I'm a few chapters into an interesting book called "Salt: a World History" by author Mark Kurlansky. I've also read his book "Cod", about how cod fishing shaped world events in the past centuries. "Salt" is a fascinating history of how humans have been in relationship to this substance which is ubiquitous in nature and in culture.
According to Kurlansky, salt is a necessary component in the functioning of the cells of the human body. Without both water and salt, cells could not get nourishment and would die of dehydration. It is in every fluid excreted by the human body and its balance in the human body must be within a certain range, or the body is out of whack.
It got me thinking. What is the Salt in Unitarian Universalism? What is the essential ingredient in our faith tradition, without which we are out of whack as a body? Is it our freethinking? Our commitment to social justice? Our heritage as liberal Christians?
I'm doing a lot of thinking about this myself and wonder how others perceive it.
3 comments:
You have just asked, quite succinctly, the question I only implied in my last blog entry... I just wish I had an answer. I think we need to find that salt soon, or fade away as a religious denomination.
I think maybe it's that we believe in improvability. We believe we can improve ourselves, and we can improve the world, and it is a sacred task to work on improvement.
I think it's the reason we have a religion with no dogma -- if you can't change, you can't improve. dogma is anti-change.
Maybe it's also the reason we are too serious.
I like that, Kim, thanks.
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