The Free Seeker

E-Newsletter of the Unitarian Fellowship of Huntington

Issue No. 26, July 7, 2010

Jack Wilkinson, Editor

Program for Sunday, July 11, 2010

The Red Detachment of Women

            This Chinese ballet premiered in 1964.  President Nixon saw it on his trip to China in 1972.  It had been adapted from an earlier film of the same title under the direction of Chou Enlai, which had, in turn, been adapted from a novel by Liang Xin.  It depicts the liberation of a peasant girl in Hainan Island and her rise in the Communist Party.  It was one of only eight shows allowed by Madame Mao  during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Despite the anachronism of its politics and historical background it remains a favorite of music and ballet lovers in China.

Future Programs

July 18:       Part II of "The Red Detachment of Women"

July 25:       Discussion of China Then and Now

August   1:  Bill Patten, "Afghanistan, Part II"

August   8:  Open Discussion

August 15:  "The Great West Virginia Textbook War and Its Relation to the Radical

                    Fundamentalist Elements of the Tea Party Movement"

August 22:   To be announced

August 29:   End of Summer Potluck Feast

Retrospective of Last Sunday's Open Discussion

            I raised the possibility of an investigation of the crimes committed by the Bush Administration.  The consensus was that a commission of reconciliation was the way to go (as in South Africa or Argentina). 

            Dorothy Necco asked that we focus on national strategies.  Ed Necco stressed the need for dissenting voices a la Thomas Payne.  Someone else stated that these voices have always been necessary and have always been there, though obviously their decibel level is not always the same.  Judy Whitley averred that we were afraid of change. 

            Mike Moore spoke up for President Obama.  He said that Obama is persistently and quietly doing everything that needs to be done without excessive fanfare.  Ed Necco agreed, saying that Obama was moving on several heretofore neglected fronts at once.  Ed added that as a nation we were being held back by provincial attitudes which tended to deter us from things we needed to do, such as raise taxes. 

            Judy Whitley decried the thefts from Social Security by budget balancers at a time when the cap needs to be raised, because as things stand the poor can't accumulate any savings.

            Somewhere in the conversation somebody mentioned that Obama's maternal grandmother was a UU. 

            The talk turned to health care.  Ed and Mike saw the trend as heading toward nationalization and doctors becoming more and more employees instead of small business owners.  After all, it already works neatly at the Veterans Administration.  People in countries around the world scratch their heads at what we pay doctors.  Dorothy Necco said there was a plethora of workers in hospitals, which contributed to high health care costs.  Ed Necco observed that doctors had the same level of ethics and morals as the rest of us and that they couldn't be trusted to hold themselves to a higher standard without outside scrutiny.  Claire Horton brought in Athens as a historical analogy . 

Keeping Up with Our Members

            Our president, Bob Williams, was absent last Sunday for health reasons.  This is a reminder to all to hold him in our thoughts and to wish him a rapid recovery. 

India in America

            The visit of Swami Vee a week or so ago gave me much food for thought which is, I trust, forthcoming in future newsletters.  His visit also calls forth the remembrance of the visit of past masters , which I whimsically set forth in the following sonnet-length poem. 

Yogi Sunrise

Al Jolson sings "Swami!" to the Vedic

Invasion of masters:  Ramakrishna,

Vivekenanda and Yogananda.

This first wave is followed by a sea of

Saffron robes and rice as gurus of all

Stripes wash ashore in the wake of the first

Three.  I must learn to like the lotus pose.

I must learn to yodel "OM!" on the range.

The way the world now seems to be turning.

When King Coal is no longer a merry old soul

And gigantic spills and hemorrhages

Make us oily to bed and to rise

And the stench of pig farms assails us,

Our mantras will soon be all we have left.

Jack Wilkinson  7/08/10

Light from Jack's Lantern:  "Metaphor"

             Rejection of metaphor is the sign of a sick mind.  Persistence in this strategy can lead to depression and a degraded immune system.  With this in mind let me respond to a few remarks made last Sunday during Coffee Hour. 

            The statement was made, "I don't believe in Mother Goose, nor do I believe in the Tooth Fairy."  Such a statement could only have been made by someone who didn't know who Mother Goose and the Tooth Fairy were.  Allow me to enlighten. 

            Mother Goose has been used to symbolize collections of children's verse ever since the French collector Perrault in the 18th century.  The term 'mother,' of course, means 'origin.'  'Mother Goose' means that children's verse springs up out of unseen sources.  Ultimately, it means 'inspiration.'   Even an atheist must drink from the well-springs of inspiration in order to find words with which to prove that no such realm exists. 

            As for the Tooth Fairy, this is a reference to metamorphosis, in this case from first to second teeth.  The real gift of the Tooth Fairy is not the dollar she leaves on your pillow to replace your first tooth but rather the replacement tooth itself.  Again, we get second teeth from an unseen source.  Mother Goose inspires;  the Tooth Fairy indentures.  These two symbols represent two of the miraculous discontinuities of human evolution.  I thank the Coffee Hour skeptic for bringing these miracles into the conversation.

Homily by the Reverend Jack Wilkinson:  "Together"

            In the progress of humankind the secularists erroneously decline to give the religionists their due credit, and the religionists return the favor.  It is foolish to assert that we are guided exclusively by biblical principles.  The Bible in itself is too enigmatic to serve as a behavior manual without being enriched by an ongoing literature of biblical commentary and secular addenda.  On the other hand, religion can't be totally dismissed as the provider of many fonts of goodness, even if some of the fonts are tainted.  The overarching truth of the matter is that human progress is made by both religionists and secularists working together or in tandem,.