That's me, jumping off the rope into Squaw Lake, similarly risky as posting online. The following is a log of what I put online in various forums during June. Because so few people read these, I'm not taking the time to arrange and edit them for our purpose here. If you have responses or additions, you can add them at the bottom. . . . . . . For those looking for my previous posting, Ira Flies, I've removed it and placed it in my…
“The Cloud” is where most programs and documents are stored these years. It’s where online articles and the resulting forums live. Being a bit ADD, I tend to get interested in some discussions, contributing my thoughts and rants as if involved in a public forum. I add my 2 cents. (Except with inflation, that’s now 2 dollars; darn you, Biden!). The Conservative Onslaught and A Positive Future: If conservatives seek to maintain stable systems, how can they be true to their tendency when it is…
Ode to Our Troglodyte A Ritual Homage Presented at the foot of the Caveman Statue, Grants Pass, Oregon By Reverend Brad Carrier Minister for the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Grants Pass September 3rd, 1995 The following is the script for a fun but sincere ritual gathering of a few members of the UUFGP at the Caveman Statue. (Can't find the photo of us gathered there.) Oh, great troglodyte totem, Thou art larger than life. Thou art an image of our ancestors. Thou hast prevailed And…
There I go again - tilting at windmills. (Well, promoting the electricity-generating ones.) Only a few read my tweets and online comments, but maybe there's a reader or two here who might appreciate my comments on Elon Musk, advice to Democrats, Adam Kinzinger, night lighting, electric boats, utilities that exploit their users, the trucker convoy, Dr. Bronner's Soap brothers, Bill McKibbon, taxing all pipelines, Meet the Press staging, changing "You Must Stop" to "Stop When you Must," most Republicans as RINOs, gun control, Steve Martin…
What a wonderful gathering! We’re here to celebrate the life of this lovely, friendly fellowship, the ministers you’ve had thus far, and this honor in my career. It has been a great opportunity and satisfaction in my life to tend small Unitarian Universalist congregations. Over half of our UU congregations are small fellowships like this one. That’s been my realm, not the mega-churches. Primarily I have been a preacher. I like conducting services and having something to say that open-minded, intelligent, caring congregants find thoughtful…
Dr. Arvind Vasavada, my guru and friend, my gentle, generous mentor from my seminary days, used to advise me and his analysands (counseling clients), “Be in it.” (Here he is pictured between my friends and colleagues, the Reverend Doctors Bart Gould and Vern Barnet, at my ordination in Saint Joseph, Michigan, in 1972.) Imagine my good fortune upon entering seminary at the University of Chicago in 1969 to meet a man who embodied the two main interests I had – Jungian psychology and Eastern religions. …
Introductory Comments Let’s take a few moments to remind ourselves America is not only a Christian nation and never has been. Freethinkers are foundational to what we are and could become. I hope this skimpy foray into a few of our freethinking founders helps reassure and orient us. During my Unitarian Universalist seminary years at the University of Chicago, I was fortunate enough to also attend training for humanist leaders. Conducted by the Humanist Institute, held mostly in New York City at the Ethical Culture…
Readings prior to the sermon: “Managing environmental resources sustainably has always been difficult, ever since Homo sapiens developed modern inventiveness, efficiency, and hunting skills by around 50,000 years ago… [E]very human colonization of a land mass formerly lacking humans – whether of Australia, North America, South America, Madagascar, the Mediterranean islands, or Hawaii and New Zealand and dozens of other Pacific islands – has been followed by a wave of extinction of large animals that had evolved without fear of humans and were easy to…
