Shop for the basket

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

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

Donations include:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Every honest conviction

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

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

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

Perplexment.  Confusitude.  Doubtage.

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

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

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

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

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

Diversity in the creed, unanimity in the deed!

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

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

Shall we sing?

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

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

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

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

Yea, verily!

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

Gloating over Scalia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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