st. louis, revisited
for the second time this month, i find myself in st. louis, missouri.
last time i was here for the fun of it – to make sure that erik, josh, and tif knew about the city museum before their potential or certain departures from the midwest, and to do a little general celebration after finishing capstone presentations.
this time i’m attending three days of General Assembly, the annual business gathering of Unitarian Universalists from across the country. Here, UUs gather to vote on the social action issues that will be the foci of study and advocacy at the national level over the next two years, and to attend workshops on things ranging from “Add a Family Choir to Your Music Program” to “Getting on Message: Challenging the Religious Right” to “Dances of Universal Peace for Gender Healing.”
yeehaw
they also buy and sell things, like the shirt i just got which says: GA 2056 — on the freaking moon!, with a picture of a rocket that looks kinda like these.
it maketh me chuckle.
so anyway, i’ve never been to GA, and i haven’t been going to church much this semester at all, despite being a member of our young adult steering committee.
but st. louis was too close to pass up, and we raised enough money from football parking this year that it’s pretty much free.
so there ya go.
the vision that i was holding in my head was something of a conference/church mashup, with meetings, and people giving away pens and stress balls with little chalices or something on them, but with words like “spirituality” and “religious humanism” sprinkled around for good measure.
this turned out to be pretty much spot on, and the verdict is still out on what i think about the result.
i do feel affinity with the young adult population here, with whom i’ve been out of touch for a while as far as the regional and national movements are concerned. they are friendly, and they do things like distribute bingo boards with words such as those written above, along with things like “i object!” and “motion carries”, so that you have something to do during long plenary sessions.
so we get along just fine.
even without the live-action pacman.
on a deeper level, though, i’m thinking quite a bit these days about the merits and challenges of different approaches to Getting Things DoneTM
academia vs. industry.
public vs. private.
for-profit vs. non-profit.
religion vs. secularism.
UUism is rooted in a deep conviction regarding the relationship between social action and spiritual community, and that idea has definitely impacted my own development.
at the same time, i find myself feeling more and more drawn to direct my own energies elsewhere, for a range of reasons that i don’t have time to articulate now, because i’m late for dinner.
but it’s good to be here.
it’s good to learn more about how the organization works.
and it’s good to see and hear and talk with people who are really fired up about figuring out how to do things this way.
it’s good to understand why they think what they’re thinking, even if i don’t think it with them.
and as long as i’m say things like that, i can’t really pretend to not be UU on some level, so…
i might as well enjoy hanging out.
;)
more thoughts later.
as well as some notes on bonnaroo, which is where i was last weekend, and thank you, yes, i had an awesome time.
now for some thai food, if i can make it on time.
later, there’s an open mic coffeehouse, and we were blessed with inspiration this morning:
we are going to do some bible thumping.
literally.
i don’t think it’s necessarily what the gideons intended we do with their gifts, but we’ll be careful, i promise…