Shop for the basket

The Ethical Society of Austin has several ethical action programs, one of which is an ongoing campaign to promote cash and in-kind donations to the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas.  This food bank is tasked with supplementing the food needs of residents of not just Travis County but also the Counties of Bastrop, Bell, Blanco, Burnet, Caldwell, Coryell, Falls, Fayette, Freestone, Gillespie, Hays, Lampasas, Lee, Limestone, Llano, McLennan, Milam, Mills, San Saba, and Williamson.  

The need is great.  The work is important.  Our part in this effort is small.  It is, however, essential, and ESOA is committed to doing its part.  Each week members are reminded to bring their donations for the food bank and place them in the yellow basket.  

Donations include:

• non-perishable foods;
• empty ink cartridges;
• cash or check.

Sometimes we forget to bring items for the basket.  In my case, I am trying to reduce the size of my pantry (long story), so I am trying not to "stock up" on things as I used to.  That has made it a challenge to find something in the pantry for which I don't already have specific meal plans at the moment when I am ready to leave for our Sunday meeting and just then remembering that I should bring a can for the basket.  My strategy to deal with this is:

• Make a personal commitment to support this program.  That is, I am accepting that this is an important part of ESOA's ethical action in the community.  Therefore, I want to be an active participant in making our action successful.  That means finding food or money for that yellow basket!
• Shop for the basket.  That is, when I go to the grocery store now, I have a list of what to buy, and I more or less follow it for my own food needs.  While I am shopping, I also look at items that I think might be good for a family that needs some extra help in the pantry.  I toss in 2 to 4 cans so that I can bring them for the yellow basket.
• Make it easy on myself to get the food to the basket.  That is, I bag the food for the basket separately and, if the weather is looking reasonable, leave the bag in the car.  That way, the bag comes with me when I go to our Sunday meeting.  Otherwise, I bring the bag inside my home and have it near the door so that I can (hopefully) remember it when I go to our meeting.

This may sound a little hokey, but there are lots of food drives around.  We are asked to place a bag of groceries near our mail box now and then.  We are asked to donate a little extra at the cash register at our grocery store.  Some stores have barrels for you to place canned goods.  Some have prepackaged bags for the food bank.  Indeed, we have so many opportunities to give that we can tune out the message.  And our lives are busy enough that it is also a challenge to remember every single week to bring that can.

So this week, see if my strategy will work for you.   If it does, then next Sunday we'll see you with something in your hand and you can put it in the yellow basket.  If all else fails--Capital Area Food Bank of Texas can turn your dollar into four meals.  We'll even take your quarters!

Every week.  Nutrition is an ongoing need, which is why it is so important that our support is also ongoing.

Every honest conviction

In seeking out the Ethical Society of Austin, I did a fair amount of background research over the course of several months.  My personal situation led me realize that I was in need of a "community" as well as some degree of intellectual stimulation in the realm of "religion."  I was not, however, looking for religion per se, but the opportunity to explore the things that religion also explores--life, community, cosmos, world, values, ethical action, truth, and on and on.  Yes, I looked at Buddhism.  I long ago thought that I was in tune with American Transcendentalism.  I was feeling oppressed by Christianity, tired of having my face rubbed in it day after day, all day long--or so it began to feel.  Islam is not my favorite religion (although I have lived in Islamic communities and even worn the veil out of respect for local values).

What I was seeking was a non-theistic community.  I was not, however, enticed by the anti-theistic wing of atheism.  Separation of church and state is something that I hold dear, but I am not, at this time in my life, willing to engage in a full-time battle to maintain it.  I wanted something positive rather than negative, and every atheist and humanist organization that I looked at on the web talked about what they were not.  Only the Ethical Society of Austin presented themselves positively, without having to say what they were not, because what they were seemed like plenty to me.

So I came once, and I kept coming back.  In the early days, my attachment was a little iffy.  I kept hearing "god talk," as I call it.  References to "god" and "spirituality."  Conversations that sounded a little too New Age-y for me.  A kind of shrug when I questioned how one could adopt the language of other religions, laden as it was with specific and non-inclusive meanings, to express the concepts that we were exploring.  I just kept getting these benign and patient looks that said, "It's all okay."

Perplexment.  Confusitude.  Doubtage.

I eventually came to realize that being a "welcoming humanist community" really meant that.  "Deed before creed" is more than a motto:  It's a way of life.  As such, it was something I felt worth exploring.

Then I found Felix Adler's Founding Address, the nitty gritty statement of what it's all about, and there it was:

The freedom of thought is a sacred right of every individual man, and diversity will continue to increase with the progress, refinement, and differentiation of the human intellect. . . . Believe or disbelieve as ye list--we shall at all times respect every honest conviction.  [emphasis added]

ESOA members come from differing religious traditions--Catholicism, evangelical Christianity, atheism, Mormonism, Judaism, and more.  Past and present beliefs matter little, except as they help round out our consideration of the ideas before us.  Tolerance and peaceful co-existence and respect just happen when any new or different perspective enters the conversation--because freedom of thought is a cherished value.

That being said, what Adler was headed for was a "practical religion from which none dissents."  For Adler this was a call to action.  He wanted:

Diversity in the creed, unanimity in the deed!

Or, as it was elsewhere phrased:  Deed before creed.  He wanted his fellows to join together to do the difficult work of "unselfish service to the common weal." Arguing points of doctrine serves only to distract from the work that needs doing, so he wanted to stop arguing.

Hmmm.  Humbling thought.  I found what I was looking for after all, but I may have been asking the wrong question.  No wonder "Let the Mystery Be" is such a popular song at ESOA.

Shall we sing?

Every Sunday, someone asks: "What are we singing today?" or some variation thereof.  We only seem to sing one song, and the songs are, well, weird.  At least, that's what I thought when I attended my first meeting of the Ethical Society of Austin, and everyone stood up to sing "Circles."  (No, I had never heard of Harry Chapin, and, yes, I know now that that is a major gap in my life.)  I was frankly a tad surprised to find out that we even had a songbook, apparently operating under the impression that humanists didn't have any music (like feminists don't have a sense of humor?).

Since then, my mind has been opened to a new world of music.  I have always loved music, both singing and listening, but I didn't always seem to pay attention to the lyrics (singers do not always enunciate, y'know).  While everyone else was hearing a message, I was hearing tone and rhythm.  Awkward.  Now, as never before, I look at the lyrics to hear the message as well as the melody.  Songs that I had listened to are now songs that I can sing.

It is also clearer to me why a constant thread in Felix Adler's Founding Address was music and its importance as an adjunct to our meetings,  He said that music would serve as "a pleasing and grateful auxiliary" to the lectures and would "elevate the heart and give rest to the feelings."  A little later in the Address, he speaks of the "public teacher," one who would be presenting one or more of these lectures:

And what he fails to express, what no language that was ever spoken on earth can express--those nameless yearnings of the soul for something better and happier far than aught we know of--Music will give them utterance and solve and soothe them.

Yea, verily!

My own musical history is somewhat complicated and probably irrelevant here, but I do need to say that the musical aspects of The Ethical Society of Austin do elevate my heart, do give utterance to my yearning for a better, happier world. When we sing "Ode to Joy," my cup runneth over.  I do think that Adler was personifying Music and thinking in broader terms than simple "messages," but I am content that beauty can also be practical (but doesn't have to be) and that a message can also come with a good tune (just enunciate, for garden seed!).

Gloating over Scalia

Justice Antonin Scalia is dead.  I missed the news.  It apparently happened a few days ago.  I am sometimes isolated from current issues when I have some thinking to do--no TV, no newspaper, not internet news feed for the duration.  So I don't know the circumstances, just that it was sudden and unexpected (to most people?).*  I found out about his death by reading a political blog that I often visit--although not in the past several days.  At this point, news posts are dealing with the political circus that has erupted over Scalia's replacement on the Supreme Court of the United States.  The comments discuss the Republican strategy, the Democrat strategy, the quality of the headline of whatever article is being discussed (a constant debate).

Some commenters, however, note that they took the news of Justice Scalia's death as an opportunity to celebrate.  Then followed some snarky remarks about houses falling on Scalia, as if he were a "wicked witch."  And so on.

I can't say that I thought of Justice Scalia with any admiration while he was alive, nor do I think his legacy will make our nation a better one.   Indeed, I was quite convinced that his every action on the Supreme Court was to weaken the nation, ignore the constitution, and generally destroy the fabric of civil society.  I had read, however, that he was nice enough in person, had a good sense of humor.  I forced myself to listen to him speak a couple of times and was pretty much surprised that he made some sense.

I don't believe that his "spirit" lives on.  His conscious awareness of self--his soul, if you will--died when he drew his last breath and the electrical connections in his brain stopped.  I am not afraid that his ghost will haunt me if I "speak ill of the dead."  Why then am I bothered by the celebration and snark that others have evinced?  Am I exhibiting some sort of false piety when I think that there should be at least a moment when we acknowledge that a human life--any human life--has ended?

Death is a big deal.  It's the end of a life.  Whatever a person did in life is over. His/her works may continue after death, but there will never be anything new from him/her, never be any explanation for the past, never be any chance to change or make amends or make peace.  It's just over.  Done.  Finished.  Do we not need to pause in our own busy lives to take into account this change that has happened--this new void in our world?  Do we not owe it to ourselves to preserve our own humanity by acknowledging the immensity of death, the significance of a human life and death?  Even some animals grieve for the loss another.

When we call each other pejorative names, we objectify and generally discount each other's human worth.  When we gloat at the death of an enemy/opponent/other, we deny both their humanity and our own.  To take pleasure in death, frankly, makes us one with any common killer.

Yes, there's a vacancy on the US Supreme Court.  I can see that as a good thing for some progressive and humanist issues, since the vacancy was held by an extremely conservative justice.  Yes, there will be a scramble to fill the vacancy, and we can all pop some corn to enjoy the show.  We may even decide that our vote in the coming primary will make a difference in how the show ends and get involved in it in our own small way.  Life and politics go on.  Let them go on with some recognition of our common humanity, our common mortality, our common need to--somehow--live together.

*Just hoping his family had some time to prepare.  Sudden death of a loved one can be quite traumatic.

Meeting by conversation

One form of meeting for the Ethical Society of Austin is called a Colloquy.  This is an old Middle English word, more used in the 19th century than the current one.  It comes, of course, from a Latin word, colloquium.  In my mind, colloquium has a more academic feel; colloquy, apparently, has a more religious connotation.  Both words mean "conversation" (of the more formal sort), but each seems to have found its more favored niche of use.

In ESOA, the Colloquy is actually a formal conversation.  The format is deceptively relaxed, given the very defined structure under which the conversation occurs.  The moderator (these days that would be Adam Gravois) introduces the topic and lays down the ground rules.  This conversation involves, he always reminds us, our listening skills.  We are not to interrupt or respond to what is being said, although we may respond at the end of the session during the discussion period.  One person, any person who wants to volunteer, begins.  Then the person to his/her right speaks, following counterclockwise around the circle until everyone who wants to speak has had a turn.  At that point we take a moment to think about what has been said.  If there is time, we can all then discuss one point or another that has been raised in the circle, validating, expanding, countering.

In the loosest sense Colloquy might be considered, as it is in religious circles, to be a conversation regarding theological questions or to resolve religious doctrinal differences, but only in the sense that the concepts and ideals under consideration deal with some of our deepest values and are approached by each of us from a different perspective. Colloquy functions to direct our thinking on fundamental concepts--love, tolerance, success, family, etc.--so that we define, as we may not have before, the concept in our own lives at the same time we are allowed to hear how others define and experience the concept.  In the welcoming fellowship of ESOA, deep emotions and intimate secrets are sometimes shared, adding to the sense of community--even family--that the society provides for its members. While not the purpose of Colloquy, this latter function might be considered a benefit.

I do not know the history of Colloquy in ethical culture.  Felix Adler proposed that society meetings consist primarily of lecture.  This is in keeping, I think, with the times.  Pre-electronic, certainly.  But also toward the end of the lyceum movement, which, for a while, provided venues for adult education from various public speakers.  Rhetoric and oratory provided intellectual entertainment as well as education in nineteenth-century America, and "conversation" would likely have been less valued as a means to consider the High Ideas that Adler intended to be the focus of ethical culture.  The concept of colloquy was certainly available, but its then context--religious discussion, especially for resolution of doctrinal differences--may have made it seem inappropriate for someone who asserted the importance of "Deed before creed."

However formal conversation might have crept into the repertoire of meeting types for ESOA, it does seem an appropriate tool for getting to the core of our values and ideals.  In the days and sometimes weeks before a Colloquy, knowing the topic, the audience/participant is already thinking about the concept. Knowing that he/she will be called upon to speak--preferably briefly--in real terms as the topic relates to one's own experience--the audience/participant is already thinking of what to say.  That entails reexamination of the concept as an abstraction:  What does this word really mean?  Then one begins to recall, to think about, to experience once more the events and people who have been a part of one's life.  This can be painful.  My own comments in Colloquy are often prefaced by "I didn't want to come today," "I really hate this topic," "This is hard."  The abstraction of "family" may present itself as a Norman Rockwell painting in our minds, but the reality of our own lives may include death, divorce, anger, abdication of roles, neglect, abuse, money issues, distance (emotional and physical)--and on through the seemingly endless list of how birth families can become weapons of mental destruction.  Or, if we are lucky, we do find love, closeness, marriage (or remarriage), children (grands and greats as well), comfort, joy--and on through the happily endless list of how birth--and chosen--families can become treasures of great worth.  In this effort, we re-examine our lives through the lens of the Colloquy's topic to get at its meaning in  the reality that we live.

Once Colloquy begins, we listen carefully as our fellows talk.  We talk about tolerance (and intolerance) in terms of limits and focus, revealing to ourselves those points of friction in society that demand boundaries or deserve our forbearance or which are mere historical artifacts that need to pass away quickly. We talk about love in terms of its sources, its types, its quantity, its presence or absence and find for ourselves new understanding of the value of this emotion in our own lives.  We talk about success and find that common definitions may not suit us, may indeed harm us, and learn of more ethical ways to define success in our lives and our world.  In the Colloquy format, the audience/participant becomes the speaker, and it is the thinking of the audience/participant that is reflected in the conversation.  The group produces the outline (albeit unstructured) of talking points and draws its conclusions about the meanings presented.

The first ESOA meeting that I attended was a Colloquy on cycles.  I had never seen this type of meeting before, not as a means to enlightenment, but I do love to talk.  Listening was harder in that meeting, because I had to think of what I might say to all these strangers, right?  As the conversation moved around the circle, I learned a little bit about these very human humanists and saw that--just maybe--I might fit in.  I have great fondness for these Colloquies now.  Yes, they have made me feel closer to the others in the Society, something I cherish.  They also made me think about some really hard issues in a more thoughtful and systematic way.  And they still do.  Long after the initial conversation is over, I am more aware of these concepts, looking at them with new eyes, thanks in part to the perspectives gained from other participants in the conversation.

You say "crazy cat lady" like it's a bad thing

That's what my socks say.  I bought them as a birthday present to myself a while back.  I really, really want a cat.  My home is very much in transition right now, so it's not a good idea to bring a cat into this much chaos.  Instead, I have cat things to comfort me.  Not too many, mind you, but a touch here and there--the porcelain cat on the entertainment center, the spoon rest with the tea things, an ink drawing bought many years ago.  I am definitely a cat lady.  Alas, sans cat.

So I get these emails from Mother Jones.  For a long while, I didn't read them. They don't land in the primary folder of my email program, so I don't have to look at all these "updates" unless I'm looking for something in particular.  Lately, I've been reading more and more of the messages, clicking over to the magazine and just getting depressed.  We are so killing the planet. Even our cats are killing the planet.  And we, their human enablers, contribute to their killing spree.

At least that seems to be the gist of Keira Butler's recent article, "Are Cats Bad for the Environment?"  Cats, as all cat lovers know, are natural born killers. Indeed, they quite enjoy killing, playing with and generally tormenting their prey in the process.  And then, the dears, they bring the corpse to us so we can pet them and tell them what good kitties they are.  As Butler points out, cats--feral or free ranging--are the top killer of birds in the US, far and above a greater menace than clear glass windows or wind turbines.  And birds, she reminds us, eat the insect pests that plague our enjoyment of the outdoors and help us cope with one of the more unpleasant side effects of climate change--even more bugs.

I think that an ethical life includes concern for the planet.  We are here for a short time.  Our present is affected by how the planet has been treated in the past, just as those who follow us will be affected by our treatment of the planet.  We have a responsibility to the future to live in the present having some care about the damage we do to the planet.

Does this mean I can't have a cat?  Maybe.  In my concern for my potential pet, I have postponed adoption until I have a more stable home environment.  I have been considering the pros and cons of declawing--and have not yet resolved my thinking there.  That my future pet will be spayed is a given.  I think that keeping the cat in the house is going to be another consideration.  I've lived with indoor cats, outdoor cats, and cats who keep me opening and closing the door 50 times a day.  The local coyotes and my songbirds are now casting opposing votes--the coyotes seem to be thinning out the outdoor cat population in our area; the songbirds are more noticeable than ever and suggest that keeping the cats away is a good idea.

Pets, however, are so healing.  I have several times visited Petco to talk to the cats available there for adoption.  In dark times, these cats have represented hope and comfort to me.  The cats of friends can be standoffish--as cats usually will be--so I've seen more welcoming attention from their dogs.  Dogs, of course, are either little and wiggly or big and slobbery.  Not at all what a cat lady wants, thank you.  Cat person or dog person or even reptile person, we are all helped by having some creature that seems attached to us, that accepts our care, and, with a little anthropomorphizing, serves as a companion in our life.  It's hard to see how humans can give up all pets in order to live ethically in respect to the planet, not easily anyway.

I have a no good answer for the growing problem of feral cats.  I can only look at what I can do as an individual.  So:

1. I'm thinking of ordering Teeny Tiny Kitten in a Box.  
2. I bought a teddy bear.  Really.  We haven't bonded to the point where I've given him a name, but I knew he was a guy because of the bow tie.  So far he ignores me just as I expect my future cat will do.  He will, however, willingly cuddle when I need something to hold on to.  He's better than a pillow anyway.  Cats, of course, are more often the deciders when it comes to cuddling.  They choose the time and place--usually when and where you are in the middle of some crucial task and there is the greatest risk of spoiling everything with a swish of a tail or a curious paw--for any cuddling that might be allowed.  The bear does not, however, purr.  I expect he'll get donated as soon as I do get a cat.  Unless the cat likes him.
3. As I'm considering getting a cat, I will have to be mindful of the consequences, not only for my life and the cat's well being, but also for the broader environment.  This means adoption from a shelter, likely an older cat whose previous owner had to give her up, spayed, indoor.  And then there's kitty litter disposal. Maybe I'll just see how this kitten-in-a-box does.

How shall we eat?

When Felix Adler thought about ethical culture meetings, he thought:  "Mostly lecture, a little music."  The Ethical Society of Austin has an additional mode of meeting:  The Potluck.  That is, on the first Sunday of the month, members (and some repeat visitors) bring a covered dish, and those of us who don't have other commitments sit down together to eat.  Sometimes parents will stay to have their children join us, so it becomes a multigenerational feast.

ESOA meets in fairly sparse facilities. Tables and chairs have to be set up and taken down for the meal.  There is no stove, but there is a microwave.  Most dishes are, therefore, served cold.  Occasionally someone brings a crockpot.  We have had a wild assortment of table cloths.  Both the setting and the meal are simple.  It is the sense of community that develops over these meals and the delightful conversation that serves both to build the society and to deepen our understanding of the day's platform or colloquy that elevate the event beyond the place.

From the very first potluck, I noticed a concern among members to reduce the environmental impact of our meals.  One person gathered up the compostable items, others made sure that recyclables were put in the proper receptacle.  A problem arose almost immediately as we realized that the paper plates used that day were not compostable because of a plastic coating.  The plastic utensils were washed, but I can't say whether they ever showed up at another potluck.  We were producing trash!

Slowly a solution has emerged.  I have long been interested in switching from paper napkins to cloth napkins to reduce at least one reason for killing trees.  I inherited many cloth napkins from a mother who often set a color-coordinated table.  It was easy enough to offer to bring in some of those napkins for use during our monthly meal.  John and Susan Theiss brought their own plates and eating utensils to one potluck, introducing another idea.  We are now working on a plan for ESOA to have its own set of dishes, which we will wash and store between potlucks.  We have the flatware, but the dishes are still being worked out.  In the meantime, I bring all of my dinner, salad, and soup plates once a month so that we don't have to resort to paper plates.

Now a new element of community has been added as we clear the tables and do the washing up.  Not only do we share the labor of making a communal meal, we also work together to reduce the impact of that meal.  In the process, we become more mindful of our world and how we might work to protect its resources in ways both small and large.

One other element of mindful living has been added to these meals.  We have a little set of cards (reused) and holders (handmade) to list ingredients that might trigger food allergies or somehow not meet the dietary restrictions under which some members live.  Little notes about the presence of nuts, dairy, sugar, gluten, etc. can be lifesaving.  We have no desire to restrict those who bring dishes in their choice of ingredients, and our cooks do add nuts and other good things to their dishes, but thinking about what we add helps us be mindful of the needs of others. Noting the risky items also shows respect for their situation.

Update: Veggie Bags

I ventured out of the house Friday, my first attempt at driving since the eye surgery.  So far so good.  I had to get to the grocery store to pick up a few things for the monthly potluck luncheon for Ethical Society of Austin.  I had a couple of adventures with the veggie bags, so I thought I'd share my progress so far.

• Have I mentioned that the first step in using the reusable veggie bags is to remember to bring them?  They can get lost in the mass of reusable shopping bags that we accumulate in Austin, so it takes a little extra effort to make sure that they are handy when needed.  So far I have gone off and left them in the house only once.  I decided that I would just have to do without fresh produce that day, so the lesson was quickly learned.  I now hang them separately so that I don't miss them when I need to get them back to the car.
• On a recent trip to a store where other items are available in bulk and/or bag your own bins, I discovered that the bags could also be used for fresh bread and for some bulk foods, in this case, non-sticky candy.  
• A friendly baker voiced approval of my bags and then told me about how other shoppers have dealt with the sticky tags used to tell the cashier how much an item will cost.  He demonstrated how people would stick them all over their clothes, "just about everywhere," and then mimed the cashier trying to scan them.  The important point for me was that I didn't have to be so neat about getting my tags on a special piece of paper--all the cashier wants to see is the bar code.
• The cashier was, however, happy with my tags stuck on a sheet of paper. She "voted" my strategy the best of any that she had seen.  Oh, sweet validation!
• Friday's adventure was a little less positive.  The cashier was happy to see the bags and the little sheet of stickers, but the bags were kind of floppy.  I didn't pull the string all the way to close the cucumber bag, so, yes, that was my cucumber rolling out of the basket.  Worse, the lemons were missing! The cashier rang them up because they were there on the sheet, but the lemons, bag and all, were gone.  I backtracked and ended up in the produce section near the lemons--and there was my bag complete with three lemons. Apparently, I weighed them, printed the label, stuck the label on my sheet of paper, and then walked off without the lemons.  *sigh*  

Well, yes, now that you ask, my life is rather like The Perils of Pauline. Adventures aside, reusable veggie bags--whether you make your own or buy some for the purpose--do seem to be becoming more common here in Austin and do help reduce the need for plastic produce bags.  Of course, if you have secondary uses for the plastic bags, that's good, too.  

Intermittent Blogging

I am scheduled to have cataract surgery today and a week from today.  I am not sure how quickly I will be able to see well with my new lenses, but I have been banned from the computer for at least 24 hours following each surgery.  I'll be back--happy to see a brighter world--as soon as possible.

How shall we meet?

Having specified a simple format for Sunday meetings and having made it clear that ritual and formalism were not to be part of those meetings in his Founding Address, Felix Adler had some specific thoughts about what would go on in a meeting:  mostly lectures and some music.  While Adler didn't actually say "but not a sermon," he did assure his audience (and us) that he did not intend that there would be a need for a "priestly office after a new fashion."

Adler did clarify that all these lectures should have a purpose:

First, to illustrate the history of human aspirations, its monitions and its examples; to trace the origin of many of those errors of the past whose poisonous tendrils still cling to the life of the present, but also to exhibit its pure and bright examples, and so to enrich the little sphere of our earthly existence by showing the grander connections in which it everywhere stands with the large life of the race. . . . Secondly, it will be the object of the lecturers to set forth a standard of duty, to discuss our practical duties in the practical present, to make clear the responsibilities which our nature as moral beings imposes on us in view of the political and social evils of our age, and also to dwell upon those high and tender consolations which the modern view of life does not fail to offer us even in the midst of anguish and affliction.

Hoo boy!  So history, religion, philosophy, human nature, standards, duty, responsibilities--no easy path does Friend Felix lay down for us.   Plus music.

How does this play out 140 years later?  In Austin, the Ethical Society meets most Sundays (did I mention that before?) if the meeting space is available (we are looking for new meeting space, in case you know of anything).  Meetings are said to be either a Platform (lecture) or Colloquy (discussion).  Sometimes they are a mix of the two.  Lectures can be presented by members or guests; colloquies are lead by our Program Chair (Adam Gravois) and quickly turned into a group activity.

There is, however, more.  Come early and share coffee and conversation.  A chance to meet and greet, touch base on Society business, get to know fellow members a little better.  Come even earlier and help set things up.  Arrange chairs, make the coffee, set out the songbooks, get to know fellow members a little better.

A single chime will halt the busyness of these activities (but not the coffee), and we all take our seats and focus on the day's leader and our purpose in meeting.  This is the point at which someone--whoever the day's leader may ask to do so in the moments before the meeting begins--and it varies--reads a statement of purpose.  We have several variants of these statements, so the reader chooses which he or she may want to read.  All of them, I have to point out, are powerful and inspiring words that help us remember why we are present and what we need to be doing during the meeting.

The leader makes or calls for a few announcements about upcoming events or decisions that the Board has made.  Then we are all called to consider whether there have been matters of ethical concern that we have encountered during the previous week.  This is an opportunity to examine ourselves and our week--if we have not already done so--to consider where there have been conflicts or victories in the values that matter to us.  We can recount what the issue was and how we resolved it or ask the group to help us figure out a resolution.  From ethical conflicts and concerns the leader then guides us to talk about "concerns or joys."  These are usually brief statements from members which range from the revelation of a happy or sad event in the previous week to a broader statement of personal concern about state-national-international events and trends.

Once everyone who needs to speak about these more individual-but-now-shared-matters has done so, the day's leader calls for another just-appointed volunteer (again, it varies) to light the lantern.  I'll write more about what follows in another post (or posts!).

For now, it's worth considering that this early part of an Ethical Society meeting is a reflection of the early part of Adler's Founding Address.  While he was trying to establish an organization that met weekly to discuss serious and high matters, he prefaced the establishment with a review of the current situation in our nation.  In some ways, the Ethical Society is doing the same by opening the floor in an entirely democratic fashion to all--members and visitors alike--to present their awareness of ethical conflicts in our society and in our personal relations as well as evaluations of life and public events that have impressed themselves upon individual consciousness and conscience.  As Adler laid out the context for ethical culture, so we lay out the context for our own small community's attempt to live better lives and make the world a better place.  The effect, from my perspective, is a closer sense of community and a better understanding of how we can help each other be and do . . . better.