LDC (More) Like I Remember

Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock
Manhasset, NY, USA

From YA LDC @ Shelter Rock

With my family's busy schedule growing up, I didn't make it to many Cons in YRUU, though there was one amazing weekend at the beautiful Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis that may have changed me forever, and a singularly heartbreaking LDC (Leadership Development Conference) that embodies all the pathos that only a 16-year-old with an unrequited crush can understand....

Nevertheless, as I'm sure you can tell, the Cons that I did make it to had a profound effect on how I saw my religion/ spirituality and myself. To some degree, this is merely a reflection of being sixteen, when almost anything can be a fundamentally, spiritually life-altering experience imbued with life-long and global implications; I am only rarely affected that deeply and profoundly in my young adulthood. I've become more of a cynic, more likely to filter my experiences through rational, intellectual lenses that can steal some of their spiritual potency; or maybe I'm just more likely to deny and repress my deeper emotional responses.

I've been reflecting a lot on this since our last UU Young Adult retreat to Frost Valley, and I haven't been particularly comfortable with the conclusions I've reached. This weekend's Young Adult LDC, though, has lightened the load considerably.

No doubt this has a great deal to do with the wonderful people I gathered with at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock, friends both silver and gold. The purpose for which we gathered, too, helped to focus us on the challenges of inclusive, sensitive leadership in a generation of young people intensely engaged in the pressing issues of white privilege, racial and economic injustice, the New Jim Crow, and gender and sexuality equality.

I was struck by the fact that although, as is usually the case in UU circles, as a white woman I was in the racial and gender majority, I was also surprisingly in the minority as a straight person, which put an interesting spin for me on discussions of majority/ minority and empowerment.

More than anything, I think I took away from this experience and many other conversations post-Frost Valley that I am not the only young UU adult looking for deeper spiritual and religious connection to my community, and certainly not the only UU looking for a deeper connection between my religious and social justice convictions. I've gained new energy, thanks to the Shelter Rock LDC, to pursue further opportunities for training and congregation on these issues of racial, gender, sexual and economic justice and how they might be effected by my Unitarian Universalist communities.

Of course, the stunning beauty of the Shelter Rock campus was also a balm to my frustrations!

May Day NYC

Manhattan, NY, USA

From May Day NYC

When I first came to New York City, I told myself I wouldn't get involved with activism in my first year. I was teaching full time, going to graduate school at night, and the teaching alone was all the activism I needed in my life.

Then I left teaching and graduate school. For the first weeks of my unemployment, I moped and was miserable and sat at my computer all day long looking and applying for jobs ... any kind of job that seemed remotely related to my talents and would pay the bills. Over time, I became more and more involved with All Souls UU Church's young adults, for fun, networking and plain old human contact. Last week, I realized that even that was not enough.  I needed to get out more, to volunteer for something, to do more fun things with people. With lingering Socialist sympathies from all my years in Europe, and a life-long interest in civics, I asked around the church to see who was doing something for Occupy Wall Street's General Strike on May Day.

That's how I found myself on Union Square this afternoon with Occupy Faith. Their intention today was to bring a message of peaceful nonviolence and be witnesses to whatever might transpire. Several among them have previously been arrested and detained for their participation in a variety of Occupy-related demonstrations, while standing as examples of nonviolent civil disobedience. (I don't believe any of us were today, but apparently one never knows....)

In our march down Broadway to Zuccotti Park and Wall Street, we saw a lot of signs for a lot of different campaigns and issues. We sang songs and chanted. When we passed people watching from balconys and windows, we chanted, "Don't watch! Join us!" In the shopping district, we chanted, "Don't shop! Join us!" When construction workers and other union sorts paused their work to come out on the sidewalk and salute us, we cheered them on. It was a lot of fun. Here are some of my favorite images, with more in the WebAlbum:

From May Day NYC

For His Mother

Amman, Jordan

It will come as no surprise to those of you who know me well to hear that I have stumbled into the GLBT community in Jordan. The longer I am here, the more I learn about what is actually a relatively flourishing Rainbow Coalition here in Jordan. Many of my favorite restaurants around town are under gay or lesbian management, and are therefore popular hangouts for Jordan's sexual minorities.

That's why I was very disappointed to hear today that the fabulous techno club I visited with my German friend and his boyfriend, RGB (reportedly short for "Real Gay Bar"), had to shut down recently. There was apparently an article published in a local newspaper about the gay community in Amman, which made RGB's owner's mother so nervous for his safety that she ended up in the hospital, and he decided to close the club.

So much for the idea of Philip and I going dancing there this weekend!