THE NEW NORMAL?
Rev. Kit Ketcham, July 10, 2022
Pacific Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
As we’ve aged, whether we are single twenty- or thirty-somethings, middle-aged parents or single folks, Baby Boomers, or truly elderly and feeling it, we experience changes in our lives that turn out to be permanent rather than temporary.
It may be a chronic illness or an improvement in health due to changed behaviors; it may be the end or start of a love relationship; it may be a move from a beloved home to unfamiliar surroundings.
Many times these are temporary, but when they become permanent, we begin to realize that “normal” isn’t what it used to be. The “new normal” is often something we need to come to terms with because it is life-changing and not always pleasant.
I’ve had my ideas of “normal” changed a few times in my life, just as you have, no doubt. My vision went from mildly nearsighted to cluttered by cataracts, to damaged by retinal detachments---and that is my “new normal” vision. My heart went from a slight murmur to the diagnosis of a birth defect which needed repair, and then on to conditions that required a pacemaker and medications that have now become another “new normal” for me.
We learn to cope with the “new normal”, recognizing that our ability to adapt is on the line here. Losses in health or in relationships or in living conditions are major events in our life journeys and can strike at the very foundations of our sense of well-being.
Our nation’s health and relationships and living conditions are currently on the line these days, as we contemplate how we will cope with huge changes in our lives, whether personal, local, national, and/or global.
Trauma, whether personal, community, friendships, national, or global, seems to be the theme of The New Normal. We are unable to escape it, it permeates the news cycles, the themes of our entertainment, our neighborhoods, our friendships, our very health, both physical and mental.
An illustration from my own experience just the other day:
July 1 and I’ve been sleeping away for at least a couple of hours, secure in my little house above the Alderbrook lagoon, when what sounds like a fusillade of gunshots rings out somewhere in the neighborhood. They startle me awake and I try to get a count—were there 10 or12? Loud! Not far down the street. Who in my peaceful little corner of Astoria could be shooting off a gun in such a lengthy volley of shots and why would they be doing so?
Is this a domestic violence scene so close to me? Who? I think of the couples I’ve socialized with on this block and can’t imagine any of them doing something so awful. I’m not wide awake enough to get up and look out the window and scared enough to just hunker down under the blankets and think of what to do: call the cops? What would I tell them?
I look at the clock and notice that it’s about midnight, and then it dawns on me—-it’s 4th of July weekend, it’s Friday night, and the loud bangs I’ve been wakened by are probably fireworks, not gunshots. But again, who would be so careless (or deliberate) about disturbing the neighborhood as to make loud noises at midnight at this tumultuous time in our nation?
So I turn over and try to go back to sleep, but my brain can’t turn off the sound of the guns or whatever, can’t quit wondering if we’re in danger here, and then a very loud car comes zipping down my street, turns the corner onto lagoon road, races down to the trailhead parking space, turns around and roars back past our houses, as outdoor automatic lights illuminate the road and Alder street. It roars down Alder and out of our safe little corner of Astoria.
By now it’s past 1 a.m. and sleep does not return to me. And a song I’ve been hearing on the radio recently floats through my mind: “I am Ukrainian now, I am Ukrainian now”.
I can’t completely dismiss the idea that we’ve been under siege in the middle of the Astoria night, but I do recognize that this must be a bit like PTSD, the sense of danger, of adrenaline in the night making me wonder if I, and my neighbors, are safe. If not, what should we do?
In addition, our national political scene has been both exciting and scarily chaotic. We have been challenged repeatedly by potential upheavals and reversals of hard-won human rights and basic respect for human dignity. Our Supreme Court has been hijacked by the religious right and is in the process of overturning constitutional rights to the detriment of human health and living conditions.
However as we face the rest of the year 2022, with its uncertainties, there are strengths within this Fellowship, its membership, and its values that we will build upon, continuing to use our seven—almost eight-- principles and the ideals that they represent to resist efforts to turn back the clock to an older more repressive time.
We have new members with leadership abilities and high eagerness. We are set firmly upon a solid foundation laid by longterm members and leaders. We have volunteers, both longtimers and newer folks, who are establishing new processes for new ways to be together, to socialize, to talk through big ideas.
We have volunteers stepping up to the plate with ideas and energy. We have renewed activities---circle suppers and coffee klatches with a purpose. Our board is made up of longtimers and newer folks—a promising combination for stability and creativity.
Speaking of coffee klatches, I was thrilled to take part in the Astoria coffee klatch last Saturday and also yesterday’s peninsula coffee klatch.
We had good turnouts for both of these gatherings and lively discussion took place, when the conversation turned to how PUUF is doing these days and what we might want to consider in the future.
A major brainstorming session produced some great ideas, in each group: how can we reach out to younger people with children so we can get our Religious Education program more solid and with more kids? How can we serve young families? Can we help to subsidize a day care center? Can we have a presence at the community college?
More ideas flowed in: women do a great deal of the leadership at PUUF, which is good, but we have men who want to be more connected. How about starting a Men’s Fellowship group?
Our Peninsula coffee klatch yesterday also provided some great new ideas:
After organizing some help for one of our members who is getting a knee replacement, we moved on to think about such things as a regular carpool for peninsula folks, so not everyone needs to drive themselves to church or other gatherings? How about sponsoring a movie gathering at the Senior Center, with a good movie and UU literature? How about scholarships for child care? How about sponsoring an immigrant family on the peninsula?
As the month progresses, I hope we’ll do some more brainstorming to increase our understandings of what each region of our parish needs, to feel connected. I’m looking forward to hearing what Tillamook county folks and South County folks come up with when we meet! Exciting times!
We have started to grow again. Our numbers took a hit when some folks left after our ministerial searches failed; but we’ve had the great good fortune to have been joined by several new folks who have already stepped in to volunteer positions and are actively serving! So growth needs to be part of any master plan we create.
BUT, it’s important to recognize that growth for growth’s sake is not the goal. Changes in our size bring changes in our relationships and a healthy growing congregation has many opportunities for increasing our level of friendship and outreach.
We often think of “growth” as measured primarily in numbers or size. I mean, how did our parents measure our growth? By marks on the door jamb, with a book on our heads, right? By our weight on the pediatrician’s scale, by the sizes of shoes we outgrew!
In a religious community, there’s more than one kind of growth to consider, however. Numbers, yes, because we report our numbers to the Unitarian Universalist Association and pay a fee to that organization in return for their support. Size, yes, because it feels so great to see this sanctuary start to fill up a little more on Sundays.
But there are other growth issues we need to look at:
An important area of growth for a religious community is in spiritual understanding, opening ourselves to a deeper awareness of what it means to be a human being, in this world, a human being who knows they will die.
Part of that awareness is recognizing our deepest values---for ourselves and for each other---and finding within ourselves the awe aroused by the world and its creatures and the commitment to offer ourselves and our resources to the world’s protection and improvement.
We have only a small social outreach presence right now in this community, but social justice activities can help us find that sense of connection which invites awe and wonder into our lives.
Spirituality is both inward and outward---inward when we are touched by love or wonderment and savor it quietly. Outward when we invest our insights and sense of wonder into making lives better with our own actions.
Seven years ago, we faced the prospect of a presidential administration which seemed bent on destruction of justice, respect, and compassion. We have fought those destructive policies every step of the way and are still fighting them, with our vehement anger at the rolling back of women’s rights, climate change policies, the newly-fuzzy boundaries between church and state.
As a UU congregation, we have work to do, and our conversations about that work will be our task over the next several months, even years. Our seven principles will serve as guideposts as we move forth, and I’d like for us to review them today.
Our eighth principle, the one about adding anti-racism standards and policies to our commitments is yet to be added formally, but I have no doubt it will be added. It states:
“We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.”
I invite you to open your hymnals now to the page at the very front of the book which lists our Unitarian Universalist principles. These are the foundation of our faith. They are the values which inform our religious life and give us direction as we respond to attacks on justice, equity, truth, and all that we are committed to as UUs.
Let’s read them together. (read)
As we move forward, into this difficult time, let us support those leaders who share our values, resist and challenge those who would trample others in their race for riches, and may we find the courage to speak our minds for love and justice in this chaotic time. Let us do all we can to maintain what we have gained from progressive action and band together for strength.
Let’s pause for a time of silent reflection and prayer.
Our closing hymn is #347, “Gather the Spirit”
As Cicely extinguishes the chalice, I’d like to use this piece by queer theologian Carter Heywood for our benediction.
A New Beatitudes 2022
By Carter Heyward
Blessed are those who are kind, especially when it’s hard
Blessed are those angry for justice in situations of unfairness and oppression,
Blessed are the compassionate in times of hatred,
Blessed are those who speak honestly when pummeled by lies — and who seek truth when confronted by fake news,
Blessed are those who keep their courage in the face of belligerent bullies,
Blessed are women who stand up to abusive men — and blessed are men who stand with, not on, women,
Blessed are the queer who do not walk straight and narrow paths,
Blessed are black lives — and white lives who know that black lives matter,
Blessed are the earth and animals among those indifferent to their well-being,
Blessed are non-violent resisters whose enemies hope you will pick up guns,
Blessed are you when people shake their heads because you refuse to accept authoritarian rulers as “normal,”
Blessed are you peacemakers who refuse cheap grace,
You are daughters and sons of the Sacred,
brothers and sisters of Jesus, (and Mohammed and the Buddha and all women and men)
(You are all) friends of the Spirit,
Amen, Shalom, Salaam, and Blessed Be..
