Snowmelt

The temperature has been above freezing most of the week. This afternoon, it got up to about 38 degrees F. (3 C.) with light rain and drizzle. I wanted to see how much the snow was melting in the woods, so I went for a walk. I did see some places that were now bare of snow, mostly on south-facing slopes or where the high winds of the blizzard hadn’t allowed much snow to accumulate.

Woodlands with snow covering most of the groun.

Most of the ground remains covered by snow, though. There are still places with a foot of snow or more. Crossing one field, I had especially tough going. Sometimes I’d sink up halfway up to my knees. In one of the deepest snowdrifts I stopped and stuck my hand down to see how deep the snow was. I didn’t manage to reach the ground, but I’d guess there was still a foot and a half of snow.

My legs in the snow, with the snow halfway up to my knees.

In many places, meltwater ran underneath the snow. Some of the trails had turned into shallow streams. My wet boots grew heavy from the weight of the water. I walked to a place where skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) usually grows, but I couldn’t get close enough to see if any had emerged from the snow due to a foot of water flooding the area.

At last I made it back to the car. What should have been an hour long walk took two hours. My boots were soaked, my raincoat and hat were dripping with rain. I only wish I could have stayed out longer.

The Old Man at the Frontier Loses His Horse

Another in a series of stories for liberal religious kids. Dr. Kate Sullivan, the DRE with whom I work, told another version of this story in the Sunday service two days ago. She based her version on the famous Alan Watts retelling of the story. Today, we tracked down the origins of this story. It comes from the Huainanzi, a Chinese philosophical text from the 2nd century CE. I did some more research on my own, found three or four different translations, and decided to do my own retelling of the story, that hews more closely to the Chinese original.

Many years ago, there was a man who was a Daoist, and he and his father understood how good fortune and bad fortune can turn one into the other. This man lived near the border of China, close to where the land of the barbarians began.

One day, his horse got loose and ran away into the land of the barbarians. The man’s neighbors came to tell him how sorry they were that he had lost such a fine horse. They all knew how expensive it would be to get a new horse. But the man’s father said, “How do we know this is bad? Perhaps it is a blessing.”

Some months later, the man’s horse returned from the barbarian lands to his household. Following close behind the man’s horse came another horse. Horses from the barbarian lands were known as being especially fine animals. The man’s neighbors came to tell him how pleased they were for him. But his father said, “How do we know this is good? Perhaps it will bring misfortune.”

Those two horses had babies, and soon the man owned many fine horses. The man’s son loved to ride all these wonderful horses. Alas, one day the son fell off the horse he was riding and broke his thighbone. The man’s neighbors came to tell him how sorry they were that his son was so badly injured that he would walk with a limp the rest of his life. But the man’s father said, “How do we know this is bad? Perhaps it is a blessing.”

The next year, a large army of the barbarian Hu people invaded China from across the border. Every man who was strong and able-bodied took their bows and went to fight. The fighting was so fierce that nine out of every ten young men from the border lands died in battle. But because the man’s son was lame, he could not go off with the army. He and his father and gradfather managed to protect each other, and so they survived the war.

And so you can see:

Good fortune becomes bad fortune,
Bad fortune becomes good fortune;
Their transformations never end,
So deep we cannot understand.

(And from this story comes the Chinese proverb, or chengyu: “When the old man lost his horse, how could you know that it was not good luck.”)

Sources: Huainanzi, ch. 18:7. Based on several translations: (1) Lin Yutang, The Importance of Understanding: Translations from the Chinese (Cleveland/New York: World Publishing, 1963), p. 385; Yutang’s loose translation is somewhat similar to the more famous version told by Alan Watts, but Yutang keeps closer to the original Chinese; (2) The Huainanzi, trans. John S. Major, Sarah A Queen, Andrew Seth Meyer, and Harold D. Roth (Columbia Univ. Press, 2010), pp. 728-729; a scholarly translation; (3) The Chinese Text Project version of the Huainanzi; this is a scholarly website with bilingual text, Chinese and English https://ctext.org/huainanzi/ren-xian-xun#n3395. Story revised 6 March 2026 with simpler language.

MFC notice

The Ministerial Fellowship Committee (MFC) of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) has sent out the following notice:

“I am writing to inform you that the Ministerial Fellowship Committee voted recently to remove the Rev. Bob LaVallee from fellowship with the Unitarian Universalist Association for violating UUMA Ethical Standard #10, which prohibits sexual contact, sexual harassment, sexualized behavior and sexual relationships with anyone the minister serves, and Ethical Standard #13, which prohibits engaging in words or actions that degrade the vocation of ministry.”

A quick web search shows that Bob LaVallee was the associate minister of the Albuquerque congregation for about five years, up until 2025. As always, I’m making no judgement myself about any of these notices — I’m not part of the MFC, and it’s been many years since I was part of any congregation where a minister was removed from fellowship. Especially so in this case, as I’ve never heard this name before, and I know nothing about the Albuquerque congregation.

Blizzard clean-up

My best guess is that we had between 24 and 30 inches of snow (see note at end of post). Today the temperature got above freezing, and the snow settled down some. But there is still a lot of snow on the ground. Some of the snow piles left by plows along the streets towered five or more feet above the road surface.

Our neighborhood, known as Cohasset Village, is a business district with on-street parking. The huge snow piles lining the streets took up much of the parking. So tonight, town employees and contractors are here in the Village with one large tractor with a bucket loader, three medium-size bucket loaders, one of those little mini bucket loaders, several police cars, and a long line of dump trucks. The little bucket loader climbs up on the sidewalk and pushes the snow into the street. The medium size bucket loaders carry the snow to a central collection point, the junction of Elm and Main streets, two doors down from our apartment. Then the big bucket loader scoops the snow into the waiting dump trucks, as one by one they drive up, get loaded, and drive off again. Our second floor apartment is the perfect place to watch the action.

Carol watched a murder mystery on TV. I thought it was more fun to watch the snow being pushed around and loaded in dump trucks — showing that I still haven’t gotten over my preschool fascination with heavy equipment at work.

Looking south down Main Street — Elm Street is to the left, just out of the photo.
Continue reading “Blizzard clean-up”

Elizabeth Tarbox biographical information

Recently, I used something written by Rev. Elizabeth Tarbox as a reading in a Sunday service. I realized I knew next to nothing about her, so I decided to look up her obituary in the Unitarian, Universalist, and UU Yearbooks (now digitized and online). She died in October, 1999, which means her obituary would be in the following year’s Yearbook — except that was the one year when the UUA decided not to publish minister’s obituaries in the Yearbook. I found no other obituary or life summary for her online.

With a little bit of research, I was able to generate the timeline below — which tells me most of what I want to know:

  • 5 March 1944, born Elizabeth Irene Peck to William and Irene Hard Peck in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom (birth record)
  • 1963, married Charles E. Tarbox (1938-2016) in St. Albans; she and Charles later had a child (marriage record; Charles Tarbox obituary in Boston Globe)
  • 1968, she and Charles immigrated to the United States; applied for Social Security card (Social Security records; Charles Tarbox obituary in Boston Globe)
  • 1986, B.A. in philosophy, Bridgewater State College (Bridgewater State yearbook for 1986)
  • c. 1980s, congregant at First Parish Duxbury, Mass. (mentioned in FP Duxbury newsletter)
  • c. 1986, began studying at Harvard Divinity School
  • c. 1988-90, served as student minister, First Parish Norwell, Mass. (mentioned on FP Norwell Facebook page)
  • 1990, graduated Harvard Divinity School (UUA Yearbooks)
  • 1990, ordained (UUA Yearbooks)
  • 1990, settled at First UU Society of Middleboro, Mass. (UUA Yearbooks)
  • 1993, publication of Life Tides: Meditations
  • 1997, settled at First Parish in Cohasset, Mass. (UUA Yearbooks)
  • 1997, publication of Evening Tide: Meditations
  • 1999, resigned from First Parish in Cohasset due to ill health (First Parish Cohasset records)
  • 31 Oct. 1999, died in Duxbury (Duxbury Annual Report; Social Security records)

I’m mostly satisfied with this timeline, though I wouldn’t mind finding answers to a couple of questions. First: When did she become a Unitarian? — it’s even possible she was raised Unitarian, as there was a small Unitarian fellowship in St. Albans in the 1950s, according to Alan R. Ruston, Unitarianism in Hertfordshire (Watford, Hertfordshire, U.K., 1979), p. 26. Second: What was she doing between marriage in 1963 and starting college in the 1980s — which includes a subsidiary question: Why did she come to the United States?

Continue reading “Elizabeth Tarbox biographical information”

Blizzard, part 2

8:15 p.m. — Power went out two houses down from us, but so far we still have it. We’ll see how long it lasts.

Latest National Weather Service (NWS) reports show more than 30 inches of snow from Rhode Island up through southeastern Massachusetts. The nearest trained NWS spotter is in North Scituate, which is about 3 miles from here; that observer recorded 29 inches of snow as of 5:00 p.m.. Carol and I shoveled at about 5, and another couple of inches has fallen since then, so I’m pretty sure we have more than 30 inches at this point. And it’s still snowing.

Early to bed tonight. Beginning at seven tomorrow morning, we’re both volunteering with Cohasset Emergency Management to help staff the warming center for people who have lost power.

Blizzard conditions are defined by the NWS as visibility of 1/4 mile or less and wind speeds (sustained or frequent gusts) of 35 mph or higher, for 3 hours or more. These conditions were officially reached throughout eastern Massachusetts, from Providence, R.I. and Martha’s Vineyard, west to Worcester and north to Beverly, Mass. I guess we start calling this the Blizzard of ’26.

Woman standing in front of a snow-covered house.
Carol and I shoveled a path to the front door of the church’s Parish House. Carol is wearing the anorak that her father had when he wintered over in Antarctica. The snow wasn’t very deep where we were shoveling, because the wind had scoured it away. A friend with an anemometer saw 60 mile an hour wind gusts this morning.

Another MFC notice

A couple of weeks ago, I got one of those emails from the Ministerial Fellowship Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Association. The key paragraph read as follows: “The Ministerial Fellowship Committee voted at its December 2025 meeting to remove the Rev. Benjamin Meyers from fellowship with the Unitarian Universalist Association for violating the terms of ministerial probation, as related to acts of plagiarism.” When I was in the Bay Area, Ben served at the Berkeley Fellowship and the congregation in San Mateo.

This raises a question for me:

Does using generative AI to write a sermon count as plagiarism?

Technically, it’s not plagiarism. At the same time, it’s not your own work. It’s an interesting ethical question.

Is napping necessary?

News item: “President Trump has once again dozed off on camera at his own event. Footage shows Trump looking extremely drowsy at his inaugural ‘Board of Peace’ meeting on Thursday at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C.”

As usual, those who oppose Donald Trump will make fun of this, but many health care professionals advise that napping is beneficial. Take, for example, a webpage titled “Is Napping Necessary?” found on the St. Louis Children’s Hospital website (I’ve adapted it slightly):

“Napping daily can be beneficial for your president, working wonders for both his mood and yours…. Naps are valuable and if they are given up they should be replaced with a structured quiet time. Presidents need this time to re-group, as do their countries.”

How the pandemic and the ICE crackdown are similar

“Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations” (EPIC) is a research project that has been — you guessed it — exploring how the COVID pandemic affected congregations. Recently they published a short blog post by Rev. Miluska E. Silencio, a self-described Latina church planter. She finds some interesting parallels between her past experience as a clergyperson during lockdown, and her current experience as a clergyperson during ICE crackdown:

“I believe this shared pandemic ministry experience applies to our current crisis: ICE targeting Latinx immigrant communities — documented or not — through profiling and detention without due process. Now more than ever, churches must pivot to serve immigrants who fear entering sanctuary locations. Ministers must become traveling churches, going to them and applying the adaptability lessons learned during COVID-19…..”

Read the entire piece.