Alice's Restaurant makes me happy at Thanksgiving

Especially the full length version, available here at Keep the Coffee Running.

And in case you've never followed the entire song, the lyrics are available here.

I'm a few days late b/c my partner hurt her back, and I've been busy making the household go.

It seems all those times she didn't listen to me say, "Bend with your legs! Bend with your knees!" I was, um, what's the word, um...

RIGHT!

Unfortunately, Right does not = anything at all as a retrospective I told you so, which, frankly, makes me look mean while she's laying on the temporary bed in the living room in pain.

So Alice's Restaurant it is, long version, tonight.

Kids get to do the coolest stuff in Seminary "Nowadays"

Michelle Murrain's video project for an art/spirituality class, Who Do We Love? is online. You'll need a fast connection and Quicktime. It features Pat Robertson, Franklin Graham and Eric Rudolph.

I aspire to the kind of techno coolness Michelle has pulled off with this project. Me, the best I could do in Seminary was a video of a civil disobedience against the first gulf war, using two vcr's back to back and videotaping a videotape of the indigo girls off a tv for the music.

I also aspire to the kind of wit, wisdom, talent and technogeekiness that lies beneath it.

Random Music Day: Two very different songs online

I love this Kanye West song-- Jesus Walks. Go here. The first version of Jesus Walks has certain words, let's say, mis-placed. The third version doesn't. This song makes me happy. I love the orchestration, and I'm going to use it w/ Neighboring Faiths, the mis-placed words one. (lyrics)

And this one, Randi Rhodes is playing every Friday, and although I have mixed feelings about Randi, I have only happiness and laughter about Bounce Your Boobies.

South Park does Scientology

Amazing And Accurate, this South Park episode is incredible. Taking on Scientology, free speech (satire and truth both), it's funny. (Tom Cruise goes in the Closet, and R. Kelly tries to sing him out).



I accidentally clicked over to it last night, and then stayed up till 12:30 to tape it. It will be interesting to see if it get's shown ever again.

Interestingly, except for one hell and a couple of Jesus 's there isn't any cursing. Making it appropriate for younger people, in the right educational context.

I will be using this in the totalistic and fundamentalist religions section of my Neighboring Faiths/World Religions class, with only a couple of deletions. (a reference to saving money/cheap = jew, which would distract from the point, and I'll probably cut a little R.Kelly closet stuff, it goes on long).

Scientology doesn't have a belief in the "second coming" so that is a literary device to tell the story, but the description of Scientologist beliefs is accurate.

Isaac Hayes, a Scientologist, had nothing to do with it.

My favorite part, at the end, the Scientologists threaten to sue, and Stan says, Go ahead, sue me. The credits roll --

Jane Smith
John Smith
John Smith
Jane Smith



Good article on Fresh Intelligence.

Video teaser here

touchstone for class?

A while back, Will Shetterly posted a great touchstone for class – how many teeth do you have? In your life, do you get $1500 root canals, or $100 extractions?

I just found another one, maybe. Give me some feedback, y'all.

If your TV screen goes to blue, and the cable goes off, does it occur to you to look outside and see if it’s just because a repair guy is fixing the next door neighbor’s cable, or do you keep sitting there, maybe pick up a magazine, figuring it’s shut-off time again?

What'd'ya think? Class, or something else?

I have turned on Comment Moderation

I will discuss the criteria I use to determine who comes into my house, rides in my car, converses with me on the phone, attends my parties, and talks on my blog at crankycindy.

I too am quoting Dan Harper today

Thanks Dan for giving me a Sunday insert commentary. I was suffering over it. I hope I have used your words appropriately.

What's so funny?

Q. What’s a Unitarian Missionary?
A. Someone who knocks on your door for no apparent reason.

Humor can be used as a way of reflecting ourselves to one another, or of seeing what popular belief may be about something. Humor often sheds light on ideas that may reference truths, but provides incomplete pictures of any reality and certainly of religion.

Q. How many Unitarians does it take to change a lightbulb?
A. The Unitarians wish to issue the following statement:
“We choose not to make a statement either in favor of or against the need for a lightbulb; however, if in your own journey you have found that lightbulbs work for you, that is fine. You are invited to write a poem or compose a modern dance about your relationship with your lightbulb, and present it next month at our annual lightbulb service, in which we will explore a number of lightbulb traditions, including incandescent, fluorescent, three-way, long-life and tinted, all of which are equally valid paths to luminescence.” ~ www.beliefnet.com

I love jokes. I especially appreciate deadpan humor and jokes that take something to its opposite extreme or turn a situation upside down. I often get myself in trouble when people don’t realize I’m joking. But while humor can point to amusing extremes, it cannot relate the depth and breadth of our lives together, and the ‘joke of the day’ isn’t the text I use for spiritual reflection. Rev. Dan Harper stated recently that,

“Contrary to popular belief, when you join a Unitarian Universalist
congregation, you cannot “believe anything you want.” You must believe, with all your heart and soul and mind, that love can transform the world.
Contrary to popular belief, it is not easy to be a Unitarian Universalist. If you are a Unitarian Universalist, you will care deeply about making this world a better place for all persons, to the point where you devote your whole life to that end.
Contrary to popular belief, Unitarian Universalism is not a comfortable religion that asks very little of you. Unitarian Universalism requires you to give substantial amounts of your time — like fifteen to twenty hours a week spent in spiritual practice, doing sabbath with your family, participating in worship and small group ministries, reading and study and reflection, using your gifts to help your congregation thrive — and substantial amounts of your money — like twice the amount of money you now spend each year on movies, electronics gadgets, and Starbucks coffee combined.” ~ Rev. Daniel Harper, www.danielharper.org

Rev. Harper identifies our faith as one not defined by creed and belief, the lack of which is the primary fodder for UU jokes, but a faith defined by our actions, choices, and commitments to one another and the world. He is remarking upon the kind of covenental relationship we intend to live out with one another.

As jokes are incomplete pictures of any reality, Sunday Morning participation represents only a fraction of what it means to be in relationship with our religious community. Involvement in the spiritual, social, and action-oriented communal activities of our congregation provides a more full expression of our lives together, and increases the likelihood that we will transform the world, and be ourselves transformed.

If you are a Member of this congregation, that is, if you have “signed the book,” please attend the Semi-Annual Meeting today. If you are not yet a Member, give serious consideration to Membership as part of your complete experience of our faith. We are fed here, and we feed one another, not by the points of creedal agreement, but by the ways we involve ourselves with one another and journey together even when we disagree. That’s what makes Unitarian Universalism NOT a joke.

~ Cindy, DRE (I also recommend Rev. David Bumbaugh’s excellent sermon/essay at www.meadville.edu/LL_JournalLR_v5n1_Bubaugh.htm )

Jonah and the Whale - Today's Beliefnet Joke

which I post here for those who are uninitiated to beliefnet's joke email delivery service.

Jonah's Fate

After hearing the story of Jonah at Sunday School, a little girl repeated the story at school on Monday.

Her teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because, even though it is a very large mammal, its throat is very small.

The little girl said, "But how can that be? Jonah was swallowed by a whale."Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human. "It is physically impossible!" she said.
Undaunted, the little girl said, "Well, when I get to heaven I will ask Jonah."

To this, the teacher said, "What if Jonah went to hell?"

The little girl replied, "Then YOU ask him!"

The best email I receive. Go to Beliefnet at this page, and there's a sign up spot.