Adler on Purpose

Standing Up for Human Rights at the Texas Capitol

Felix Adler reported to the New York Society about what he experienced at the first [international] Congress [of Ethical Societies] held in Zurich in 1896 (Ethical Addresses, Series Three, pp. 133-150).  He detailed the activities reported by the Ethical Societies that attended from all over Europe and then he turned to the problem that he saw:

Now all this is very laudable and very interesting, but it did seem to me as if there was one thing lacking in the foreign Ethical Societies — or at least if not lacking yet not sufficiently pronounced: that is, the spiritual element. I do not mean anything mystical when I use the word spiritual. When we think of morality, if we concentrate our attention on the act, on the external part of it, then we are not spiritual; but if we care chiefly for the spirit in which the act is done, then we take the spiritual view. It seemed to me as if the spiritual side, though not wanting by any means among the leaders — in fact it was beautifully emphasized by some of the leaders — was nevertheless too much neglected; as if the drift were in an external direction, as if the feeling prevailed that the ethical society exists for the benefit of others. I have always felt that this is a wrong attitude to take. I have always felt that an ethical society should take the ground that it exists primarily for the moral benefit of its own members. It is in this way that I have distinguished in my mind between the real members and the quasi members of an ethical society. The real member of an ethical society is the person who feels that he has not yet — morally — finished his education; that he is in need of moral development, in need of help, and looks upon the society as a means of helping him in his moral development. The quasi member is the person who merely appreciates the society in so far as it is doing good for others. He is no real member, at best only an ally, an associate. Now I felt that this sort of external feeling prevails to a considerable degree in the foreign societies as it still largely exists in our own. (pp 143-144).  Emphasis added.

From another perspective, we have, in the next year’s Series (Ethical Addresses, Series 4), a report of the Congress from the new Secretary of what he called, at that point, the International Ethical Federation.  Dr. F. W. Foerster, Jr., son of the eminent astronomer, Dr. F. W. Foerster, reported on Adler’s address to the Congress thusly:

The address given the following evening by Professor Felix Adler, the founder of the Ethical Movement, on " Our Common Aims," proved to be of importance in the outlook it opened and the influence it exercised on the deliberations of the Congress. For him all merely external results achieved by the Movement are of minor significance. The true  “practice" cannot appear unless a social regeneration has previously taken place in every individual. In assigning the chief prominence to the moral renewal of the inner life, Professor Adler pointed out, at the same time, the necessary consequences which a thoroughly sincere person, who lays the principal stress on the inner side of reform, must draw, so far as the social and economic distress of the present day is concerned. This elucidation was the more timely, as many of the continental leaders were under the mistaken impression that the Ethical Movement in America has taken the shape of a sort of religious sect, and does not attempt to exert a decisive influence upon the attitude and conduct of its members with respect to social and political questions. This impression indeed seemed, for the moment, to receive additional confirmation when Professor Adler proceeded to warn against the tendency to over-emphasize activity in the external field and declared that, as members of the Ethical Societies, we are to see to it primarily that  “we save our own souls alive," that it is our own inward integrity which we must seek to rescue. But it was speedily made plain that no mere retirement into a sequestered Ethical individualism was intended, but that the position indicated contained within itself the very strongest motives to the exercise of the social energies. For, moral self-recollection, according to Professor Adler, if it be only deep enough, is sure to lead us beyond the narrow limits of individualism, sure to awaken in us not merely interest in our fellow beings and a forceless pity for their sufferings, but to fill us with a profoundly moving consciousness that we are, in part, responsible for the crimes and miseries that exist in society and will arouse us to seek expiation from the social guilt which adheres to us. And this, first of all and chiefly, by achieving our inner release from the evil powers that today devastate mankind. (Series 4, 102-103)

And he goes on from there. (And I should point out that about a year later Dr. Foerster (the younger) left the Movement and converted to Catholicism.)  What I gathered from this was that, at the very beginning of our international federation, there was concern that Ethical Culture was being distorted into a social justice or social service organization.  Adler’s repeated assertion is that our goal is our own personal moral/ethical growth and improvement – and our practice in social service and social action is how we learn and grow.  That, at least, is my understanding of what I have been seeing and reading as I do this work.  Interestingly, the tension remains in the AEU and in our local Societies – are we all about ethics or are we all about the practice of ethics?  Somehow it always seems to be either/or and not both/and.

___________________________________

The above excerpt is from an address I recently delivered to the Ethical Humanist Society of the Triangle.  The address focused on lessons gleaned from preparing the Bibliography of Ethical Culture, starting with Ethical Addresses and Ethical Record, a 21 volume serial published by the American Ethical Union from 1895 to 1914.  

The founding of an International Union of Ethical Societies was an important milestone in the history of the Ethical Culture Movement.  I found it interesting that there was some misunderstanding at the outset regarding the goal of individual improvement and the broader element of social development.  Part of that interest came from the point raised in the last sentence of this portion of my address:  History is repeating itself in our Movement.  That is, insofar as those who join us are looking to perform good works and acts of social justice, they may have failed to understand the purpose of our Ethical Societies.  Yes, we commit to doing Ethical actions.  Yes, we want to make the world a better place for all who live in it.  But we are, first of all, seeking to develop our own understanding of ethics and the right thing to do.  As we progress in our understanding of ethics, part of that understanding will be that there are those who need our help, that our voice is needed to clarify the ethics of the situation, that our time and talent can be used to improve the lives of others.  Part of that understanding will also be that our ethics are practical and applied as a way of gaining an even better understanding of the needs and suffering of those around us as we also seek ways to relieve that suffering.  It is not the application of our ethics that we seek but the understanding and knowledge and human compassion that we gain by applying them, drawing us closer to our fellow humans and more in harmony with the planet.  That ethical action is a by-product of our ethical development is not any less important than the fact that ethical action is a tool of our ethical development. 

Have a nice winter festival, Y'all!

This Happy Ethical Human will celebrate the season and 

return in the new year (with resolutions, no doubt!).

The Light of Ethical

At this time of the year, there are many festivals that focus on light.  December 21 is typically identified as the first day of winter; it is the winter solstice, the day when the northern half of the planet is tilted farthest away from the sun and begins to reverse its tilt.  This reversal is, to many humans throughout history, the return of the light.  Days now will become longer.  It is, to many of us, a promise that spring will eventually come again and the earth will warm and produce its bounty.

I ran across a different kind of festival in my research on Ethical Culture.  The New York Meeting House was built by October 1910 (I can't find the date for the groundbreaking ceremony) and dedicated, first, to its Ethical and Religious Purposes and, then, to its Civic Uses in ceremonies on October 23 and 24, 1910.  Included in those ceremonies was a poem written by Percival Chubb, called simply "Dedication Ode."  

I'm no judge of poetry, so I can't suggest how this poem might rate in form or language, but the idea of the light is a powerful one for me.  I am sensitive to the changes that we experience as the seasons pass when the light changes (and the temperature as well).  I imagine the delight of those first humans to "capture" fire and then to discover how to "make" it, turning the dark of night into something nearer day, gaining both warmth and the comfort of light to their camp.  I imagine living more in tune with the seasons, knowing what the earth will produce as the light and the temperature changes (if the rains come on time), having my life channeled by the boundaries of nature's time, not that of humans.  

In The Ethical Society of Austin, when we mark the beginning of our Ethical discussion, we light a candle and say ritual words:  "May we kindle within ourselves the light of understanding, the warmth of compassion, and the fire of commitment."  These concepts are very meaningful to me.  When I light a candle here in my home, I sometimes utter them as a reminder of how powerful such a light can be. I light a candle and think of how much such a tiny light can mean when the world is dark and so are the hearts of men.

One thing that our candle lighting ritual does not encompass is that comfort that humans have felt in the presence of a burning light.  It pushed back the darkness and gave a slight sense of increased safety.  It included hope that the time of darkness would end and the full light of day would return, but for now . . . just for a while . . . the world is not so dark.

Percival Chubb's "Dedication Ode" spoke to me as the lighted candle does.  He talked about the nature of the light that he saw in the Meeting House, emphasizing that it was not supernatural, but produced by humans:

Flame of the kindled heart by which we love;
Light of the single mind by which we see.

He then calls on that light to bind us together:

Blend all our separate lights to one great whole
As in one perfect fellowship of soul;
That in the pure effulgence we may see
The splendor of the prophecy
Of man harmonious in the true society.

It is, however, the ending of the poem which speaks to me with the strongest emotion:

When low our spirit's flickering flame may burn
And our feet falter on their starward way.
Hither our steps unwittingly shall stray.
Hither our longing turn.
Here to the quiet and the calm;
Here to the peace . . . the light . . . the fire.

The peace, the light, the fire--the comfort that comes from Ethical when we see each other with understanding and compassion, committing ourselves to cherish the best in each other with our own best selves. 

IPCC, What Are We Waiting For?

What are we waiting for?

I'm organizing my files.  I used to say, "I can't die until I get my filing done."  I'm not particularly getting ready for death as much as I am just prematurely buried in paper, both electronic and the actual made-from-trees stuff.  My new treasure is a 4T hard drive and its partner, a Canon desktop scanner.  Progress is occurring!  

The thing about organizing, though, is that you find things you forgot you had, like the little booklet--IPCC in a Nutshell--that I wrote in 2019.  That's a collection of a series of posts I published on Facebook about the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  Five years on, the recommendations still apply, but they seem so minor in the face of the changes that have occurred in such a short time.  There are new reports now coming from the IPCC, and the Sixth Assessment Report seems to be the newest.  It's bleak enough that my little booklet seems like a relic of a long ago past, where filling the recycling bin would be enough to make a difference.  

Closer to home, so to speak, the US seems to be issuing NCA5--the fifth National Climate Assessment.  This happens every four years, and a review draft was issued about a year ago.  It seems that the final version is now out.  It also seems that the final version is amazingly optimistic.  Here are the key messages on mitigation:

• Successful Mitigation Means Reaching Net-Zero Emissions
• We Know How to Drastically Reduce Emissions
• To Reach Net-Zero Emissions, Additional Mitigation Options Need to Be Explored
• Mitigation Can Be Sustainable, Healthy, and Fair
• Governments, Organizations, and Individuals Can Act to Reduce Emissions

I say amazingly, because I know that agriculture is one of our big GHG emitters, and Texas (All Hail the Mighty State!) just fought back on every single key message with Proposition 1, cunningly touted as "Food for Texas."  Likely to favor agribusiness, protect polluters, and defang environmental regulations, the Right to Farm amendment to the Texas Constitution passed on November 7 with 79% approval.  (Not mine.)

It does help that most of our major cities have taken their own steps to get to net zero emissions (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio--and Austin--but not Fort Worth).  Since Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio are three of the ten largest cities in the US, this is not a small thing.  On the other hand, The Right to Farm amendment was directly aimed, in part, at cities and towns that incorporate land that someone wants to put to agricultural use without regard for the concerns of neighboring residents for animal welfare, use of pesticides, etc.  Given the tendency of Texas cities to sprawl, this is also not a small thing.

I have been focusing on individual action, but it may be time to look at group action.  The Austin Community Climate Plan bears a closer look.  Passed in 2015, there will have been subsequent audits and adjustments to the plan, such as this one from 2020.  And a new version of the plan focuses on climate equity.  In all of these plans, there is collaboration between the various levels of government, the community, and interested parties (industry, business, and advocacy coalitions).  As Ethicals, I think we can find some partners of our own in this process to help us learn more about what we can do--and what we need to do--to change the message from "Food for Texas" and the "Right to Farm" to regenerating the planet with food for everyone.

The Light Still Shines

Pretty much like this

In just a couple of days I'll have to think about what happened in 2014.  I always do at this time of year.  There was a time when, with the approach of my birthday, I dreaded the next two months for all of the extra work that came with the holidays.  As an only child, I had to take on more responsibility for the holidays for my parents and then my husband's family as well.  There were multiple Thanksgiving dinners and extra Christmas celebrations and, in later years, the Christmas projects that my husband and I would undertake.  That morning in 2014, two days before Thanksgiving, my husband and I were talking about our Christmas project.  And then, a couple of hours later, he was dead.

My mother had died the previous summer.  We were at her house, making plans to begin clearing it out and putting it up for sale.  We had no extra plans for Thanksgiving.  With all our family, except his grown daughter, gone--dead--we had no obligations except to each other--and we wanted no special dinners or extra work beyond what was necessary.  Indeed, we wanted no other company, enjoying the chance to spend time together.  Both of us had a special affection for the Austin Shelter for Battered Women, and we had already agreed to bring extra supplies for their pantry and whatever household goods we ran across.  The east side of Houston was a great place to find bargains, and we had the van to haul them back to Austin.  We were in the dining area, he making notes, me babbling about some good news from the scales, and then I brought up the Christmas project.

He said he was tired and was going to take a nap.  I said, "Me, too."  I had already been running errands that morning, and a nap, when we had no schedule or deadlines, seemed really reasonable to me.  When I went into the bedroom a few minutes behind him, he was struggling for breath, and I couldn't rouse him.  I called 911, went to let the paramedics in, but he never woke up.  He died.  I have to repeat that word.  He didn't just pass away, or leave, or go.  He died.  

I was really pissed about that.  After all those years of taking care of our family elders.  After all those years of making others happy.  It was finally our time.  Our time to be together.  Our time to do what we wanted to do.  Our.  Time.

So how does this have anything to do with being a Happy (Ethical) Human?

More than you would think.  I may seem like a Grumpy (But Still, I Hope, Ethical) Human during this time of year.  I'm not much into socializing or sharing feasts or even lots of presents.  I have plenty of stuff, thank you.  I am very conscious of food waste and over-eating, so I need to give the big dinners a miss.  I do return to my grief sometimes during the holidays, and I really would rather spare others the gloomy face.

Even so, I am content.  I have lovely memories of the time we had together.  I have happy memories of all the Thanksgivings and Christmases that we spent with our families.  It was a lot of work, yes, but the laughter, the singing, the love made up for every bit of the work.  And I've had time to make peace with death.  It's part of life--we are born, we live our lives, we die.  That makes how we live our lives all the more important.  To live a life that we can be pleased with.  Did we do the right thing?  Did we do enough?  Did we help others?  

Now my task is to live my life as well as I can, as Ethically as I can.  Lucky me to have such wonderful memories to keep me company.  How interesting--and comforting--to discover that Felix Adler had similar thoughts in talking about Consolations for grief:

And the world is not

dark when they have departed, because what they have

revealed remains. Their influence remains. The light

of their countenance still shines upon us.

Yes.

Reducing Carbon, Growing Older

Heavenly Delight (HEB!)

Happy birthday to me!  Nothing to get excited about--no major milestone--just another year.  Just another time to consider what my years on this planet have cost the planet.  For the past several years, I have looked to Cool Effect as a resource to measure my carbon footprint and to offset that footprint by supporting carbon reducing projects around the globe.  Every year on my birthday, the "party" has been to go to Cool Effect's website, look at all the projects, and choose to support one or more that fit with my values.  Over the years, I have supported methane capture, more efficient cookstoves, preservation of wetlands, and reforestation efforts.  I have supported Native Americans and women in developing countries, especially in Africa.  Because Cool Effect pairs its projects with the UN Sustainable Development Goals as well as the recommendations of Drawdown, I could see a direct relationship with those global plans for protecting the planet--and those who dwell on it.

I don't think I'm fooling myself into thinking that a carbon offset is all that is needed to make up for my presence on the planet.  I understand that I have to do more.  That's why, for example, I spend a lot of time thinking about recycling--and all the steps that precede the moment of tossing something into the blue bin.  That first step--Refuse--is the most important, I think.  Do I really need that item?  There are also Reuse and Repurpose.  If I can't refuse something, I try to think of what I can reuse the containers for, how I can repurpose the parts.  Part of consuming these days is looking--before we buy it--at the end of the product's useful life and what will happen to its components when we are through with them.  The more stages we can put our purchases through, the better.

Living as lightly as possible--cutting down on driving, weatherizing my home, and on through the list of reductions--will still not reverse my impact on the planet, but that is no longer why I purchase carbon offsets.  I tend to think of these purchases as investments rather than mitigation.  That is, I think that the so-called offset does not in fact erase my impact on the planet but is instead a positive action taken to protect and regenerate the planet.  As a resident on this planet, I consume the resources of the planet and create waste as a byproduct of being a living, breathing, eating creature.  I have a responsibility to consume and create waste to the least extent possible, yes, but I don't think I have to take it so far that I go live in a cave or stop bathing in potable water.  I do think I have to be mindful of both consumption and waste production--and I do think I need to do something extra.  

This year, I will still purchase a carbon "offset" as a birthday present to me.  Cool Effect has highlighted a project--Gas Busters--that I would like to support.  It has all the hallmarks of an excellent project to fight climate change.  Drawdown lists managing refrigerants as its #1 choice for reducing the effects of greenhouse gases.  Cool Effect links the project to 4 SDGs, including my favorite:  Responsible Consumption and Production.  For an emotional link to the project, I have to note my personal chagrin that Texas is such a polluter, with repeated release of dangerous greenhouse gases throughout the state but especially in the Permian Basin.  While Cool Effect hasn't made the Gas Buster project easily accessible to someone like me, they do indicate that their partner in the project is Tradewater, an organization that focuses on halocarbons and methane and has a project goal of eliminating 3 million tons of CO2e annually.  I've used Tradewater's calculator to estimate my personal carbon footprint and will send them the funds to offset 19.55 tons of CO2e for this year.  

I don't know whether I'll manage that cake in the picture.  HEB used to top it with fresh strawberries, but the last time I checked (well, it's my favorite cake, so I visit it now and then when I'm near the bakery department), it seemed to have some sort of gloopy syrup in the berries.  Might not want the sugar rush this year.  Still, I will party on, knowing that somewhere, somehow, Tradewater is going to destroy 19.55 tons of greenhouse gases in my name.  That is something to celebrate!

Reflecting the Reflection of Reflections

Just saying

Asking a student to include a bibliography for their term paper is deemed by some to be an act of cruelty.  Some of us compile bibliographies for fun (and the advancement of knowledge).  To each his own, right?  I am compiling a Bibliography of Ethical Culture and having way more fun than a woman of my age ought to be having (according to some younger folks who may be somewhat clueless in the joys of living and dinking around in the library).  All of this is to say that another moment of serendipity has led me to further appreciation for the words of Felix Adler and one of those religious experiences that sometimes catch us by surprise.

Here's my story.  I have a more or less organized plan for approaching the Bibliography so that I can document the literature of Ethical Culture over its first 150 years.  (Well, that's the goal.)  There are, however, occasional opportunities to depart from that plan as a source points to more publications that should be documented as well.  In the past, this has led me down side trails to find such hidden gems as the early involvement of Albert Einstein in Ethical Culture in Europe.  This time I found a list of books by Felix Adler and wanted to make sure that I had documented them all in the Bibliography.  One that I had missed earlier was The Essentials of Spirituality, published in 1905.  While trying to find a copy online (out of copyright books are frequently available thanks to Google and Microsoft), I had to check out the full text to make sure that I was linking to a complete scan and not one with missing or blurred pages.  That led me (I said it was a trail) to the last pages of the book where I found this summary of the text:

The leading thoughts I have endeavored to state in these addresses are the following : Spirituality is morality carried out to the finish. It depends on always keeping the ultimate end of existence in view, and on not resting in the partial ends. Intervals set aside for self-recollection and the facing of the thought of death are useful aids. The ultimate end itself is to elicit worth in others, and, by so doing, in one's self. The indispensable condition of this attitude is to ascribe worth to every human being before even we observe it, to cast as it were a mantle of glory over him, to take toward every fellow human being the expectant attitude, to seek the worth in him until we find it. Even toward oppressors we should take the same attitude. Furthermore, our true self resides neither in our poorer nor in our better natural endowments, but in the will that suppresses the one and alone gives moral significance to the other. Finally, we must testify to our respect for principle by treating the small occasions of life as great if they involve a moral issue, and the great prizes of life as small if they are offered at the price of moral integrity. These are thoughts which I have found helpful in my own experience ; I submit them to you, in the hope that they may be of use to you also. [Emphasis added]

Not many days ago, I presented a platform for the Ethical Society of Austin based on the first issue of the journal Reflections published by the AEU in 2017.  My platform was called "Reflections on Difficult People" since that first issue of Reflections focused on responses to a central question:  How should an Ethical treat people that they do not like or who are socially destructive?  Almost all of the responses to that question made reference--direct or indirect--to Adler's An Ethical Philosophy of Life, published in 1918.  For my platform, I summarized the six responses to the question and then summarized my summary with these key takeaways from the discussion:

1. All humans have worth.  It is inherent and cannot be taken away, nor should it be abused.  Worth is not the same as value.
2. All humans are connected.  Without belaboring the concept, if we can accept Carl Sagan’s assertion that “We are made of starstuff,” we can grasp the ultimate basis of the connection.
3. We are bound by our commitments to Ethical Culture to respect the worth of all human beings.  Respect is not the same as love, nor are we required to love all humans.  Respect includes reverence for the best in others.
4. All humans are unique, and that is okay.
5. Respect for others includes protecting their worth and dignity from harm, including harm from our own actions.  When we must challenge someone’s actions or words, we must do so with respect.
6. Human progress includes the development of public norms for protecting the worth and dignity of humans.  Respecting the dignity of others compels us to protect, preserve, and improve those norms.
7. The practice of Ethical Culture is that which helps us grow or develop as Ethicals (moral beings, ethical units, humane humans).  Such practice may include eliciting the best in others.  It may include treating someone we dislike with respect.  It may include defending the dignity of others while showing all due respect to those who are themselves harming the dignity of those we defend.
8. Showing respect is not the same as feeling respect.  Sometimes we have to present a facade in order to protect the dignity of the person with whom we are dealing.
9. Failure is a growing experience.  Use it to become a better Ethical.

I was pretty pleased with my takeaways and felt that I had done a good job of catching the gist of the discussion published in that issue of Reflections.  Imagine, then, my delight in discovering Adler's own summary--a prequel, if you will--to these key features of Ethical Culture.  Imagine, too, the overwhelming sense of wonder that his delightful phrase--"cast . . . a mantle of glory over" the person to whom we are attributing worth and giving respect, with an "expectant attitude" as we seek to bring out the worth that we have already attributed to that person.  The power of these phrases make even more meaningful the words and concepts that I am still seeking to understand, incorporate into my thinking, and embody in my actions.  It doesn't hurt that the words delight me and lift my heart to another plane.

How to Read Maya Angelou?!

Maya Angelou (public domain)

I have acquired some allergies.  They make me quite miserable--and I seem to be under some stress because of these miseries.  One night recently, I found myself flinching at every sudden noise, ready to cry or explode or both.  I decided to decamp to the bedroom and my reading chair, in hope of some relief.  I found it in reading Maya Angelou's Even the Stars Seem Lonesome.  That calmed me considerably.  I enjoyed her essays on sensuality, on aging, on art and poetry.  I appreciated her use of African proverbs and references to social organization and customs in Africa.  I wept at her description of a "rural museum" in Louisiana and her descriptions of the horrors of slavery.  

As I did so, I wondered at my reactions.  I read half of the volume that night as a means of relaxing.  I read the remainder the following morning with some puzzlement.  Both reading sessions were pleasurable on several levels.  Angelou's writing is smooth and flowing, and it's easy--and pleasurable--to go with her flow.  My puzzlement came from external sources that made me try to understand exactly how I am expected to read her writing.  

Maya Angelou was Black, writing as a Black woman.  She was famous.  She was wealthy.  She was so many things I am not that it is silly to try to list them all.  Nonetheless, her writing resonates with me on several levels.  Age.  Sex and gender.  Living in the South but not actually feeling part of the South.  Love of  words.  Short term residence in Africa.  It also resonates when she talks about slavery and the history that is largely unacknowledged in this country.  It resonates when our experiences and desires take different pathways.  I am not a mother, although I have done some mothering (I am a greater success as a stand-in grandmother), and I read her reflections on her mother and her son from the same (shared) standpoint--and feel that I understand what she is saying.

The puzzlement comes from an earlier reading session--All God's Children Need Dancing Shoes--a few weeks ago, just prior to joining a Zoom session intended to focus on white supremacy.  That session was intended to discuss Layla Saad's Me and White Supremacy, which I had, admittedly, mostly skimmed and only read in bits.  Just coming from a recent reading of Angelou's life experiences in Ghana and having my own experience well in mind from past years in Kenya and Tanzania, I had my own ideas about approaching the issues raised by Saad--including some questions about her perspective and experience.  To me, these ideas and questions are all part of inquiry and seeking understanding.  To the facilitator, they were an expression of my race and my racism.  

That kind of attitude took me aback.  The facilitator (who, by the way was also White) seemed to be taking a fairly dogmatic approach to a set of ideas that were actually the product of someone else's thought and experience--without much actual scientific research.  What has troubled me since then is the increasing sense that some of the approaches I am seeing to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (with or without the inclusion of Justice) seem more divisive that healing or binding.  Indeed, as I learn more about Ethical Culture, I am finding some of these discussions very much out of sync with respect for the inherent worth of the each individual, including respect for diversity of thought as well as diversity of identity.  I am seeing an emphasis on race (and sexual orientation) with disregard for age, disability, or other factors that combine to make us all unique individuals.  My concern is less with the content of the discussions than the manner, which sometimes belittles or demeans those who are being criticized for the results of systems not of their own creation or actions not of their own doing.

Perhaps I am being naive.  Perhaps this is a reflection of White privilege, White fragility, and White supremacy.  And perhaps I am diverting myself from my central concern:  How can/may a White woman read Maya Angelou?

Returning to that central concern, my response is that a White woman may indeed read Angelou.  She will bring her own experiences to the reading.  Some of them will parallel Angelou's own experiences and allow Angelou's writing to resonate deeply.  Some of them will not parallel Angelou's experiences.  There may be some additional learning needed to approach Angelou's writing--and, very clearly, some learning to be taken from it.  There may be points at which both writer and reader will miss each other.  In reading, Angelou, I am sometimes aware of our differences, but I am also completely drawn in to the universality of her emotions and relationships.  We have a number of social problems related to race in the US and much work to do to resolve them.  Losing sight of our connection to each other is not, I believe, the way to solve the problem.  Finding our commonality, seeing the threads that link us together, realizing how much we are the same is, I believe, a better way.

Five When You Drive (and Then Some)

    Drive Friendly!    

Ethical Actions come in all sizes.  Some we do together.  Some we do separately but still working toward a common purpose.  Here are some Ethical Actions that we can perform as individuals to have a positive effect on our community and ourselves within or around our personal vehicles.

• Yield.  The "Yield" sign is a tool for road safety and courtesy.  When a road sign indicates that you are driving in an area where traffic is merging, give way to incoming cars.  Traffic flow will be enhanced, and tempers will stay cool.
• Yield.  Big rigs are bigger than you think.  Cutting in front on one is neither funny nor safe.  Give them room on the road, and get out of their way.  
• Lessons from my father continue to echo in my brain when driving on the highway with 18-wheel trucks.  I often take the extra step of slowing down when I see that a trucker is trying to change lanes.  I know that he is on a schedule, has a beast of a machine to keep under control, and is way bigger than I am.  By slowing down, I can give him the extra room to make his lane change.  It really doesn't seem to make that much difference in my own arrival time, but the quick flash of his signal lights lets me know that I've helped in a small way to make the trucker's drive safer and easier.
• Drive Friendly.  That's a motto that shows up on Texas highway signs ('cuz Texas is the Friendly State!), but it's a good principle for Ethical drivers.  Yes, we want to get from Point A to Point B as quickly and efficiently as possible, but it's not a race.  Nor is it a war, although there are times when the highway does indeed seem like a war zone with cars blinking their lights to get us to move out of their way, others speeding from one lane to another.  
• Begin your drive mindfully, with the intention to keep it calm and courteous.  One calm and courteous driver may not seem like it will make much difference.  Actually, it may not make the drive better for anyone except you.  The Ethical Action is in not making the drive worse for anyone else.  
• Lay off the horn.  
• Use your signals.  
• Stay within the speed limit.  

Reflections on Indigenous Peoples' Day

Muriel Tillinghast @ BSEC

I recently visited (October 8) the Sunday meeting of the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture. The speaker was a dear friend, Muriel Tillinghast, whose topic was the Indigenous Peoples' Day holiday. We talk about Native Americans little enough in Ethical Culture, though some of Societies do ritually include a land acknowledgement in their meeting programs, that I felt a need to attend the BSEC meeting as much to support Muriel as to hear what she had to say on the topic.

What Muriel had to say was quite powerful.  She talked about history (real history, not the mythology that we were taught in school), language, population (and population decimation through disease, violence, and the genocidal destruction of a primary resource for survival), the very real contributions of Native Americans to this nation.  Muriel also emphasized the existence--and neglect (or worse)--of indigenous people throughout the world.

In the discussion that followed, BSEC members talked about what they had done in the past--and could do in the future--to support Native Americans and learn more about reparations.  One suggestion related to supporting higher education by donating to the American Indian College Fund.  It happens that I agree with that strategy; it's an easy, arm-chair Ethical Action and is one way to work toward achieving the recommendations of UN Sustainable Development Goal #4:  Quality Education.  SDG 4 targets 4.3 and 4.5 are also served by this action.

Several members left the in-person BSEC meeting as soon as it ended to go to a local PowWow.  The Sacred Springs PowWow was held here in my city this weekend.  I didn't attend, but my family did (and came back with multiple tee shirts).  These events are ways to experience elements of the culture of indigenous peoples and learn a little bit about beliefs and crafting practices.  The entrance fees and the purchase of products and foods can contribute to the community.  I was pleased to see that multiple powwows are held around Texas at various times of the year.  Check in with this site to see when and where powwows will be held near you.  (And don't forget to follow the local protocol for visitors.)  I think my family will want to go to more of these events because, yet again, here is an opportunity to show and teach my great-granddaughter about the present as well as the past of our diverse nation.  

There are other ways to be supportive of the indigenous peoples' of our country.  It would, however, be more respectful of those communities to reach out to the various organizations that represent Native Americans in your area to see how you can connect with the programs that they offer and be supportive.  What do they need allies to do?  Would they be interested in speaking to your Society?  Are there issues on which you can jointly participate in advocacy?  Can you begin calling out (and calling in) those in your community who speak ill or falsely about history and living people?  Get started with a simple search:  "Native American community near me."  It's way past time to make up for Columbus!

The Banality of Crazy

My dear friend, Lamar Hankins, regularly sends me news articles that he thinks might interest me, and he recently hit the nail on the head.  He sent me an article by Paul Furhi in the Washington Post:  "Trump’s violent rhetoric is getting muted coverage by the news media."  The point of the article is that, for various reasons, the increasing violence of former President Trump's public speech is receiving decreasing coverage, surprise, or outrage.  His speech is becoming banal--the banality of crazy, as Furhi reports that Brian Klaas (University College London) labels it.  

The article resonates with me at a time when I am trying to work out ways to get the rich legacy of Ethical Culture out of dusty boxes and obscure websites into places where ordinary members of the Movement have easy access and--just as importantly--have awareness of the writings and lectures that have shaped our Movement over time.  One such piece of our legacy I have never heard anyone cite, but I find it quite relevant to our present situation--and the degree to which incitement to violence has become not merely banal but increasingly normalized.

The speech to which I refer is a platform delivered by Algernon D. Black to the New York Society for Ethical Culture on October 1, 1944, entitled "The Meaning of Hitler's Defeat."  As you no doubt realize, Hitler had not yet been defeated at the time Black gave this platform.  He--and his audience--expected Hitler's defeat in a foreseeable future.  Black, however, gave his attention to the notion that simply defeating one man--or even his armies--or even his country--would not be enough.  The ideology being propagated by Hitler and his allies and his armies--fascism--would, even after Hitler's defeat, still have an insidious presence throughout the world and even on American soil.  

Just as it does today.  Black's concern is mirrored as some might seek the political defeat of Donald Trump and still miss the insidious presence of his beliefs that violence is an acceptable way to win, that othering is a desirable political strategy, that money is the primary good in society, and so on down the line to the whole package of fascistic actions, strategies, and outcomes that is part of Donald Trump's plan for the nation.  

Black's conclusion:

There are people in our country who have never voted. They are Americans but they have never bothered. It is too much trouble. They say they are individualists. They never want to join anything. They see no responsibility to give strength to anything. “I live my life, I let other people live. I do my job, make my money, have my pleasure, have my family, that's all.” I say that if America gets Fascism, we of all the countries, who have had freedom longer, who have education and political controls, who have had the chance through all these years to see what Fascism does,--if we fail, we shall deserve everything we get. And if it happens, may history write us down for what we are,--selfish and materialistic, a people without any vision, a people who fight, but do not know why.

Here then is the spiritual challenge of Hitler's defeat. Here, when the war is over, the real war will begin!

And so, let us not be fooled when the military defeat of Hitler comes. Let us make certain that it is the spiritual defeat of Hitler. Victory can only be won on the level of a new understanding and a new citizenship. It requires the reconstruction of democratic faith and the reconstruction of relationships between people, here in America and if we do not have this new life here in America, we shall never be able to help create it in Germany or anywhere else.

The "crazy" that Furhi refers to seems more likely to diminish rather than call out the very real danger posed by Trump's rhetoric--and that of those who support him.  Moreover, the "crazy" is not new. If this is not the moment when America becomes wholly Fascist in its orientation, if this tide of "crazy" recedes, if Trump is defeated, Algernon D. Black's warning of the dangers of the failure to defeat the "spirit of Fascism" will still continue to be relevant.  We grow as Ethicals by putting our values into action through our deeds.  We can only grow as Americans--living up to the ideals of democracy and freedom upon which this nation was founded--by putting our values into action through practicing the principles of democracy daily.  To me, it seems that Al Black is all but shouting that Fascism will only be defeated by Democracy, and it's time for Democracy to step up.  I concur.

A Whole Different Country

Ethical Culture School

I wouldn't call it a "whole new world," but New York City is definitely a different country from what I experience each day in Central Texas.  The weather.  The streets.  The people.  This trip has surprised me, challenged me, and inspired me.  My central purpose in coming was to work on a research project related to Ethical Culture, so that meant going to the New York Society for Ethical Culture--the Meeting House.  

On my first day, I walked from my hotel via 64th Street toward Central Park.  I was immediately delighted to see a fruit and vegetable vendor right on the corner.  I bought two pears, thinking that would be a healthy boost to my snack stash.  I was also checking out all the shops at street level, to see what services might be there in case of need.  Almost immediately I came to the Ethical Culture Fieldston School just as students were arriving.  Teens meeting and greeting on the steps.  Little ones shepherded in by a parent.  An actual school bus dropping off a couple of dozen or so younglings.  What a delightful sight.  I took a moment to think about the school's history and origins in Ethical Culture, to think about what a fine education these children would be receiving, and was quite cheered.  Unlike the battle zone that Texas schools have become, I thought how these children would be allowed to question, to explore, to wonder in ways Texas children will not--sitting in classrooms marked with "In God We Trust," the ten commandments, and all sorts of religious indoctrination.

It took but a few minutes to find the entrance to NYSEC and roll myself up the ramp to the door.  A nice lady named Jody let me in and took me up to the 5th floor where the NYSEC administrative offices were.  I was early, but I had a comfortable place to sit and lots of things to look at.  The artwork on the walls.  Brochures.  Posters promoting NYSEC events.  There was plenty to take in.  Then Donna Pang arrived, and the day took off.  Donna is retired from the administrative offices of the American Ethical Union (which are located on the fourth floor).  Her interest in the Ethical Culture archives inspired her to come meet with me to talk about the archives.  But first a tour of the building!

Donna took me to see the places where the archives are stored--some well organized and very high cabinets, some jumbles of boxes mixed in with other random junk.  Clearly preservation is as high a priority as access (my own goal).  We also visited the Elliott Library and Adler Study.  In the latter, I think we struck gold--a complete set of The Standard--which I hope to be able to look at more closely before I head back to Texas.  

Adler Hall -- At the Door

Our final stop on the tour was the Meeting Hall--now called Adler Hall.  I struggled to climb the steps to enter this space that I had seen only in photos and videos.  There were a few people in the Hall, eating their lunch and talking quietly.  Donna and I sat on the edge of the platform and tried to take it all in before one of these renting the space informed us that they would soon resume their preparations for another event and would we please leave soon?  A disappointment.  I did not get my chance to "stand where Felix Adler stood," but I was close enough.  While the space seemed smaller than I had imagined, it was every bit as inspiring as I knew it would be.  Bound in its own time, of course.  Art deco mixed with classical inspiration and a narrow vision of "how shall we meet," but an inspiration nonetheless.

As I sat on the edge of the stage, my eyes prickled with tears.  I was at the heart of the Movement (metaphorically speaking, of course).  I was grateful to be able to experience this moment of connection.  I felt a sense of the past, a thread of connection to the present, with both continuity and change, but with a bedrock faith in the inherent worth of each individual person.  I'd like to return to that space--to sit and think a while on where we are today, where we need to go, but I think that would just be an indulgence at this point.  It is the people, not the places nor the things, that make us a Movement.  It is with the people--in conversation, dialogue, discussion, the search for consensus--that we will find a way through the current jumble that is facing us with our national organization.  I look forward to just such dialogue.

Give (Local) Peace (Work) a Chance

A friend, knowing my interest in supporting a culture of peace, recently sent me this link to an article by H. Patricia Hynes about a local peace project.  Hynes talks about getting a whole community involved in positive promotion of the culture of peace, which is helpful in building a proactive, pro-peace pattern of community interaction.  Shops in Greenfield, MA, participate in the "Shops for Peace" with signs posted in their windows with peaceful messages:  "Food for All, not War."  Hynes links to research that suggests that such activities are a means of building a peace culture.  Some of the features of a peace culture referenced in that research include:  

shared identity, interconnectedness, a positive history of relationships, prosocial norms, transcendent or caring values, peace symbols, governance, and peace leaders, and additionally, peace education, peace vision, positive reciprocity, and positive goals

Reading about this project and the support in recent research, gives me a little boost for my own Peace Charm Initiative.  By the time this post is published, I will be on a plane to New York City.  I will be visiting the New York Society for Ethical Culture to talk about a couple of other projects that I am working on related to the Ethical Culture Movement, and I will be packing Peace Charms to share during meetings with my fellow Ethicals so that we all will have visible reminders of our personal roles in proactive peace building.  

While in New York, I will also be meeting with folks to talk about a project to support "caring values." I have more to learn about the project, but I already know that it will include supporting women in India (and elsewhere, I would hope) in asserting the value of the care work that women do.  This will, I expect, involve enhancing the communities' understanding that care work is important, a valuable and essential contribution to the economic and social well-being of the community, and should be granted a higher status in any accounting for value of both the caregiver and the service provided.  Since we also have this set of social problems in the US at both ends of the spectrum, I can see some potential for "local" efforts to include communities here as well.  These problems usually diminish women, who are assumed to be the caregivers, which then encourages dismissal of the importance of giving care--and providing that service with paid and qualified workers. 

It's time to stretch ourselves to make a connection between the value of care and caring values.  This is a path to peace as well as a path to equity.

The Supremacy of Skin

The Sepia Rainbow

I've been thinking about skin.  It started when my great granddaughter discovered the skin on my arm.  It was wrinkled and loose--and made her laugh.  

Old lady skin is not really all that funny, but it is odd.  As we get older, our skin may get stretched and, eventually, lose its elasticity.  So it wrinkles.  Rapid weight loss, inactivity, deconditioning are among the factors that can contribute to the amount of wrinkles and general looseness, and I seem to have a lot of those contributions.

Another thing that happens with old skin is that it gets more spots.  Age spots.  Liver spots.  The barnacles of age (including skin tags).  A little sun can emphasize those spots, darkening them, but also highlighting the spaces where no pigment is present.  All those little scars now show up in bright contrast to any skin that begins to show its melanin levels.

Thinking about skin and all these changes, I also had to wonder why my skin--white skin--is so privileged in our American Society.  Globally, white skin is pretty uncommon.  There are only small areas of the planet where white skin naturally occurs, and, while the population that has white skin is quite numerous today, white-skinned humans are--today--still a minority of human inhabitants of Earth.  

The image I posted above should be credited to Gail McCormick, the artist who made this cut-paper illustration from a map by Nina Jablonski and George Chaplin.  The map shows the distribution of skin color that comes from the production of melanin.  Melanin is produced in response to ultraviolet rays, blocking the harmful effects of those rays.  We might think that the obvious reason for so much melanin in the tropical areas of the planet has to do with the effects of UV rays on the skin (think skin cancer).  Jablonski's research, however, shows a deeper (than skin) reason for the need for more protection from UV:  the production of folate, which is needed for human reproduction.  Too much UV, not so much folate.  A reversal of sorts occurred later, as humans migrated out of Africa and arrived in the colder, less sunny regions of the planet.  Too little UV, too little Vitamin D, lots of rickets and other bone density issues.  

Interestingly, high levels of melanin also tracks with lactose intolerance.  At the same time populations were evolving to get more benefit from UV (skin cancers tend to show up later, after the reproductive years) they also evolved the capacity to consume milk from herd animals to increase the Vitamin D in their diet.  (See Marvin Harris, Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture.)

I recently had a conversation with a dear friend about skin color and colorism.  He opined that eventually there would be enough intermarriage and mingling of populations that humans would all be a nice cafe-au-lait shade of brown and we could just be done with racism.  I agreed.  Populations meet, populations mingle, reproduction occurs.  The global majority is not white, so the chances are that, over time, there could be a leveling out of this skin color issue.  After all race and racism are both human constructs that contribute to violence and war, and we need less of both.  

Still, I couldn't help but think about what is happening on the planet right now.  We are seeing significant levels of migration away from the tropics.  The effects of global warming are real and intolerable.  As climate changes, more humans will seek to move to more tolerable spaces, farther north or south toward the poles, and right into those temperate bands where too much melanin becomes a health problem.  How will humans adjust?  Will we evolve toward less melanin?  That would really be an ugly outcome--the populations that are doing the most to destroy the habitat of melanin-rich populations occupy the habitat that is most inhospitable to melanin-rich skin.  

Jablonski is working to bring more public awareness and understanding of the issues that arise from skin color.  It's just skin, after all.  The surface.  Not the heart.  Not the mind.  Not the person.  We have so many, much bigger issues to deal with than how much melanin our ancestors gave us.  My great granddaughter's interest in the changes that age has brought to my skin makes me realize that now is the time to talk to her about the colors in my skin and where they come from.  Evolution might be a tough concept for a second grader, but human worth, regardless of skin color is an age-appropriate topic for discussion any time.  The sooner the better.

A Question of Balance

William James,
American Philosopher, Historian, Psychologist

I am overcome with the beginning of William James' speech, "Is Life Worth Living?" (Ethical Addresses, 12th Series, 1905, pp. 1-29).  I hadn't half begun reading it when I had to stop and absorb all that he had thrown at me (and initially at the Young Men's Christian Association at Harvard, c. 1895) in the introduction.  

James began with Walt Whitman's ebullient praise of life, which, of course, lifted me up; then he took me down to the depths of despair with a long excerpt from James Thomson's poem:  "The City of Dreadful Night."  Two pages worth of an excerpt, with this snippet of doom and gloom:

My Brother, my poor Brothers, it is thus : 

This life holds nothing good for us,

But it ends soon and nevermore can be; 

And we knew nothing of it ere our birth. 

And shall know nothing when consigned to earth ;

I ponder these thoughts and they comfort me.

And then he called us back to reality, more or less, with another excerpt from an unidentified source quoting [John] Ruskin, to remind us that joy and misery yet live side by side though one be out of the sight of the other.

And, with that, I had to pause and reflect.  The emotional rollercoaster created by these references took me from high to low to a stricken realization that at no time might we be wholly comfortable in our own lives, knowing that others are themselves suffering and miserable.  What to think?

Sometimes, yes, life is so wonderful we can hardly believe that we have been privileged to experience such moments as come to us with delight and wonder and sheer pleasure.  I can remember the day I was waiting for a Senate Committee hearing to begin, intending to testify in support of some bill or other, thinking:  "I can't believe they pay me to do this."  I can remember the peace and comfort of just leaning sideways slightly to touch my late husband's shoulder and feel the solid support of his presence.  I can remember standing on the back porch of my rented home as a student in Seattle, seeing Mt. Rainer, with sunlight gleaming on its snowy top--all that beauty practically for free!  I can sit here now, in a not wholly lit room, no views to speak of, just a keyboard and monitor to face me--and remember many such moments, delighted at having been given the chance to experience them, delighted still to have the ability to remember them.  (Memory is nothing to take for granted!)

But, yes, there are moments in life where we can hardly stand to bear what we must suffer now and, sometimes, forever.  The loss of loved ones will eventually come to all of us.  I sit here, with my husband's loving glance captured in a long ago picture, knowing that I will never see those eyes looking at me again.  The pain of walking from one room to another, sometimes worse, sometimes better, always a reminder of limitations, keeps me indoors and away from direct social contact--which even an introvert will eventually miss.  The careless insults and assaults that others may fling in my direction, seeking, perhaps to awaken my awareness, not realizing the deep wounds that they re-open.  My woes are few, but sometimes they loom large.  I can find myself descending into the Slough of Despond before I realize what's happening, if I don't carefully pull myself back from the abyss.  Still, rarely, but painfully, I sometimes find myself questioning whether my life is worth continuing.

It is, however, the last of James' three quotations that strikes me the hardest.  I cannot regret my happy memories; I have learned to back away from the abyss.  But how do we live in any comfort or ease, knowing that around us people are suffering?  These walls shut me in.  Now, however, I am reminded that on the other side a good neighbor has recently suffered a stroke.  A young couple have taken in their flags and signs, any indication of their non-binary identity, being now forced to hide who they are out of fear.  Farther away, I am told, young students are facing their own struggles to find their way forward in a society that pushes them in unhealthy and unsafe directions.  And we know that poverty and disease and violence and abuse and the whole litany of horrors that humans can manage to inflict upon humans (and non-humans and the planet itself) continue.  Once we become aware--awakened, if you will--how do we survive the onslaught?

James' address to the YMCA was about suicide--and how to avoid it.  I'm not sure that I am fully aligned with his answer (religious experience will give you a reason to live), so I will have to spend more time with James' work and ideas to see why it so appealed to the editors of Ethical Addresses when they republished it 10 years after it was first delivered.  In spending that time, I am not likely to be seeking an answer to the question at the heart of his essay:  Is life worth living?  (Hell to the yes, it is.  And I'm loving the living of it, aches, pains, stress, and all.)

The question, however, that is going to stalk me for quite a while is the one that struck me so hard in reading James' introduction and is, after all, the key question that faces us in Ethical Culture.  Not "is life worth living?" but "how can we balance our need to grow and change within ourselves against the need to help the world around us develop and change?"  We seek to become better human beings, better family members, better neighbors.  We also feel pulled to help relieve the suffering we see in the world, to help others find better ways to be human.  Do we have to choose between these needs?  Or can we do both?  What is the balance?

I take this issue as a "key question," because I feel that there is an ongoing tug of war ideas within the Ethical Culture Movement right now:  Should we focus our efforts on our individual inner development and not on Ethical Action that focuses on serving the broader community external to our Ethical Culture Societies?   Should we focus on our service to the planet and its inhabitants, or should we tend first to our own need for development as Ethical humans?  Frankly, I think Felix Adler answered that question both ways in the past, and I'm not sure how other Leaders have treated the issue since those early answers.  Perhaps that is why we continue to hear passionate statements like this:  "Ethical Culture Societies, not the AEU, should engage in Ethical Actions!"  "You can't do any Ethical Actions until you have worked on your own attitudes and beliefs!"  "The AEU needs to develop national Ethical Actions that Societies can participate in!"  And on and on, back and forth, with no particular forum or venue in which to seek consensus.

Perhaps it is time to have that discussion.  In the meantime, we must agonize within ourselves, knowing that others suffer, knowing that we can (try to) help, but that we also need to maintain a commitment to ourselves and our intellectual and emotional development as Ethical Humans.  How to do that remains the question, I think.

Ethical Eating with Barbara Kingsolver

Local Food from a Known Source

At some point in the next few months, I am going to be buried in research and writing about Ethical Eating.  That is the topic of an issue of a journal that I am re-editing for re-publication (it's a long story).  Maximizing the utility of that effort, I have committed to using this issue of the journal--and the issue of Ethical Eating--as the topic for a presentation at the Ethical Society of Austin in the spring.

In the course of re-editing a different volume of the journal, I encountered a reference to Barbara Kingsolver and her novel, Flight Behavior.  A comment she made about that book was quoted in the essay that I was correcting (typos, punctuation, red--or blue--pencil heaven for a former English instructor).  There was, however, no citation for the quote, and I really wanted to add the proper footnote for this reference.  I googled it--and the only hit was the online version of the very article I was editing.  Spftt!  I was apparently searching for a misquote.

TL;DR, I dinked around on the internet to try to figure out some way to find the comment without spending days on it and ended up at Archive.org, thinking I would scope out the novel and, by some miracle, find the quote.  Instead I all but tripped over Animal, Vegetable, Miracle:  A Year of Food Life, by Kingsolver, et al.  I have no idea why I would even give the book a second glance, much less start reading it, but suddenly I was two chapters in and realized that (a) I have completely missed an entertaining author and (b) this is the other half of what I know I will be talking about when I give the presentation on Ethical Eating.

Kingsolver's autobiographical book is about a decision that she and her family made to change the way they eat.  A major part of that decision was environmental.  She lived in Tucson, a desert area in the midst of a drought, where food and water had to be brought in from other areas.  She was concerned that our society--and her family--didn't know where the food we ate came from, how it was grown, or what it could be (tasty, nutritious) when at its freshest.  She--and her family--made the decision to move from Tucson to a farm in the Appalachians that her husband owned so that they could change that situation for themselves.  

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is a book about a year in food during which the whole family had pledged to eat only locally sourced food.  That sounds simple enough until you take in account that this planet has seasons.  Everything, all at once, all the time is not how food  appears on our plates or even in our local grocery stores.  Part of Kingsolver's thesis is that we have lost our connection to the planet and the sustenance that we take from it.  The other part is that we are destroying the planet by taking too much from it and misusing what we take.  No doubt I oversimplify.  

No doubt either that these points sound negative while Kingsolver's book is positive and proactive and a delight to read.  The family's negotiations about one non-local luxury/essential made complete sense, as 21st century urbanized omnivores were suddenly faced with the loss of foods and beverages long taken for granted.  Kingsolver's husband chose coffee as his personal exception to the rule of consuming local products, and who could blame him?  (Not I, limited these days to one cup in the morning and sorely aggrieved about the whole thing.)  Kingsolver's long history of trying to grow asparagus was neither boring nor tedious.  Her tale was, in fact, heroic--and now I wonder what fibrous green thing I've been eating all these years.  Each chapter brings new insights into how American foodways have changed, what we are missing because of those changes, and what we might do differently.

The book is a delight to read; Kingsolver's style is light and a bit wry.  The message is more than timely:  We need to take as much petroleum as we possibly can out of our food supply.  The whole-family orientation of the book (Kingsolver's husband provides multiple "sidebars" filled with pertinent information; Kingsolver's oldest daughter provides personal narratives of her "adventures with food") and the shared commitment to locally sourced food are inspirational.  

Plus this.  Needless to say, I recommend the book as well as some of the strategies that Kingsolver and her family adopted in order to take petroleum out of their food.  I'm no gardener; I have a seriously bad history with plants.  However, with Kingsolver's encouragement, my grandson and I went to the local Farmer's Market to purchase free range eggs and in season vegetables.  We also found fair trade coffee, albeit sourced from both hemispheres.  It's a start.

Hanging with Ethicals

Ethical Humans!

Attending a memorial service is not exactly hanging out with friends, but I recently attended one held for Susan Rose Teshu, who died in July.  Even though I never met her in person, I felt a need to attend this memorial service to honor a woman who had been so active in Ethical Culture for so many years and was so clearly beloved by many.  Susan served for several years as the Dean of Leadership Training for the American Ethical Union and, some years ago, well before COVID introduced us all to Zoom meetings, hosted Ethical Society Without Walls, an online community for those who did not live near an active Ethical Culture Society.  

I refer to attending her memorial service in the lighter tone of "hanging out" because, although I didn't know Susan or her family, I knew many who were in the audience.  I also felt instantly included in the group, even though I arrived a few minutes late (time zones bite).  This was more than the sense of familiarity that comes with entering a room of acquaintances.  It was the sense that I was in a room with like hearted people.  "Safe" is the word that is being tossed around these days, and I have to say that I felt safe in a space with few personal friends.  

I think the feeling came from being with people that I knew to be Ethicals (whether they identify as Ethical Culturists or Ethical Humanists).  These were people that I could trust to recognize my worth as a human being and treat me with integrity.

The remembrances expressed about Susan and her life and work were sometimes moving, sometimes not at all clear to me.  I had my own experiences with loss to help me see the catharsis that such remembrances were actively providing for the speakers.  I was also moved to tears as my own remembrances of grief provided a background context for looking at the gallery (as the "room" is called in Zoom), seeing familiar faces, recognizing smiles and deep feelings, sharing the emotions of loss and love.  

I think Susan Rose is part of the reason that these like hearted people could gather in such a way and create a safe space for expressing and feeling emotion. Her leadership and the training she provided--part of a tradition that began many years ago--helped foster this attitude of acceptance and welcome.  I think many of  the people who gathered to honor her do the same for others.  I think part of why they can do that is because Ethical Culture starts with a commitment to attribute worth to each person we meet.  All are welcome, all are accepted, even if they are late, even if they never say a word.  I came to honor Susan; I left healed and strengthened.