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.