Outside the Box
It was wonderful to get outside the box and have our worship service at Island Park. Thanks to Kris Los for bringing the iced tea and water, and to Gisela & Tom Moffit and Hank Zeniewicz and others for helping get us set up for the worship and the picnic.
As I was putting the bin with the worship supplies into my car, I was thinking, “It's church in a box! Totally portable!”
It certainly makes things easier when there is a box to put those things in. Then I know right where things are and it makes it easier to make use of them. And it makes them portable – I can bring those resources where I might need them.
I love a good box. Anyone who has moved with any frequency loves a good box. I've moved four times in the last five years and, in advance of another move, I'm box hunting again. I'll go out of my way for a good box, something with a lid and handles, and I'll store it carefully when I'm done using it, making sure it's ready when I need to use it again.
But we can get too fond of our boxes, just like anything else. We really get into trouble when we like a box so much that we pack ourselves inside it. It's such a comfortable box, we just make a home for ourselves in there. I've certainly done this in literal ways, holing up in my room when I was young, and figurative ways, too. It's hard to see it when we've boxed ourselves up figuratively. We tend to forget we're in a box, that there is any “outside” out there, that there is any other way to be.
One of the most damaging ways we've boxed ourselves up is in the ideology of male entitlement. But it was heartening to me to see the #YesAllWomen hashtag go viral last week. Initially, the shooting and violence in Isla Vista was represented as the work of a crazed lunatic, someone not like us – someone not in our box, someone who could be boxed up separately from the rest of us, the rest of us who are not in a box.
But then a million and more women posted their experiences of violence, misogyny and male entitlement with the hashtag #YesAllWomen. And in a manner of days, it was clear how boxed up we are. None of those #YesAllWomen incidents are isolated. They are all of the box that we have been living in. And the way that reality became so clear so quickly to so many gives me hope.
May we continue to blow the lid off of the boxes in which we've packed ourselves!
Blessings,
Joe
P.S. Just a note that I will be preaching only two more sermons at UUFCM, one this Sunday, June 8, and the other on June 15. From June 20-30 I will be in Providence, RI, attending UU Ministers' Association events and General Assembly. When I return, I'll lead the summer service on July 6 and Kristin and I will attend the service on July 13. I'll then use my remaining vacation time to drive our rental truck full of boxes to Saratoga Springs, NY.
Thank you to everyone for the support and love that you've shown to me since I announced that I would be leaving Mount Pleasant. I am going to miss you.
It was wonderful to get outside the box and have our worship service at Island Park. Thanks to Kris Los for bringing the iced tea and water, and to Gisela & Tom Moffit and Hank Zeniewicz and others for helping get us set up for the worship and the picnic.
As I was putting the bin with the worship supplies into my car, I was thinking, “It's church in a box! Totally portable!”
It certainly makes things easier when there is a box to put those things in. Then I know right where things are and it makes it easier to make use of them. And it makes them portable – I can bring those resources where I might need them.
I love a good box. Anyone who has moved with any frequency loves a good box. I've moved four times in the last five years and, in advance of another move, I'm box hunting again. I'll go out of my way for a good box, something with a lid and handles, and I'll store it carefully when I'm done using it, making sure it's ready when I need to use it again.
But we can get too fond of our boxes, just like anything else. We really get into trouble when we like a box so much that we pack ourselves inside it. It's such a comfortable box, we just make a home for ourselves in there. I've certainly done this in literal ways, holing up in my room when I was young, and figurative ways, too. It's hard to see it when we've boxed ourselves up figuratively. We tend to forget we're in a box, that there is any “outside” out there, that there is any other way to be.
One of the most damaging ways we've boxed ourselves up is in the ideology of male entitlement. But it was heartening to me to see the #YesAllWomen hashtag go viral last week. Initially, the shooting and violence in Isla Vista was represented as the work of a crazed lunatic, someone not like us – someone not in our box, someone who could be boxed up separately from the rest of us, the rest of us who are not in a box.
But then a million and more women posted their experiences of violence, misogyny and male entitlement with the hashtag #YesAllWomen. And in a manner of days, it was clear how boxed up we are. None of those #YesAllWomen incidents are isolated. They are all of the box that we have been living in. And the way that reality became so clear so quickly to so many gives me hope.
May we continue to blow the lid off of the boxes in which we've packed ourselves!
Blessings,
Joe
P.S. Just a note that I will be preaching only two more sermons at UUFCM, one this Sunday, June 8, and the other on June 15. From June 20-30 I will be in Providence, RI, attending UU Ministers' Association events and General Assembly. When I return, I'll lead the summer service on July 6 and Kristin and I will attend the service on July 13. I'll then use my remaining vacation time to drive our rental truck full of boxes to Saratoga Springs, NY.
Thank you to everyone for the support and love that you've shown to me since I announced that I would be leaving Mount Pleasant. I am going to miss you.
