The North Unitarian Universalist Congregation Newsletter November 2007

I’ve been boycotting local TV news for a long time. So much of it is so clearly devised to frighten us into such a state of anxiety that we then become dependant on…the local news. “Will there be a deadly hurricane in Columbus, tomorrow? Tune in later.” “Is your soap potentially deadly?” And of course, if you actually tune in later, the answer turns out to be a complicated version of “no.”

So I want to tell an opposite sort of story. One not about random crime, but the goodness of strangers.

I was in Chicago a couple of weeks ago to chair the Midwest Regional Subcommittee on Candidacy. We meet with seminary students and interview them in order to accept them as candidates for Unitarian Universalist ministry. We also offer suggestions to the students on how they might best use their remaining time in ministerial formation. Those suggestions go into a letter, which I write on my laptop. The same laptop which hours later went missing on the streets of Chicago.

It began with the cab ride to the airport at the conclusion of the meeting. Three of us went together, and we were fought over by two different cab drivers. The most aggressive of the two won, grabbing our luggage from the first cabbie, throwing it in the trunk, and whisking us away. When we got to the airport and the cabbie opened the trunk, my laptop had apparently not made the transfer from the first cab. I freaked, of course. And I called the hotel. They had found my laptop on the sidewalk. Let me clarify: They found my brand new fancier-than-I-have-ever-owned laptop on a busy sidewalk in a very edgy neighborhood in urban Chicago. Untouched.

They promised to send the laptop overnight. It didn’t arrive, so I called again. The kid behind the desk forgot to tell anybody about the laptop, so it had spent 36 hours sitting on the counter of a largely unstaffed desk. Untouched. In a very edgy neighborhood in urban Chicago.

They managed to overnight mail it, but still, it didn’t arrive. I checked the tracking information on line. According to the tracking info, the laptop had already been delivered to my front door. Only it hadn’t. I called FedEx. They said if it was the wrong address, they would have most likely heard something by then. They said they would ask the driver if he remembered something. This was not encouraging.

But the very next day, a neighbor stopped by with the laptop. It had been delivered to her front door, where it sat, untouched, overnight, in full view of the street, this same street being a favorite haunt for drunken teen vandals.

Reunited with my laptop, I immediately mailed off the letters to the students. And I couldn’t help but think that it was probably fitting that their ministries be launched through a strange chain of inexplicable acts of honesty.

What goes right will never make the local news; it most often escapes our notice. But it is awe inspiring to think of the chain of major and minor graces that make our lives possible.

Happy Thanksgiving-month.

To Life!
Susan

Nov. 11 A Blessed Life Indeed. Jacob had to wrestle an angel to extract a blessing for himself. So, how do we get ourselves blessed, and what is blessing anyway?

Nov. 18 The Same Boat. Annual Thanksgiving Service and Bread Communion. The surprising connection between gratitude and diversity.

Nov. 25 Eileen Watters leads a lay service entitled I'm Not Afraid to Drive in the Snow -- The Uncommon Courage of Common People.   The service will focus on her friendship with Hawa, a Somalian refugee who fled Somalia in the mid-90's, and her life here in the United States.

Dec. 2 Hanukah: Saving Traditions. Which traditions save, which stifle, and how do we tell the difference?

Children's Worship

Nov. 4   Explorers: the story of Noah poses the question: What is just punishment?

Nov. 11 Explorers: the story of Jacob, the concept of a blessed people, AND peace in the Middle East!

Nov. 18 Children in main worship.

Nov. 25 Explorers: The story of David leads to a discussion about bullies, and what to do about them.

Dec. 2 Explorers: Hanukah!

Dec. 9 Explorers: The story of Jonah: what to do with hard to believe stories.

Also in this issue
Page 2  Events & Activities.  Find out what's happening in October!
Page 3  From the Committees and Board. 
Page 4  A Call to Action!  See how you can support your congregation and your world!