowl

3

Tibetan Prayer Flags

Born Again by Rev. Kirk Loadman-Copeland

In his 1984 book, Born Again Unitarian

Universalism, Forrest Church recounted the

following dialog at a dinner party.

“You are a what?”

“A Unitarian Universalist.”

“Oh, I see,” he says - but he obviously

doesn’t. He is rescued by the woman to

our right.

“I’ve never really understood just

what it is you Unitarians believe. You are

Christians, aren’t you?”

“Not exactly. I mean, we were, and

some of us still are, but most of us are

not.”

“You don’t believe in Jesus?”

“Not in any orthodox way, certainly.

Many of us value his teachings, but few,

if any of us, believe that he was resurrect-

ed on the third day or that he was God.”

“What about immortality?”

“Well, I guess you’d have to say we’re

pretty much divided on that one.”

“But at least you all believe in God?”

interrupts the man across the table...

“Not exactly. Many of us do, if

each in his or her own

way. Others of us do

not find the concept

of God a useful one.”

“What then do you

believe?” our hostess

politely asks.

Good question. One of the things that

Church believed was that our beliefs

would likely change over the course of

our lives. There is liberation in this. It

was, in part, what Church meant by

“Born Again Unitarian Universalism.”

He also had in mind the sentiments of the

English novelist, D.H. Lawrence.

Lawrence wrote a letter on December

3, 1907 when he was 22 years old and a

student at University College in Notting-

ham. It was to the Rev. Robert Reid, the

minister of the Congregational Chapel

where Lawrence and his family attended

in the coal mining town of Eastwood,

Nottinghamshire in England. Lawrence

had corresponded with Reid a number of

times. An earlier letter by Lawrence cit-

ing contemporary objections to Christian-

ity prompted Reid to respond with a se-

ries of sermons. Eventually, the issue of

conversion entered the conversation be-

tween the two. In the December letter

Lawrence admitted, “I have been brought

up to believe in the absolute necessity for

a sudden spiritual conversion…. I

thought all conversions were, to a greater

or lesser degree, like that of Paul’s. Natu-

rally, I yearned for the same…. Now I do

not believe in …such conversion.” Law-

rence, then explained (adapted to be gen-

der inclusive): “I do not believe in conver-

sion, such conversion. I believe that a per-

son is converted when he [or she] first

hears the low, vast murmur of life, human

life, troubling one’s hitherto unconscious

self. I believe a person is born first unto

oneself—for the happy developing of one-

self, while the world is a nursery, and the

pretty things are to be snatched for, and

the pleasant things tasted; some people

seem to exist thus right to the end. But

most are born again on entering maturity;

then they are born to humanity, to a con-

sciousness of all the laughing, and the nev-

er-ceasing murmur of pain and sorrow that

comes from the terrible multitudes of

brothers [and sisters]. Then, it appears, to

me, a person gradually formulates one’s

religion, be it what it may. A person has no

religion who has not slowly and painfully

gathered one together, adding to it, shap-

ing it; and one’s religion is never complete

and final, it seems, but must always be

undergoing modification.”

This idea of being born again was famil-

iar to Rabindranath Tagore, a member of

the Brahmo Samaj liberal religious group

in India, who was well know to Unitarians.

In terms of the spiritual life, Tagore wrote,

“In the Sanskrit Language the bird is de-

scribed as ‘twice-born’ –- once in its limited

shell and then finally in the freedom of the

unbounded sky. ...In all... of life man

shows this dualism—his existence within

the range of obvious facts and his tran-

scendence of it in a realm of deeper mean-

ing.” Tagore, like Lawrence, was saying

that we are “born again” spiritually when

we transcend the range of obvious facts

and discover in ourselves and the world a

realm of deeper meaning. The difference

between the two is as profound as the

difference between the egg shell and the

unbounded sky.

Unitarian Universalist minister Rob

Hardies writes, “So on this issue of being

born again, I come down on the side of the

Unitarian poet, e. e. cummings, who once

wrote: ‘We can never be born enough.’ The

soul -- the curious soul, at least, the alive

soul -- always longs to be made new. To be

ever-more whole. To be reborn. Not be-

cause we were born wrong the first time.

But because we grow and learn and

change. And so my wish for us is that we

be born again... and again... and again. …

“That’s what we who have chosen the

liberal religious path have gotten ourselves

into. Because it is not a path that offers us a

once and for all answer to our questions. (Continued on page 6)

4

Hey parents

leave those kids alone! Amy Douthett

…There is now a …steadily growing

crop of parenting books about how to

raise your child without, er, parenting

books. Thankfully, the irony of this is not

lost on Lenore Skenazy, author of Free

Range Kids, a …refutation of much of today’s

parenting ‘wisdom.’

Skenazy shot to startled stardom when

she allowed her nine-year old son to ride

the subway alone, then wrote about it in

her column in the New York Sun. Cue

lights, camera, daytime talk shows. Ske-

nazy was branded “America’s Worst

Mom,” a title … that has inspired her

efforts to persuade other parents to give

their children a taste of the freedom they

had growing up “without going nuts with

worry.”

Her central thesis is this: life is good,

people are mostly good, and kids are both

hardy and more capable than we think. In

fact, she explains, we’re living in what is

“factually, statistically, and luckily for us,

one of the safest periods for children in

the history of the world.” The problem is

that everywhere we look, we’re told oth-

erwise. …

Free Range Kids is in essence a self-help

book, but one that is suffused with humor

and backed up with a lot of striking statis-

tical evidence. … Of

course, there is an

underlying serious-

ness and real sad-

ness of the changes

she describes. Like

the fact that “from

1997 to 2002, the

amount of time the

average six- to eight-

year-old spends on

creative play has

declined by about a

third.”

Full review at

http://stats.org/

stories/2009/

hey_parents_july17_09.html

Promoting Independence

in Children Don’t do for children what they can

do for themselves.

Teach children to manage age appro-

priate tasks themselves.

Role model self-discipline and good

habits.

Set limits, be clear and provide guid-

ance.

Allow children to make age appropri-

ate choices within limits.

Help children to problem solve when

they are older by talking over possi-

ble choices and consequences.

Listen to children and be a source of

information and not criticism.

Praise children when they are respon-

sible, i.e., doing household tasks or

homework.

Let children know by your actions

you believe in them and their opin-

ions. Source: http://www.geelongcity.vic.gov.au/

common/Public/Documents/8cbc86f820cc238-

No.%2009%20Promoting%20Independence.pdf

Family Activity: Free the Gorilla A charming book for young children is

Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann. Go-

rilla liberates the animals by stealing the

Zookeeper’s keys and then opening all of

the cages. Then they go into the Zookeep-

er’s house and bedroom where they want

to sleep for the night. Read the book as a

family and then discuss what kinds of

animals are house animals and farm ani-

mals, and what kinds of animals are wild

or free-range. Also invite children to dis-

cuss the role of zoos. For info about how

zoos have changed, go to http://www.kidcyber.com.au/topics/

zoos.htm

Kibibi the gorilla “monkeying around.”

Family Matters

5

Introduction to the Theme

6

The motto of the great 16th century Unitar-

ian reformer, Francis David, was semper

reformanda. Always reforming. Forever being

born again. His motto could be ours to-

day.”

Hardies concludes, “The Greeks had a

word for this kind of transformation. They

called it metanoia, which means, ‘to be

given a new heart.’ To literally have some-

one reach in and grab hold of the old one.

Pull it out and put in a new heart. Not

because the old heart was corrupt. Maybe

it was just too tired, or had been broken

and patched too many times. Maybe we

just needed to trade it in for a larger mod-

el. To be given a new heart. …

“e.e. cummings is right, for those of us

who choose the journey of the free spirit,

we can never be born enough. Life is an

endless series of rebirths. Semper refor-

manda. Always forming and reforming. Al-

ways opening to greater embodiments of

love. Always reaching out in a wider em-

brace. Always ready to receive a new

heart. Always willing to be changed into

fire. Born again... and again... and again.”

(Continued from page 4) Born Again

the Potala Palace in the

capital city of Lhasa that

was unveiled on May 22,

2002. The questions is

whose liberation? The Tibetan govern-

ment in exile claimed that “the monu-

ment would serve as a daily reminder of

the humiliation of the Tibetan people.”

In Buddhism the goal is Nirvana,

which occurs as a result of enlighten-

ment. When he was asked who he was

by someone who stopped him on a road,

the Buddha replied, “I am awake.” Lib-

eration requires awakening to one’s pre-

sent reality and working to change it.

The Buddha also said, “Be a lamp unto

yourself. Work out your liberation with

diligence.”

It was a dream of liberation that

brought the Puritans, our religious fore-

bears, to America in the 1630s. As is too

often the case, having won their reli-

gious freedom they denied it to others.

But the dream of freedom will not be

denied. The Declaration of Independ-

ence was an act of liberation: “We hold

these truths to be self evident.” The Bill

of Rights was an act of liberation. In the

end, the Civil War, was an act of libera-

tion, but tyranny is a formidable foe.

Frederick Douglass, a freed slave and

leading abolitionist, wrote, “Power con-

cedes nothing without a demand; it nev-

er did and it never will.” This is why

Martin Luther King, Jr. found himself in

a jail in Birmingham in April 1963. In his

Letter from a Birmingham Jail, which he

meant for white clergy in that city and

beyond, King wrote, “We know through

painful experience that freedom is never

voluntarily given by the oppressor; it

must be demanded by the oppressed.”

Even today his dream remains unreal-

ized.

There has been wave upon wave of

liberation movements in America:

Suffrage, Labor, Native American rights,

Women’s rights, Gay rights, Immigrant

rights. The American Dream is a dream

of liberation, one that continues to cap-

ture the imagination of the world.

There are other dreams of liberation.

One of the more compelling is that of

liberation theology. It began as a politi-

cal movement in Latin America in the

1950s and 1960s within the Roman Cath-

olic Church. The term was coined in

1971 by Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutiér-

rez, who wrote one of the movement’s

most famous books, A Theology of Lib-

eration. He popularized the term

“preferential option for the poor,” which

captures the essence of liberation theolo-

gy. Drawing on biblical motifs about the

poor, Gutierrez asserted that God has a

preference for those people who are in-

significant, marginalized, unimportant,

needy, despised, and defenseless. This is

in keeping with the ministry and teach-

ings of Jesus, which made him such a

radical.

In his book, Faith Without Certainty:

Liberal Theology in the 21st Century, Uni-

tarian Universalist Paul Rasor concludes

his chapter on Liberation Theology and

its critique of Liberal Theology with

these questions: “In what ways are we

implicated in the social structures of

oppression? What are our various privi-

leges in the current social structures, and

how are they connected with, even de-

pendent on, the suffering of others?

How might our own practices un-

wittingly perpetuate the oppressive

structures we are seeking to overturn?

How can we use our privilege to effect

change and alleviate suffering? What are

we willing to give up? These are ...the

questions we must ask...to liberate our-

selves ...of the tension in theological lib-

eralism that ...interferes with ...do[ing]

truly liberating social justice work.”

(Continued from page 1)

“But the poor person does not exist as an

inescapable fact of destiny. His or her ex-

istence is not politically neutral, and it is

not ethically innocent. The poor are a by-

product of the system in which we live

and for which we are responsible. They are

marginalized by our social and cultural

world. They are the oppressed, exploited

proletariat, robbed of the fruit of their la-

bor and despoiled of their humanity.

Hence the poverty of the poor is not a call

to generous relief action, but a demand

that we go and build a different social

order.” Gustavo Gutiérrez

Enlightenment Rev. Kirk Loadman-Copeland

In his book,

Siddhartha, Her-

man Hesse creates

a tale of enlighten-

ment in which the

river is the spiritu-

al guide for Sid-

dhartha, as it was

for the other ferry-

man, Vasudeva,

under whom Sid-

dhartha trained.

Siddhartha was

grieving the departure of his son, who

had left to pursue his own dreams.

Vasudeva invited Siddhartha to find

healing by listening to the river. He lis-

tened and looked. In the river, his entire

life passed before him, words and images

of his father, his son, and the others in his

life who had helped form him.

It seemed at first that the river

laughed at him and with him. But

Vasudeva encouraged him to continue to

listen. Siddhartha heard the river speak

of human longing and human folly, of

joy and suffering. He heard many voices,

a thousand voices, the ongoing chorus of

human murmuring. He heard “the

lamentation of yearning and the laughter

of the knowledgeable one, the scream of

rage and the moaning of the dying ones.”

Hesse writes, “Siddhartha listened. He

was now nothing but a listener, com-

pletely concentrated on listening, com-

pletely empty, he felt, that he had now

finished learning to listen. Often before,

he had heard all this, these many voices

in the river, today it sounded new. Al-

ready, he could no longer tell the many

voices apart…. All of it together was the

flow of events, was the music of life. And

when Siddhartha was listening attentive-

ly to this river, this song of a thousand

voices, when he neither listened to the

suffering nor the laughter, when he did

not tie his soul to any particular voice

and submerged his self into it, but when

he heard them all, perceived the whole,

the oneness, then the great song of the

thousand voices consisted of a single

word, which was Om : the perfection.”

Wisdom for Life

Will it Be Hate or Love? Neil Postman

We were keeping our eye on 1984.

When the year came and the prophecy

didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang soft-

ly in praise…. The roots of liberal de-

mocracy held. Wherever else terror had

happened, we, at least, had not been

visited by Orwellian nightmares.

But we had forgotten that alongside

Orwell’s dark vision, there was another

— slightly older, slightly less well

known, equally chilling: Aldous Hux-

ley’s Brave New World . Contrary to

common belief even among the educat-

ed, Huxley and Orwell did not prophe-

sy the same thing. Orwell warns that

we will be overcome by an externally

imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s

vision, no Big Brother is required to

deprive people of their autonomy, ma-

turity, and history. People will ...love

their oppression, adore the technolo-

gies that undo their capacities to think.

What Orwell feared were those who

would ban books. What Huxley feared

was that there would be no reason to

ban a book, for there would be no one

who wanted to read one. Orwell feared

those who would deprive us of infor-

mation. Huxley feared those who

would give us so much that we would

be reduced to passivity and egoism.

Orwell feared that the truth would be

concealed from us. Huxley feared the

truth would be drowned in a sea of

irrelevance. Orwell feared we would

become a captive culture. Huxley

feared we would become a trivial cul-

ture, preoccupied with some equiva-

lent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and

the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Hux-

ley remarked in Brave New World Re-

visited, the civil libertarians and rational-

ists who are ever on the alert to oppose

tyranny “failed to take into account

man’s almost infinite appetite for dis-

tractions.” In 1984, Huxley added, peo-

ple are controlled by inflicting pain. In

Brave New World, they are controlled by

inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell

feared that what we hate will ruin us.

Huxley feared that what we love will

ruin us.

The Great Enemy of Freedom Wendell Berry

In a society in which nearly

everybody is dominated by

somebody else’s mind or by a

disembodied mind, it be-

comes increasingly difficult to

learn the truth about the activities of gov-

ernments and corporations, about the

quality or value of products, or about the

health of one’s own place and economy.

In such a society, also, our private econ-

omies will depend less and less upon the

private ownership of real, usable property,

and more and more upon property that is

institutional and abstract, beyond individ-

ual control, such as money, insurance poli-

cies, certificates of deposit, stocks, and

shares. And as our private economies be-

come more abstract, the mutual, free helps

and pleasures of family and community

life will be supplanted by a kind of dis-

placed or placeless citizenship and by

commerce with impersonal and self-

interested suppliers….

Thus, although we are not slaves in

name, and cannot be carried to market and

sold as somebody else’s legal chattels, we

are free only within narrow limits. For all

our talk about liberation and personal au-

tonomy, there are few choices that we are

free to make. What would be the point, for

example, if a majority of our people decid-

ed to be self-employed?

The great enemy of freedom is the

alignment of political power with wealth.

This alignment destroys the common-

wealth -- that is, the natural wealth of lo-

calities and the local economies of house-

hold, neighborhood, and community --

and so destroys democracy, of which the

commonwealth is the foundation and

practical means.

from The Art of the Commonplace: The

Agrarian Essays by Wendell Berry

Neil Postman’s piece in the

column to the left is from

his book, Amusing Our-

selves to Death: Public Dis-

course in the Age of Show

Business

7

Attribution for Images Page 1: Smoky Mountain Stream, photo by Lee

Coursey, July 1, 2011, CC BY 2.0, http://www.flickr.com/

photos/leeco/1347150852/

Page 2: Its Just a Sandbox, photo by Zach Dischner,

May 28, 2011, CC-BY 2.0, http://www.flickr.com/photos/

zachd1_618/5806631118/

Page 2: Trent River_0761, photo by Robert Taylor,

April 26, 2009, CC BY 2.0, http://www.flickr.com/photos/

bobolink/4556572912/

Page 3: Tibetan Prayer Flags, photo by watchsmart,

June 17, 2007, CC BY 2.0, http://www.flickr.com/photos/

watchsmart/782587593/

Page 4: Bird Egg, photo by Sean Mc Menemy, April 22,

2010, CC BY 2.0, http://www.flickr.com/photos/

seanfx/4545484485/

Page 5: Nap Time, photo by Dean Strelau, June 18,

2011, CC BY 2.0, http://www.flickr.com/photos/

dstrelau/5849222138/

Page 5: Where do the children play? Photo by Gustavo

Veríssimo, June 8, 2003, CC BY 2.0, http://

www.flickr.com/photos/gustty/11383628/

Page 5: Kibibi, Baby Gorilla, and the Log - Series pt. 1,

photo by Clara S., August 6, 2010, CC BY 2.0, http://

www.flickr.com/photos/pictureclara/4879654787/

Page 5: Kibibi, Baby Gorilla, and the Log - Series pt. 4,

photo by Clara S., August 6, 2010, CC BY 2.0, http://

www.flickr.com/photos/pictureclara/4879654787/

Page 6: Peaceful Liberation Monument, photo by Jack

Versloot, April 19, 2007, CC BY 2.0,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackversloot/467862112/

Page 6: Prayer Flags, photo by Nivedita Ravishankar,

January 28, 2006, CC BY 2.0, http://www.flickr.com/

photos/xarazzin/5873509001/

Page 6: American Flag on the Fourth of July, photo by

Denise Krebs, July 4, 2011, CC BY 2.0, http://

www.flickr.com/photos/mrsdkrebs/5903152720/

Page 7: Snowy Buddha, photo by Edward Dalmulder,

December 18, 2008, CC BY 2.0, http://www.flickr.com/

photos/edwarddalmulder/4195135224/

Theme for Discussion:

Liberation

Preparation prior to Gathering: (Read this

issue of Explorations and the questions.)

Business: Deal with any housekeeping

items (e.g., scheduling the next gathering).

Opening Words: “I felt the taste of mortali-

ty in my mouth, and at that moment I un-

derstood that I was not going to live forever.

It takes a long time to learn that, but when

you finally do, everything changes inside

you, you can never be the same again. I was

seventeen years old, and all of a sudden,

without the slightest flicker of a doubt, I

understood that my life was my own, that it

belonged to me and no one else. I’m talking

about freedom…. A sense of despair that

becomes so great, so crushing, so cata-

strophic, that you have no choice but to be

liberated by it. That’s the only choice, or else

you crawl into a corner and die.” Paul Auster

Chalice Lighting (James Vila Blake)

(In unison) Love is the spirit of this church,

and service is its law. This is our covenant: to

dwell together in peace, to seek the truth in love,

to serve human need, and to help one another.

Check-In: How is it with your spirit? What

do you need to leave behind in order to be

fully present here and now? (2-3 sentences)

Claim Time for Deeper Listening: This

comes at the end of the gathering where you

can be listened to uninterrupted for more

time if needed. You are encouraged to claim

time ranging between 3-5 minutes, and to

honor the limit of the time that you claim.

Read the Wisdom Story: Take turns read-

ing aloud parts of the wisdom story on page

1.

Readings from the Common Bowl: Group

Members read selections from Readings

from the Common Bowl (page 3). Leave a

few moments of silence after each to invite

reflection on the meaning of the words.

Sitting In Silence: Sit in silence together,

allowing the Readings from the Common

Bowl to resonate. Cultivate a sense of calm and

attention to the readings and the discussion

that follows (Living the Questions).

Reading: “I had no epiphany, no singular

revelation, no moment of truth, but a steady

accumulation of a thousand slights, a

thousand indignities, and a thousand unre-

membered moments produced in me an

anger, a rebelliousness, a desire to fight the

system that imprisoned my people. There

was no particular day on which I said,

‘Henceforth I will devote myself to the liber-

ation of my people;’ instead, I simply found

myself doing so, and could not do other-

wise.” Nelson Mandela

Living the Questions

Explore as many of theses questions as time

allows. Fully explore one question before

moving to the next.

1. When have you felt the widest margin

of freedom in your life? What were the

circumstances surrounding this?

2. Have you had any experiences in which

your freedom was severely restricted?

What were the circumstances? How did

this impact you?

3. Metaphorically speaking, have you ever

found yourself in chains? Why? Where

you able to throw them off? How?

4. How are you an ally with some group

of people at the margins of life? Why

these people? What is the nature of the

relationship?

5. How have you been liberated in your

life? What part of that process was a

result of your own effort? What part of

that process was because of actions by

others from which you benefitted?

6. What kinds of power do you have?

How do you use your power? How

does it benefit those with less power? The facilitator or group members are invited

to propose additional questions that they

would like to explore.

Deeper Listening: If time was claimed by

individuals, the group listens without inter-

ruption to each person who claimed time.

Checking-Out: One sentence about where

you are now as a result of the time spent

together exploring the theme.

Extinguishing Chalice (Elizabeth Selle Jones)

(In unison) We extinguish this flame but not

the light of truth, the warmth of community, or

the fire of commitment. These we carry in our

hearts until we are together again.

Closing Words

Rev. Philip R. Giles

(In unison) May the quality of our lives be

our benediction and a blessing to all we touch.

Small Group Discussion Guide

8

Touchstones Journal Order Info Place your congregation’s order for the

Touchstones journal today. The annual subscrip-

tion rate is $240 (September to August).

Send a check made out to

MDD-Touchstones

to Mountain Desert District, 2242 South Al-

bion Street, Denver, CO 80222. Include the

name and address of your congregation, and

the name of the person and the email ad-

dress to whom the journal and accompany-

ing materials are to be sent. Monthly, you

will receive electronically the 8-page journal

as a pdf to send to your congregation’s email

list. You will also receive as Word docu-

ments an extensive Worship Resource Pack-

et with diverse materials to plan two ser-

vices and a Discussion Guide on the month-

ly theme. Your members can also subscribe

to Contemplations at no charge. See page 2.