Nurture Your Spirit. Help Heal Our World!!

Rev. Dr. Richard Speck, District Executive of the Joseph Priestley District writes:

Many people have found that this new tagline beautifully expresses the essence of our faith tradition. In fact, there are anecdotes of people seeing the banner and coming to church because it summed up what they were looking for in their lives.

Equality Maryland Lobby Day in Annapolis!

To All:

For the past 4 years, SCUU has sent a group of people to Annapolis to lobby our delegates and senator for equal rights for lesbian, gay and transgendered people. Lobby Day is organized by Equality Maryland (www.equalitymaryland.org) and consists of a rally to gather constituents to the correct district, and then all of the district constituents have appointments to meet with their 2 delegates and senator.

This year Lobby Day is Monday, February 11. Lobbying is in the early evening, and we usually carpool to Annapolis. If you are interested in attending, let me know and I will make sure you are included.


Jean K. Carr
SCUU

Take the SCUU Green Sanctuary Challenge!

SCUU (through the Green Sanctuary Committee) is volunteering to help preserve our country's energy resources and fight against global warming by encouraging our members, families, and friends to change at least one light at home to one that has earned the government's Energy Star rating. SCUU is doing this as part of the national Energy Star Change a Light, Change the World campaign.

Go to http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=cal.pledgeForm and click on “Join Us! Take the Pledge” to fill out the form.

Be sure to choose Sugarloaf Congregation of Unitarian Universalists from the “Which organization” drop box to properly credit your pledge to SCUU. You may count bulbs that you have replaced since Earth Day 2007 toward your pledge as long as you haven’t already counted them in the Change a Light campaign. We will report our progress toward the goal in future Green Corner articles.

Freecyclers of the World Unite!! Special Request for Books!!

Request From Este: "One of my elementary school runs services a poor part of Rockville. Yesterday, I put some of the elementary level books that Cecilia and Josephine used to read out on my dashboard. I was surprised at how much the kids on the bus wanted the books. Half of my riders are boys and all of my books targeted girls. Also I didn’t have easy readers for the very young. Alphabet books would be awesome!! If anyone has books that your kids have outgrown and can give them to me to pass out, I’d appreciate that! And the kids would, too."

Simplify Your Life Part IV: Downsizing Dad

I helped my dad move out of the house my family lived in after I moved away to college into an apartment. During our moves, I was known to say "it's toast" when asked if we should keep something. I became the judge and jury for deciding whether to carry stuff over the state line. Dad had veto power but the laws of physics usually prevailed. The law of physics rhetorical question: "Where are you going to put it?"

When the movers showed up they said "oh no, no, we can't take anything from the house because we don't chose what to move. We move everything we see. We move all. You have to have everything we are not to move out of the house." I showed up the next day for "clean up" -- silly me -- and discovered the move had not taken place. I was under the false hope that all the toast was gone. Dad had already filled one tractor trailer dumpster with stuff and had it hauled it away. But clearly there was more.

Revelation #1: Forget about renting a truck. The movers will return Monday. There's too much. There's little time, must hire hauler. Must sort and make piles: pitch, give, keep, store, and take.

Revelation #2: We can throw stuff that rises to the level of "toast" out the second story window onto the driveway! We made a huge pile.

Revelation #3: After hauling two piles of stuff away we still had stuff to throw into storage; and we had a piano we needed to get rid of...

Revelation #4: We will give the piano my mom bought to someone who wants it. Family legend -- Mom bought it for $5.00 at a yard sale.

To give is to recycle: Green Toast...

Simplify Your Life Part III: Word of the Day Freecycle

I was definitely inspired by the Green Sanctuary Committee's service "The Impact of Unsustainable Living" on January 13th.

I've found myself thinking about a lot of "stuff"...

The yin and the yang; the pro and the con; the point and the counterpoint of Freecycle:

Freecycle Point: "Meet Auntie Clutter" Link [Checkout the FAQ too..]

Freecycle Counterpoint: "The Simple Family" Link [lots of comments]

Please note: Rachel has many more green points than counterpoints. Rachel in "The Simple Family" Blog writes: "Our goal is simple: to simplify and green our lives. How far is simple enough? We haven’t decided that yet. What is our “shade” of green? Don’t know that, either. Come along for the journey; maybe you’ll learn something with us."

Simplify Your Life Part II: That's Not Stuff That's Our Yard Sale!!

Many moons ago we at Sugarloaf invented the "quick and dirty" yard sale. We would wait till the River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation Yard Sale had finished. Then we would arrange with the dear yard sale organizers of River Road to pick up everything they did not sell. Our caravan of cars, vans, and trucks would show up at River Road just as their yard sale was winding down. We would bring it back to the Fellowship Hall and sell it at our "quick and dirty" yard sale. We made very good money. After our yard sale we would give away unsold items; the clothes to consignment shops, and all the rest to Goodwill.

Our method resulted in more "stuff diversity". We were small back then and it's hard to get a critical mass of stuff for a yard sale with a small group of people. Plus we were doing a public service for the community and for River Road. The River Road yard sale is HUGE and structured like a department store!!

We felt like we were not wasting any portion of the great web of stuff.

We are very grateful to River Road for all the Stuff...

Simplify Your Life: "Giving It Away" - To Give is Better Than to Pitch.

Many households in my neighborhood can't park the car or cars in the garage because there's too much stuff in the garage. The garage is no longer a garage it's a stuff collector; stuffed with stuff.

We had a yard sale to clear out our garage when it almost got to the point we could not park the cars in the garage. I've discovered that there's more giveaway to a Yard Sale than sell. At the end of the yard sale what do you do? You give the stuff to anyone or any organization that will take it. Around here the default organizations are Goodwill and Salvation Army.

I saw this article a while back it was very inspiring to me; it was the first time I saw the words "craplock" and "freecycle" -- "Giving It Away" by Michelle Gienow Baltimore City Paper Link. Everyone Sing "may the link stay unbroken by and by lord by and by"...

Please note: We can park in our garage.

The Movable WOW -- The Road to Abilene Part II

The WOW is held on the Second Saturday of the Month.

Sometimes many people show up, some times I am at the Sugarloaf house waiting for someone to show up. One could construe that a WOW with only me at the Sugarloaf house means the WOW did not work. Actually I'm a Zen optimist type of guy so if I'm sitting or standing alone in the Sugarloaf house in restful solitude after a hard long day of living; I say the WOW worked.

This past January WOW I was at the Sugarloaf house waiting and Vic called. We had a wonderful conversation.

We're flexible. If the Second Saturday doesn't work for you we have something new. We're having a Movable WOW, I've arranged to meet with Monica B. and Jennifer I. in the next couple of weeks. If you're interested let me know. We are going to pick a quiet restaurant and WOW.

My phone number is in the order of service and the announcements. You can reach me by email via this WOW!! E-mail Me! Link

Also please check the SCUU Calendar: SCUU Calendar Link

The WOW Road to Abilene Link... I was in Texas this last month for business. Texas is a large flat state. I regret not visiting Abilene; maybe next time.

WOW Thoughts Link

Thanks! & take care

Feeding The Bears

I saw this in the New York Times Magainze and thought it was a great metaphor for all things one may try to control (bad habits, overindulgence, work, clients, teenagers, drivers on highway, etc., and of course with the elections coming up...)

"Bear managers and park wardens have tried aversive conditioning before: in Banff, for instance, they used to drive up to bears eating roadside vegetation and blast them with water cannons. But as St. Clair points out, that kind of hazing not only violates several principles of animal learning theory (among them, that punishment should be immediate, consistent and not signaled in advance); all it ultimately teaches the bear is that, through a series of our bylaws, the only humans who will hurt it are humans in uniforms arriving in trucks between the hours of 9 and 5. According to St. Clair, hazing also ignores a breakthrough in animal psychology known as the Garcia Principle (after John Garcia's work with rats in the 1970s), which suggests that, no matter how hard you try, you may never be able to get an animal to associate food with pain. "It makes complete sense," St. Clair says. "In terms of survival, a bear has had no evolutionary reason to associate food with danger."

From "The Bears Among Us" by Darcy Frey, New York Times Magazine, November 25, 2007

I ask: What is your inner bear? What is your inner Park Warden? What is your food?