The day began, as expected, under a Winter storm watch.I watched two videos in the morning.
Both were sermons by pastors at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in Tulsa. One was called "Stealing Jesus". In this one, the pastor discussed how folks of conservative and of liberal faith take possession of the idea of Jesus, with statements ranging from "have you accepted Jesus as your personal savior?" to "He is but an interesting man". Her own view was not so simple, and not one she was willing to box so neatly. The second sermon was by a humanist discussing why, despite being non-spiritual in orientation, she regularly prays. She described, as a seminarian, an experience of meeting two young children who had just witnessed their father shooting the children's mother and grandmother. She prayed the simplest of prayers with the children, a thing in which she was helped, I believe, by being raised in a family that did not practice much religion. Both sermons were quite stimulating, by speakers rather different from each other,but who each made an impression upon me. Lately I have also listened to a sermon about life after death by a folk singer-lawyer turned minister who is the pastor of a Unitarian-Universalist church in Cambridge, MA. He told
of his feelings on life after death, a set of feelings less devoted to heaven and hell than to the idea that loved ones who pass on live on in us and that we all rejoin the fabric of existence at death.
I traded facebook messages and then got a telephone call from the fellow I mentored through Big Brothers. He lives in upstate New York now, where he works and lives with his grandparents. It was great trading memories with him. His favorite of our outings was the time we installed Linux on his computer in a coffee shop. We did a lot of fun things together over at 3 3/4 year span.Perhaps next Spring I'll go visit him in New York.
I went to Weight Watchers, where I was up .2 pounds. Had I exercised forty five minutes more, that would have been a weight loss. But it was fine. I am glad I am on track. I just need to keep it up over the holidays. Usually, both Thanksgiving and Christmas are easy times for me, because I focus on staying on plan. In the afternoon, I rested and watched the local sports team play a game on television.
I went out a few moments ago to get sandwiches for my wife and I. The Winter storm warning provides for a "wintry mix" tonight. The rain had subsided, but the air has that foreboding chill, the chill that made me as a schoolboy long for huge flakes and school closings. Some times the promise is kept, and sleet or snow falls, but sometmes nothing happens.
Now we are watching the American Music Awards, which are all pageant and no beauty.