Context for Comments on Adler's "Religion"

I should have written a context post to explain my commentary on Felix Adler's statements in "Religion," a collection of bon mots from his various lectures published in Life and Destiny in 1908.  Ethical Culture Leader Randy Best is now (December 2020) leading a seminar (Fundamentals of Ethical Culture) focusing on Life and Destiny.  I joined with 20-odd others to participate in the first session this week, and "Religion" was one of the two collections of quotations that we discussed.

The quotations collected are from Adler's early career as an Ethical Culture Leader and do not necessarily reflect his views as he developed as a Leader and philosopher.  These early thoughts were, nonetheless, sufficient to spark a movement that grew both in the US and abroad.  Reading them, I found much to inspire--and some to argue with.  

As a comparative neophyte in Ethical Culture, I have developed some understanding of what EC is about at the same time I recognize that my own experiences and personal history affect and inform that understanding.  I have, while neglecting this blog in the busy-ness of working within my own Society and the American Ethical Union, continued to read and study various writings that reflect the history and development of EC.  

Two things have now converged to inspire me to write again:  This seminar and the resurrection of the Ethical Humanist Study Group.  The seminar has been a pleasure, allowing for discussion among several individuals dedicated to learning more about its topic.  The stimulus of Adler's writing could happily lead us into hours of discussion.  Unfortunately, after two hours, we must part ways and go back to our lives. I found myself reluctant to do so.  I wasn't through thinking about these quotations.  Lacking the opportunity for further discussion in the seminar, I felt a strong pressure to begin writing about what I was thinking.  I publish my thoughts here in the hope of some further dialogue.  

I can't honestly say that I will return to regular blogging now or that I will "respond" to each and every one of Adler's statements in Life and Destiny or even in this particular section on Religion.  I do, however, think that I will try to write as many responses as I can because it helps me clarify my thoughts and is, above all, a means to learn more about Ethical Culture.

EHSG starts on December 20.  I have "challenged" my partner in this work, Jasmine Morris, to write complementary essays on what we learn/discover/think as we go through our syllabus.  She's a fine writer and a keen thinker, so that will be an interesting complement to our study.

Oh, and one more thing.  After four years in Ethical Culture, I look back at this blog, as brief as its existence has been, with some pride.  I am not so thrilled with the title.  I cannot without a great deal of effort change the URL, so I am stuck with "hoedown" for the foreseeable future.  I did change the title to be more reflective of present circumstances:  I am even more of a happy human than ever; I hope I am more Ethical.

Shop for the basket and other updates

Just a few updates for the changes that are slowly occurring with ESOA and life in general:

• I made a more or less big deal about "shopping for the basket" to provide donations for the Capital Area Food Bank.  Our old basket was getting pretty broken down.  Finally, duct tape just wouldn't do the job.  Thanks to our decisive president, Rebecca Fisher, we now have a new basket.  This one is green (various shades of which will now be our official color for ESOA stuff) and folds up nicely for storage. John Thiess, our treasurer, is also the dedicated volunteer who takes our donations to the Food Bank and keeps a tally of our donations.  The good news, from my perspective, is that we now have a more or less permanent place for the basket--under the Ethical Action display table.  You no longer have to look around and wonder where the yellow basket is, nor do you have to climb over chairs and people to get to it.  When you walk in the door now, you may be looking for coffee, but the basket will be right in front of you.  With a sign even.  Subtle, huh?

• And speaking of the Ethical Action display table, we have one.  We are making every effort to park the thing right in your way and even entice you with sweet treats to grab your coffee and come over and hang out.  
• This is where you can make your donations to the Capital Area Food Bank--canned goods and ink cartridges in the basket, money in the Feed Me canister.  Test your skills at putting a whole meal in the canister without spilling it!
• While you're there you can sign up for a shift at the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless.  This is a once-a-month opportunity to help make a difference by serving dinner at the shelter.
• The EA table is the place to find updated lists of opportunities for issue education and cultural events that seem likely to appeal to ethical humanists.  (Thanks to John Thiess for his weekly activity list.)  
• Advocacy training and briefing materials will also be placed on the table.  This is where you can look for more information about the issues that we are talking about and resources on how to address them. There will usually be something different there for you to look at each week, so come on by!

• In other Ethical Action news, we are updating our page on the ESOA website.  As ethical humanists we act through giving, serving, advocating, and living.  While I try to explore some of these actions on this blog, at ESOA we are really doing the stuff I'm thinking about.  How cool is that? Very.  Check out the Ethical Action page to see what we have done, what we have planned, and--soon--more of those resources on issues and actions to take.  

• Also, too, very big news (big for me anyway--learning new skills here).  We now have an Ethical Action Calendar.  This may change to become a calendar with all ESOA events on it, but, for now, this is where you can look for service events, advocacy events, and the educational and cultural events that may inspire you as an ethical humanist.  Does anyone know how to sync this with my smart phone?  clueless

• Finally (well, probably), we have managed to complete our transition to waste free potlucks.  Some months ago, we decided to try to eliminate disposable eating and serving ware from our monthly potluck dinners.  We started with the napkins--moving from paper to cloth.  Then we accumulated some donated flatware.  Dishes we had to haul in from home each month, but we've just had a generous donation of those as well (thanks, John).  We seem to be set to enjoy our monthly dining and fellowship from now on knowing that, with a little extra effort, we have reduced consumption of products destined for the landfill or even the recycling bin. A little elbow grease, some soap and water, and, of course, some composting.  

• Finally (really this time), Trish Taylor has moved but she hasn't forgotten us.  Trish continues to serve ESOA as its webmaster--and now she's blogging about her move and this new chapter of her life.  Join her at Tea Pad Tales.  Lovely walks, lovely photography, lovely spirit.

This makes me a happy human.  :)  What should we do next?

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.

More about comments and such

Blogger, we have a problem.  I am told that the attempt to post a comment leads to a page of gibberish.  It would be kind of someone to copy and paste that in an email to me.

In the meantime, comments are happily accepted via email, if you have the address already.  I can post your comment and reply in the blog.

I have also changed the settings for comments.  I did have things set up so that you could comment "in line" and not have anything pop up.  I have now changed it to "full page," which will, I hope, take you to a separate page for the purpose of commenting.  This may make it awkward should you want to quote from the blog, forcing you to flip back and forth between the post and the comment form, but you will at least be able to comment.

In other news, I have added the option to subscribe to the blog.  If you have a newsreader, you can click on the little orange icon  to subscribe.  If you want to receive posts via email, enter your email address in the box on the right.  Please note that I have no clue how to use your address for spam, so all you'll get from me are these posts.  Note, too, that there is some pent up opinionating going on right now, so posts are a tad more frequent than I expect them to be in the future.  Anything that needs research can take one or more days to write, and I do hope to "have a life" apart from the blog.  That means, you shouldn't be getting a lot of mail from the blog as things settle down.  My goal will be one post per week, with the occasional week of multiple posts.

Tacky will be deleted!

So much fun!  The Ethical Society of Austin has linked back to my blog on its Facebook page.  (Thanks, Trish!)  The way Blogger (the platform from which I blog) or Facebook (you probably know more about that one than I do) makes the link, what shows up is not the latest post but the text that heads the comment section.  Awkward.

The comment section now reads:

Post a Comment

Keep it courteous and mindful. Disagreement can be both courteous and mindful. Tacky is neither courteous nor mindful. Tacky will be deleted.

I would like to hide that (on Facebook) or otherwise have something more positive show up, but it will take a bit of doing to figure that out, I suppose.  The folks who set up these programs all seem to speak a different language than I do, and I don't mean a foreign language.  The jargon of any specialized discipline can seem opaque to the non-specialist, but that of programmers seems especially difficult as it evolves before we who must try to decipher it enough to actually use their programs can figure out what they are telling us.  Besides, I am living proof that nothing is foolproof!

In the meantime, I should say that I really do hope to have some comments.  The prospect of dialogue is a strong driver for this blog.  I have much to learn from other humanists and look forward to hearing their thoughts.  I have, however, been warned to expect some negative comments.  While I am a Happy Human, working on being a better person in a better world, some folks are just not there yet.  My viewpoint is non-theistic, but not anti-theistic.  At some point, that's going to show.  I thought it best to let those who might take offense at my viewpoint know that tacky comments just won't be allowed to stay around.  As for what I mean by "tacky," I have to confess that I don't have a definition, but I know it when I see it.  And so do you.  Just because we're talking on the internet doesn't mean you can forget how your mama raised you.  Mine always said:  "Be a lady if it kills you!"  Your mileage may vary.