General Assembly 2007

Wow. Here I sit in my not glamorous hotel room (St. Louis had fancy hotels... Portland not so much) while I am about to miss the Ware lecture because after having gone to college forever, I can't bear the thought of sitting still for an hour and listening to a lecture. I DO have my knitting with me (which usually distracts me enough from my numb booty and my anxiety of not multitasking every moment of the day and is how I got through my MSW program), but I have sat through 2 workshops, plenary, a worship, and a catching up with old PSD and Lawrence friends Adrien and Elizabeth, and I just can't think about being in one more uncomfortable chair tonight listening to one more expert.

Plus, I am just not that interested in Palestine. I know... I suck for saying it. I feel like a crappy UU for feeling that way. I can only care about so many causes, and this just ain't one of them. I am glad that other people are excited about this lecture, and that they put their energy toward this work. If you asked many of them, they might not care about inclusion of youth and young adults in congregational life like I do, or maybe they don't realize the amount of pain being inflicted upon oppressed people within our own denomination by the uninvited appropriation of their culture, identity, and/or rituals. My point is that everyone cannot act on every single issue, or even give attention to learning about every single issue. Sometimes I feel that our denomination is spread too thin. We are small in numbers compared to many other religious groups around the world. Are we doing too much?

When I told Adrien I was probably not going to attend the Ware lecture, he looked shocked. My reply? "That is not my thing", meaning that I am not interested enough to put my waning energy into it, at least not tonight. It's not that I don't care, but that I care about other things more.

The Open Space Technology Statements from plenary this evening show a recognized need to make more effort to incorporating children, youth, and young adults into congregational life.

Making a space and time for young adults to lead a worship that is not up against at least 15 other activities at our "Meeting of Congregations" is one place to start.
Ask the 250 or so people who attended Soulful Sundown today.... most would agree.