I posted this on my RE NEWS Bulletin Board yesterday. Our kids, especially some of our glorious boys, had a delightful time with it. There were quite a few conversations about UU principles and competition.
If you don't understand the reference, go to the Unitarian Universalist Principles and Purposes.
TODAY'S PATRIOT PRINCIPLES include:
We especially respect the worth and dignity of every losing Eagle, who we will respect right into the ground.
Justice, equity, and compassion in all football relations as we carefully follow all the rules while being better.
Acceptance of one another and encouragement, screaming, hollering, and yelling at the television.
We respect the free and responsible search for interceptions.
We respect the right of conscience as we politely and respectfully tolerate any among us who have different beliefs about the outcome of tonight’s game.
We honor the goal of world community, united behind the Patriots, world champions.
The interdependent web of defense.
The living tradition we share draws from many sources, including:
The Direct Experience of that transcending wonder that comes from being hit really hard in the solar plexus while trying to carry a football in a direction we disagree with.
The words and deeds of coaches which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil. While we would hesitate to name the Philadelphia Eagles "evil" per se, we would probably be comfortable claiming that they embody the structure of evil ... Well maybe not, but still, the confronting powers part, and listening to coaches, that part for sure...
Wisdom from the play books of world religions, and Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to love our opponents as we love ourselves and to love them with great competition and smite and smote and other great smashing from the Hebrew Scriptures…
Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and science and statistics and the evidence of game film.
