Try #9 at what Unitarian Universalists seek … synonyms

Tags

UU's believe attempt #9

This set of ideas has been written over and over again because it is necessary to get it right. I have written it until it seems perfect in the moment, but the next day it is no longer quite right because I am approaching these ideas in a new way. Below I have created a list of synonyms for all the significant words, so you may compare them for the stability and suitability of the potential meaning of the whole document.

---

This attempt #9 is written in an exploratory form based on synonyms

We Unitarian Universalists seek to:

1. —discover (find, create, see, learn, notice) the orderly (clean, tidy, neat, arranged) nature (life energy generation creation strength) of the Universe (cosmos, creation, world, heavens, everything), so we (I, you) may (might) be (live, inhabit, dwell, subsist, exist, survive, live out, continue, experience, dwell, occupy, abide, inhabit, persist, get along, thrive) in a beautiful (lovely, pretty, handsome, comely, fair) relationship (connection, link, linkage) with (accompanying, affecting) all (every one) of the beautiful (lovely, pretty, handsome, comely, fair) options (alternatives, possibilities, choices, freedoms) it offers us.
2. —minimize (decrease lessen reduce prevent) the suffering (pain agony woe distress hurt) of all (every, each, each and every) living (extant alive active breathing) things and to enable (allow permit facilitate empower entitle) human (mortal fallible imperfect frail compassionate kindly) wisdom,(depth profoundness reasonableness goodness) health, (wellbeing fitness vigour) and happiness.(bliss contentment pleasure wellbeing gladness beatitude )
3. —create (produce distill derive establish generate originate initiate start actualize establish develop design breed establish) and maintain (preserve conserve preserve keep uphold sustain prolong nurture perpetuate) a perfectly (absolutely completely entirely fully totally utterly wholly ) balanced (just fair equal open-minded equitable unprejudiced prudent rational sane sensible wise) society (group, civilization culture structure fraternity fellowship companionship relationship social order people union league company) so (thusly thus, and so, and then, then, hence) everyone (everybody, each person, every person, one and all) may (might can could, be able to) live (live on, survive, last, endure, subsist, exist, live out, experience, dwell, occupy, abide, inhabit reside, lead, exist, survive, thrive, abide) within (inside, in) a delightful (charming pleasant refreshing pleasing, engaging, heavenly, enjoyable, gratifying, agreeable) and sustainable (steady, livable, unruined) world. (natural order, nature, domain, experience, globe, earth, land, period, time, era, creation, )
4. —recognize (acknowledge, know recognise, know, discern, recognise, call up, retrieve, identify, welcome, receive, acknowledge, recognise, appreciate, honor, reward, notice, allow, admit, grant, concede, perceive) our (we) unique (special, unrivaled, peculiar, exclusive) personal (mental, social, human, technological) abilities (aptitude, adaptability, sensitivity, competence, magic, penetration, language, skills,talent, know-how, gift, competence, energy, aptitude, cleverness, potential, capacity, craft, skill) and choose to use (pick, prefer, select designate, desire, wish) them to help (aid, back, support, encourage, assist, succor, heal, cure, facilitate, ) others (children, family, friend, strangers, foreigner, alien, cyborg, bionic man, machine) live () healthier and (wholesome, sound, hale, robust, well, strong) happier (content, glad, blessed, blest, cheerful, gratified, joyous, joyful, fortunate, appropriate, apt) lives. (being, state, presence, possibility, existence). 
5. —acknowledge (state, answer, announce, declare, vocalize, submit, proffer, accept, support, confirm, recognize, approve) that () we () as a () group (collection, accumulation assortment organization, association, fellowship, assemblage, people) of individuals (personalities, selves, adventurers, seekers, searchers, inhabitants, lovers, beings, loan, discrete distinct ordinary units, characters) expressing (showing, conveying, asserting, venting, displaying, revealing, actualizing, proving, exposing,) positive (optimistic, confident, hopeful, buoyant, useful, practical, progressive, enthusiastic, supportive, affirmative, definite, explicit, affirmative) but () diverse (various, diversified, different, contrasting, distinct, discrete, separate, variant) views (opinion, perspective, sight, persuasion, sentiment, judgement belief) are more () likely (probable, potentialy credibly prone, liable apt, expected plausible, feasible hopefully) to discover (detect, notice, observe, find, see, ascertain, conceive, reveal) mutually (reciprocally, inversely) beneficial (useful, profitable, advantageous, productive, rewarding, worthwhilem serviceable) opportunities (possibleties, openings, moments, windows) than we () will (wish, desire, want, choose) find (notice, spot, locate, observe, discover, breakthrough, detect) as solitary (single, alone, isolated, lonely, lonesome, sole, asocial, exclusive) individuals.(mortal, soul, personality, appointee, experimenter, expert, individualist, native, intellect, lover, observer, )
6. —make (give, present, deliver, secure, obtain cause, initiate) a voluntary (intended, willing, conscious,deliberate, planned, studied, purposed unenforced, uncompelled, free, honorary, spontaneous, volitional, deliberate) decision (selection, choice, pick, resolution, conclusion, determination, judgment, resolution) to help (assist, aid, facilitate, lift, boost, succor, support, maintain, promote, avail) each () of us () to grow (advance, progress, improve, transform, recover, step-up) in understanding (comprehension, self-knowledge, appreciation, insight, realization, judgment, awareness, appreciation, insight, sympathy, sensitivity, love, concern goodwill, kindness, considerateness, helpfulness, assisting, aid, facilitate, succor, serve, work, represent) and affection (protectiveness, regard, respect, care, ) for one another.(reciprocate, reflexive helping)

---

This is getting better to my way of thinking, but what will tomorrow bring?

Suggestions are welcome…

---

[ Below is another rewrite. The method used this time was to take each word and check through that word’s synonyms searching for a more subtle nuance to the basic ideas.]

---

Attempt #9 for comparison to the document above

We Unitarian Universalists seek to:

1. —discover the orderly nature of the Universe, so we may be in a beautiful relationship with all the beautiful options it offers us.
2. —minimize the suffering of all living things and to enable human wisdom, health, and happiness.
3. —create and maintain a perfectly balanced society so everyone may live within a delightful and sustainable world.
4. —recognize our unique personal abilities and choose to use them to help others live healthier and happier lives.
5. —acknowledge that we as a group of individuals expressing positive but diverse views are more likely to discover mutually beneficial opportunities than we will find as solitary individuals.
6. —make a voluntary decision to help each of us to grow in understanding and affection for one another.

Unitarian Universalists affirm and promote …

Tags

Evolution of UU goals, Survival of humanity

I have been associated with the Unitarians since 1953 but I have often said to my friends that I was born a Unitarian in 1935 and didn’t discover until December 1953 that I was a Unitarian. Exactly what that meant to me was … to always treat people as well as I possibly could, and expect that they were telling me the truth as they saw it. The idea of what the truth was about various subjects is a point that generates considerable conversation; which I enjoyed, and still do. That’s about sixty-six years of daily bull-shit, or as some accused me of, because of my weight and volume of production, elephant-shit.

On a more serious note, after asserting my open-ended and light-hearted approach to creeds and religious dogma, I am approaching the subject of UU belief with hope for bringing it, and religion, and all humanity closer to my conception of what people might choose as guiding principles for how they might approach their personal reality. But first, let me begin with the current general handout that is given out before the more specific Sunday “Fresh-sheet” of information. The following picture of me  welcoming people to our church was unplanned, and unexpected by me,

That’s me offering a welcoming hand at the UUFCO

but when one opens the beautifully done brochure the first thing seen is:

---

We affirm & promote

• • • The inherent worth and dignity of every person
    • Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations
    • Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations.
    • A free and responsible search for truth and meaning
    • The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large
    • The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all
    • Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

  ---

  In 1936 the Unitarians published Unitarians Face A New Age – The Report of the Commission of Appraisal to the American Unitarian Association at 25 Beacon Street, Boston, MA. I purchased that eighty-three-year-old book and am reading it because I am planning to go to the UU conference in Spokane, Washington, next month and wanted a background in UU policy. On page 33 of that book I read that Unitarians are “stubborn only in the resolve to resist the temptation to become fixed and final.” The renditions above of our current inclinations are not indifferent, they are clear and concise statements of things to be valued by all people, but the language is different from the ideas presented by them and me in my post “Unitarians Agree” we need sparkle. That links to my rewrite of the 1936 generalized statements of Unitarian aspirations. Here are the current official Seven Principles. Below are my ideas for a current statement.

  ---

  We affirm and promote 

  The Unitarian Universalist Principles

  • • Include the inherent worth, dignity, and need for love of every living being
    • We seek compassion in all of our relations with all beings.
    • We accept one another and encourage moral growth toward actions which help others.
    • We long for meaning based on evidence-based truth and responsible actions.
    • We support personal exploration combined with an open discussion with others to find a path to a sustainable future.
    • Our goal is a thriving world filled with life, liberty, and opportunities for everyone.
    • We choose to shape our lives as a meaningful part of the entire Universe.

  ---

  I as an individual choose to invite you personally to help create this new statement of goals in a way that would be more acceptable to Unitarian Universalists and all other humans.

This Sunday began at the UU

Tags

A walk in the labyrinth, Easter UU services

The Easter sermon at the UU was about the resurrection of life. The kids’ lecture before departing to their classrooms was about how mighty things like Ponderosa trees begin as tiny seeds. Rev Scott challenged the kids with questions of how this could happen, and they came up with more interesting answers than I would have done. Dirt, water, the sunshine of course, but also science, pine cones, and love.

After the kids wended their way through the arch of arms we adults formed while they while being sung out the door to their classrooms, the sermon became more adult and more serious, but every bit as much fun. It concluded with a gift of a package of Oregon bachelor button flower seeds being given to each person of the packed audience. There were two services so we may have had almost four hundred people – I didn’t count, but there were a lot of people.

In the hour between the two services I walked the labyrinth with my friend Nate and we had a profound conversation. At least I thought so, and the rocks were in fine fettle because of the spring rains and intermittent sunshine, and they were very helpful for me in answering my questions to them. Nate and I went back to the church building where I do several little tasks like help with the collection.

I usually participate in the Collection at the UU and prime the process with a folded dollar in the decorative basket.

Here in Bend, Oregon, it was a beautiful spring day, and a wonderful Easter.

I want to be good, but how?

Tags

Being a good person, Being good, Conscious moment, Modern Sisyphus, Sweeping a plaza, Unitarian Universalist church, UUFCO

Being good is an intentional social act done in the external world where it may be perceived as being helpful to some living thing. A good act can be done for other people, or for animals, or for plants, if the act helps those very different individuals to live their lives better. The act can even be done for your own self if it is done in a way that will bring about a better life for your future self. Doing your household chores in the morning is a good deed because it helps everyone in your family to live better lives later that day and that includes yourself.

The next problem with being a good person is to do your good actions before you die; you can’t do much voluntary work after you die. But you rarely know when you are going to die, so from that perspective you must be doing a good action every moment. Hmm.

Is doing a deed that takes a long time to finish a good thing the whole time? For example, is taking a sick person to a hospital a single continuous good act the whole time you are doing it, or just a good act the conscious moment you choose to do it, and the rest just routine actions? And, if the whole trip is considered a good act and you got killed in an accident while driving dangerously, did you die a good person for taking a person to the hospital or a bad one for driving too fast and getting killed?

It felt like I was doing a good thing this morning, while sweeping up the sidewalks approaching the Unitarian Universalist church here in Bend, Oregon. Was I doing a good thing with each sweep of the broom and thus a lot of good things, or was it just the single ten-minute act that should be considered a single good act? While thinking about these things, I occasionally opened the front doors for people coming by and tried to be as welcoming as seemed appropriate.

There are no people in the picture above, but about two hundred people went in and came out over this area. One guy asked me why I was doing this nice but not very necessary work. I recalled to him the Classic Greek story of Sisyphus and how that guy offended one of the gods. So he was condemned by that god to push a large rock up a hill that day, but overnight it rolled back down and the next day he was told to push it up again.

The passing guy said that was a horrible job, a thankless job, but I said, No, I feel more like a modern Sisyphus who has been given a wonderful job. Sisyphus considered himself a lucky man because his life had a purpose and he was working for a god. I said I was doing a job too, a tiny one I admit, but it was helping living people live better lives and that was a good use of my time and my effort too.

After the service, when returning to my car, I picked up a few pieces of natural litter and some artificial litter too, and was wondering if each of those individual acts was equally good, or not? Is picking up a branch in the path as good as picking up a cigarette butt?

It was a splendid day!

There are cultures and subcultures and subsubcultures.

Tags

Cultures, How to prepare to meet new people, How to treat difficult people, New city, New country, New person, New social group, Rick Steves, Subcultures, Subsubcultures, Treat everyone well.

Whenever you go into a new country, a new city, a new neighborhood, a new social group of any kind you will be entering a new complex of human interactions. These interactions will have formed groups within the culture and within those groups, there will be subgroups and within that, there will be more subgroups and of subgroups all the way down to the individual. Even the individual will behave differently depending on the situation, and even that response is greatly influenced by a multitude of preexisting personal conditions of the moment.

What I am saying is to give everyone a chance to interact in a friendly and productive way. Even that is problematic because it is impossible to know how, when and where other people’s sensitivities might be violated. Thus, it is important for the sake of just getting along to assume that everyone you meet must be treated with respect and to assume that what they are communicating to you is intended to be respectful and helpful. It might not be so, and they might react to everything you say and do because of a vast plethora of things of which you will never know.

Rick Steves has a TV show of travels throughout Europe and once when interviewed, he was asked how he related to nasty people. He said he treated them well. And, what do you do when they are still nasty? And, Rick said, I treat them even better.

It is hard to know how many levels of treating others better can go, but my current take on this subject is:

I will treat everyone better than they treat me. No matter what.

 

Never lie!

Tags

How to spot lies, Identifying lies, lies, Never lie

Why lying is bad.

Lying to yourself may be the worst thing you can do for your long-term wellbeing. America’s founding fathers were on the right track when creating our new nation when they declared their primary goals to be “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” And Ben Franklin wrote a personal ambition to be “happy, healthy, wise, and wealthy.” I blogged about those goals in a post on Liberty last week, and those goals are intimately related to thinking the truth which is the flip side of lying.

Lying distorts your reality

It is obvious that lying to one’s self distorts the ability to see what is really happening  and what will bring about desirable future situations. How can one possibly have a desirable future if they intentionally destroy their perception of their reality of the present moment with mind-altering drugs, or mind-altering ideas based on lies?

Identify lies in the moment.

Every moment is the beginning of a new future and thus every moment must be protected from the distortions that lying to oneself creates. When something is observed to be a distortion that will lead to a poor future it must simply be ignored and quietly avoided.

Shun lies

When any of those seven possible futures — life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness which bring into being happy, healthy, wise, and wealthy people — are not being achieved because of lies, the lies should be identified and shunned.

Whenever those goals are not being achieved, look for the source of the distortion of perception and the lie.

I’m not enthusiastic about 10 Commandments or 11 either

Tags

1 Thought, 10 Commandments, 11 Commandments, 147 Suggestions, Treat everyone better than you treat yourself.

I’m not enthusiastic about 10 Commandments or 11 Commandments either and The 147 Suggestions coming out of the Delphic Oracle about 500 BC are an easier list to apply to daily living and are plausibly the source document for the later ones.

The hubris of making Commandments is offensive to modern scientifically inclined people. We like to think for ourselves and easily become resistant to people telling us what to do, how to live our lives. This attitude is exacerbated by the near constant and ubiquitous flow of advertising. It is more subtle than Commanding us what to do, or even suggesting how we might behave; instead, they put models of behavior before us that attract us to spend our time and money in ways that appear to benefit us while clearly benefiting them.

It appears that “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” was an adequate statement of aspirations for the Founding Fathers of the US. They didn’t lay a burden of Commandments on their constituents, and instead instituted limits on the powers of the government to what was necessary for public safety and order. Ben Franklin separately postulated the goals of happy, healthy, wise and wealthy but these are presented as aspirations to be sought for by normal people and not demands. You are not commanded to be happy, you are not compelled to be healthy, you are not dragged into wise motivations, and you don’t have money forced into your pockets. All of those are offered as rights that citizens are encouraged to pursue and may comfortably possess.

The idea being pursued is, how can we make it most likely that these things will come into our daily lives? Bringing things into being with commandments given by a punishing authority will generate opposite reactive behaviors, and even suggestions will stimulate their opposite effects to be brought into a mirrored reality of their mildly oppressive qualities. Even the world of advertising with their clever semi-hidden manipulations of our minds will generate resistance. A way to approach those desirable qualities is to:

Treat everyone better than you treat yourself.

Fourth post-op day and my medical ducks are bored.

It is now the fourth day since I had inguinal hernia surgery. Since then I’ve talked to a couple of guys about my surgery and compared to theirs it was duck soup; that is, there was only a little pain and that was when I did something I could control and not do again. Except for when coughing or sneezing I had no pain events that were serious enough that I considered taking the Oxycodone-Acetaminophen that was prescribed to me. I would rather observe my pain and avoid doing what caused it than suppress it and be dulled to my world of experience.

I don’t like having these drugs around and will dispose of them tomorrow morning if I sleep well tonight. I am doing some experiments with making an anti-sneeze/anti-cough spray. My current experiment is to dissolve a cough drop in whiskey and then spray that into my mouth when there is a tickle in my throat. There is nothing to report yet. As previously reported, if I could get a cough drop chewed and dissolved in my mouth in fifteen seconds, it would suppress the cough. By making the spray I can get that solution into my throat in a second or two but like I said, I have nothing to report yet.

I attended my usual conversations with my friends and they were as exciting as ever, perhaps a little too exciting because I overstated my opinion on something and offended a dear friend. Sorry. Later, in the afternoon I attended a scheduled group discussion, where I showed off a photo of my recovering incision. I held it life-sized over the site. Several of the guys mentioned what appeared to me as nostalgic memories of similar experiences.

On to more serious things. Because of this assault on my life, a modest assault, I have been thinking about my eventual death and what I wish that I had done, but haven’t done yet.

I don’t have much ambition to make money; actually I’ve never had much of that, and I do have enough to get by. Thanks to my medical bills being covered by the Veterans Administration because of my two years of military service as a pilot in the USAF, I haven’t been driven into desperation by this hernia operation.

I have some personal friends who treat me well, and I attend the UU church every Sunday and do a few routine good works there, so there is a mild feeling of satisfaction from that. I have several other small social groups that I attend regularly, and even though I miss the exhilaration of living in Berkeley for fifty-one years, what I am doing is meaningful enough.

I have Debbie as a multi-decades-long life companion and we get along so well that people often mention that in passing by. We rarely argue about money, or politics, or religion, or anything else except for the meaning and pronunciation of words. Even though I have been crankier than usual because of my medical problems the last few months, she has been a constant and reliable companion.

In my discussion group with about eighteen guys this afternoon I said something that was a bit much for them. I said that I didn’t mind dying or being dead, and didn’t expect to have any personal afterlife to look forward to; that instead, I felt comfortable returning to the nonliving matter of the Universe. That the Universe is such a spectacular thing that I feel good about becoming once again an unthinking part of its grandeur. That little speech didn’t get any hurrahs from those people, most of whom said they were praying for an afterlife where they would be reunited with their loved ones, but I felt that it might give them a feeling that everything would be okay even if that afterlife is what not happens to them personally.

Clearing one’s own mind from unnecessary stresses and helping other people to live more abundantly is enough.

Today’s medical ducks are still friendly

Tags

A zipper in my stomach, Corona 14 inch Pruning Saw, Inguinal hernia

From 10:00 am until 11:00 am I was under the knife, cut open and had my intestinal wall sewn back together where it had been stretched too hard and had ripped open a little. A mesh screen was sewn over the previous opening and now it has become a permanent part of me.

I remember a feeling, a few times during my life, of a tearing sensation in my abdomen while doing something strenuous. One time while pulling really hard on a tire iron while trying to fix a flat tire. I was pulling on a car wheel bolt which had frozen stuck, and had a distinct zipper being opened feeling. Another time was this last summer when sawing some very hard tree stumps down to slightly below ground level. I was using a wonderful Corona 14 inch Pruning Saw and cutting roots about three inches underground. My body posture was very strange while cutting those steel hard roots when I felt a tearing sensation. It didn’t hurt much and I finished the job in a slightly different position.

Several weeks ago I noticed a large smooth lump in my lower abdomen and asked my doctor about it, and he immediately informed me that I had an inguinal hernia. Other people were then contacted, paperwork completed, other forms of various prep work like insurance lined up, and then an inguinal hernia doctor scheduled. All of that early work went remarkably well, apparently because my intestine was noticeably obtruding through my intestinal wall and imposed a risk that can lead to death. Mayo Clinic posts, “Incarcerated hernia can become strangulated, which cuts off the blood flow to the tissue that’s trapped. A strangulated hernia can be life-threatening if it isn’t treated.”

The operation went well, I was told, and my super helpful next door neighbor was called and he drove us home from the clinic. I was groggy from the sedatives but hungry, so I ate a slice of bread, and went to bed. I had only slept for three hours the night before. After waking up, Debbie and I did our usual twenty-minute walk, a bit slower than usual, but very pleasant. When we came home I read University of NIKE for a few minutes and went back to sleep.

The whole event was not painful, and I enjoyed being the center of attention and being treated kindly by everyone.

Currently, my pain and anxiety levels are quite low and my mind isn’t noticeably compromised … yet.

Did Jesus say should or would?

Tags

Jesus, Mathew 7:12, Should versus Would

In the King James Bible Matthew 7:12 we read “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” Many of the large numbers of new translations change the word “should” into “would“. I have written about this conflict many times. Sometimes I bring it up in conversations, concluding with a statement such as, “Christ’s statement is different from all other religions in that it exhorts you to treat other people as they should treat you. That word should is a statement that challenges you to be a better person than you are, whereas the word would only challenges you to treat others as well as you treat yourself.”

I have said this many times to the same people and yet they don’t seem to understand the difference and continually revert to the simpler version of “Be kind to others and they will be kind to you,” or its negative version, “Don’t be mean to others and they won’t be mean to you.” That’s okay if you are already a saintly person, but most people aren’t saintly and if they hope to improve themselves and move toward a more saintly state they should follow Jesus’ suggestions and

Treat others as they should treat you. Doing that will help you to see your self better and improve your behavior towards others and reflexively toward yourself.