Category Archives: Arts & culture

Fish

Uh oh, here comes my evil alter ego, Mr. Crankypants. I better get away from the computer before he pushes me awa– ow! — I’m going already….

Heaven help us all, Mr. Crankypants made the mistake of getting stuck in bad traffic yesterday. Given all the crazies and their road rage these days, Mr. Crankypants no longer makes silly faces at drivers who do stupid things like slowing down for green lights or making left turns from the right hand lane of a four lane highway.

Mr. Crankypants was stuck at the railroad crossing on Route 38 east of Geneva, while a long slow train headed east — and just as it got clear of the crossing, another long slow train headed west. (At times, Mr. Crankypants almost feels jealous of my stupid alter ego, Dan, who gets to walk to work.) With nothing else to do for 15 minutes, Mr. Crankypants sat in his car and unwillingly had to read the slogans people stick on the backs of their cars and SUVs.

Most bumperstickers are boring. The ribbons are worse. The fish are the worst. Little cutesy child-like drawings of fish — plain fish, fish containing the word “Jesus,” fish with a little Latin cross, and fish with “Ichthos” in Greek letters pretending to have a classical education.

When the railroad crossing gates finally went up and rush hour traffic slowly moved eastward, Mr. Crankypants kept noticing the car fish on the backs of cars and SUVs. The way-too-cute fish with little itsy-bitsy legs that says “Darwin.” How coy. The vicious “Truth” fish swallowing the “Darwin” fish. How Christianly non-violent. The swarm of smaller fish ganging up on the “Jesus” fish. How bizarre. From there we headed out into da-da land, with a dead fish, a blue fish, and one fish that said “Sushi.”

Reporter Carol Kaesuk Yoon, in the article “Unexpected Evolution of a Fish Out of Water” [no link, story removed from Times Web site] from the February 11, 2003, New York Times, tells us whom we can blame for the proliferation of fish: Chris Gilman, president of a costume company in Hollywood. More than 20 years ago, after first seeing those Jesus fish, Gilman came up with the idea of the Darwin fish. Our voices heavy with sarcasm, let us all say “thank you!” to Mr. Gilman.

“Jesus” fish were never funny, hip, or cool, they were always just sad. “Darwin” fish and their evil spawn may have been funny, hip, and cool 20 years ago, but their day has come and gone. Today their only function is to annoy people who are so easy to annoy that it’s like — it’s like — it’s like shooting fish in a barrel.

While he continued to be stuck in rush hour traffic yesterday, Mr. Crankypants fantasized about getting a bumpersticker made for his car that would read, “Please do not tease the Jesus freaks — Control your car fish.” It was a sad and lonely fantasy, but it kept Mr. Crankypants from swearing too much at the traffic. As of today, Mr. Crankypants started listening to audio books. Now his commute is much more pleasant, and he doesn’t notice car fish at all. Life is better that way.

Snarky evolutionist

Scientist and populizer of evolutionary theory Richard Dawkins has a delightfully snarky take on “intelligent design” in the London Times for May 21, 2005.

If you’re looking for a way to refute your creationist friends, Dawkins points out a common logical fallacy used by creationists:

If the scientist fails to give an immediate and comprehensive answer, a default conclusion is drawn: “Right, then, the alternative theory; ‘intelligent design’ wins by default.” Notice the biased logic: if theory A fails in some particular, theory B must be right.

Issac Asimov, humanist

Isaac Asimov, best known as a science fiction and science fact writer, was also president of the American Humanist Association up until he died in 1992. A re-issued biography, Isaac Asimov: A Life of the Grand Master of Science Fiction by Michael White (1994/2005, Carroll & Graf), gives us a glimpse into the religious life of this prominent humanist.

Asimov was born into a non-practicing Jewish family, and had almost no experience with organized religion as he was growing up. Yet he recognized the deep human need for some kind of religion, and had his own attachment to religious community as an adult: an Ethical Culture leader officiated at his second marriage (to Janet Jeppson, a psychiatrist and science fiction fan); and when he died, his memorial service took place at an Ethical Cultural Center (presumably at the New York Center for Ethical Culture, which is located across Central Park from the Asimovs’ apartment, but alas the book does not tell us this little detail).

Michael White’s biography also points out:

Asimov took humanism very seriously and frequently gave talks about it as well as devoting essays and entire books to the subject….

….Asimov placed education and knowledge at the pinnacle of his beliefs and was strongly of the opinion that the ignorance of those in political power lay at the root of the world’s problems. Like many of his friends and colleagues, he lamented the appalling scientific ignorance of most people. This ignorance was all the more scandalous, he believed, in those who were otherwise highly educated.” [pp. 186-187]

Here Asimov is a lot like us Unitarian Universalists — we, too, believe that education is absolutely crucial, and over the years many Unitarian Universalists have worked to spread education.

Interestingly, Asimov once attended a Unitarian Universalist worship service. The story goes like this: Asimov was on the faculty of Boston University as an associate professor of biochemistry in 1956, a time when his writing career was really starting to take off. He published a story called “The Last Question,” in which human scientists pose the following question to increasingly more powerful computers: “How can entropy be reversed?” I won’t spoil the story for you, but finally they get an answer that has, shall we say, certain religious overtones.

Machael White writes:

‘The Last Question’ even became the subject of a sermon at the Unitarian church in Bedford, massachusetts. Asimov somehow discovered that one of his stories was to be included in a sermon, and decided to attend. He sat quietly and unobtrusively in the back row, listening attentively. He never related what he thought of the sermon.

One last tidbit from this revised version of this biography. Michael White again:

Isaac Asimov was HIV positive and died from complications associated with AIDS. I was aware of this at the time of the first edition of this book, but chose to honor the wishes of Isaac’s family and friends who did not want me to bring this fact into my account. Isaac contracted the disease after being given infected blood during a surgical procedure, but it was some time before he became aware of his condition and his decline was gradual. However, a few years before his death he learned the nature of his illness and wished to make it known to his public and to bring the matter out into the open. But… he was advised against this because of fears that the news would devalue his apartment in New York….

Highly recommended book for anyone who wants to know more about this prominent humanist.

Happy same-sex-marriage day

In case you had forgotten, today is the first anniversary of legal marriage for gays and lesbians in the United States. We’re still working on getting states other than Massachusetts to do same sex marriage, but now that Connecticut has legalized same sex unions, with basically all the rights of marriage, we’re making progress.

Good article on the topic on the UUA Web site today, at http://www.uua.org/news/freedomtomarry/hearts2005/index.html. Check out the great picture of Cel and Meg’s marriage at First Parish of Lexington, almost a year ago today. When I served at the Lexington church, Cel was the treasurer for the religious education committee. I always said the coolest people at church wind up on the religious education committee.

Religious intolerance at the Air Force Academy?

Today’s New York Times carries an unsigned editorial calling on the Air Force Academy to stop Christian proselytizing that appears to be sanctioned by high Academy officials. Supposedly efforts to stop the proselytizing have been going on for more than a year, but with little success. The editorial states:

But it turns out that the academy’s remedial program of religious toleration is running into resistance. The Air Force’s chief chaplain expressed displeasure at the object lessons dramatized in a multidenominational educational videotape. ‘Why is it that the Christians never win?’ the chief, Maj. General Charles Baldwin, demanded to know after watching the give-and-take of instructional encounters. General Baldwin had segments cut out on such non-Christian religions as Buddhism, Judaism, and Native American spirituality.

Hmm… I wonder what General Baldwin thinks about Unitarian Universalism? Maybe we should all think about writing to our congressperson or senator to complain about religious intolerance at the Air Force Academy.

(…and you have to love that quote, “Why is it that the Christians never win?”…)

Mr. Crankypants, evil alter ego of Dan, to the rescue. First it was birds, now it’s this Duelfer report. Good grief. Mr. Crankypants has always fancied himself as an investigative reporter, so here’s a hard-hitting interview with the alleged perpetrator of this blog…

Mr. Crankypants: Why the sudden intrusion of politics into what used to be a nice little religion blog?

Dan: Look, this is still a religion blog. But democratic principles are at the heart of who Unitarian Universalists are as a religious people. Yet we can’t even talk openly about the war in Iraq, let alone anything else, without getting into name-calling — or worse yet talking behind people’s backs. Our inability to engage in dialogue has become very divisive.

Mr. C. But why choose such a hot button issue as the Iraq war?

D. Because war has been a religious issue at least since Augustine’s justification for just wars.

Mr. C. But you hate Agustine.

D. Only because he’s a prig.

Mr. C. A while back, you spoke of the “divisiveness” that results from a lack of productive dialogue. Just what’s wrong with divisiveness, anyway?

D. Stop trying to be so evil, evil alter ego.

Mr. C. You still haven’t answered — why the emphasis on the Duelfer report? Why not some truly divisive issue like abortion or gun control, where people are so angry and shrill there’s no hope of any rapprochement in our lifetimes?

D. Exactly because there’s so little hope of understanding. With the Iraq war, there’s still hope of open, productive debate.

Mr. C. Chicken.

D. Evil alter ego.

Mr. C. Come on, I’m your alter ego — I know. ‘Fess up. Give the real reason you chose the Duelfer report.

D. I thought the report was very readable, if long…

Mr. C. [Hard stare from Mr. C] The real reason.

D. Oh, all right. I thought “Duelfer” was a cool name.

That concludes Mr. Crankpants’s investigative report. As with all investigative reporting on blogs these days, the goal has been to make the debate more shrill, and contribute to the general atmosphere of hatred and divisiveness. This is Mr. Crankypants, signing off — for now [bwah-hah-hah-hah-hah!!]

Monkey’s brain

Today I had this daydream about being a monkey… What would that be like?

What’s so funny about bein’ a monkey?
Monkeys is a very funny things —
always wanna laugh when a monkey tells a joke,
and dance when a monkey sings…

What’s so great about bein’ a monkey?
Somethin’ I gotta explain —
always know which hand you’re gonna grab your banana,
when ya got a monkey’s brain.

Yup, the Hoppin Haole Band knows what’s it’s like to be a monkey. If you have broadband, just click on the link above for audio and video (and what’s up with that ukulele player when he starts going “Ooo! Ahh!”). Dial-up connections who don’t mind waiting for an mp3 to download can find audio only at www.hoppinhaole.com — just click the “Muisc” link, and then choose “Monkey’s Brains.”

Documenting ordinary things

My older sister Jean teaches writing at Indiana University east. She and I sometimes talk about how a writer can bring the voices and lives of ordinary people to wider notice.

She’s recently developed a course that gets students to write about “real people and real events,” and then get that work out of the classroom to a wider public. I think it’s a great way to use the arts — read this article, and see what you think: http://www.homepages.indiana.edu/042205/text/life.shtml

I think there are some interesting paralells to her class, and what we do in churches — learn to listen to, learn to really see other people, and figure out ways to integrate the arts into ordinary lives.

Sense of place

As I continue to explore ecological theology, I get more and more interested in the notion of place. A sense of place is essential to understanding how we humsn fit into the rest of the ecosystem.

So this blog, called Where Project, caught my eye: www.whereproject.org Later note: I removed the link because this Web site is now defunct.

It’s written and photographed by a PhD candidate in English at Boston College, who’s writing a dissertation on “place blogging” — blogs that are all about one person’s relationship to one place.

Update August 2006: This blog is no longer current, although the author keeps promising to update it.