March 1, 2011

Dear Members and Friends,

Last summer my daughter, Rachel, found an apron in a London shop which read A CLEAN HOUSE SHOWS A WASTED LIFE, surely an idea which separates the sheep from the goats. I have been testing this on a variety of persons, many of whom are Unitarians. Usually the response has been immediate laughter.

Many moons ago I visited Paul Tillich in his study at the Harvard Divinity School. His desk was a complete mess with papers and books strewn about. Standing guard over the chaos was a bottle of Jim Beam whiskey. After getting a smiling response to the apron quotation, we went on to discuss the theological and spiritual implications of the idea.

When I try this idea out next week on my internist, I suspect he will come down on the wrong side, although I have often lectured him on the value of a little dirt in your life. He agrees that a little dirt strengthens the immune system, but he still washes the blueberries seven times. I suspect that he is on the wrong side of history.

We all need to examine how we spend the energy of our lives. What is really worth doing? We have a limited amount of time to spend on the issues of justice and peace. Our original goodness prompts us to reach out to the larger community, to encourage even the weakest witness for justice wherever we can. Once, 12 men changed the world. Recently we have seen thousands of Egyptians making a united effort to change 32 years of injustice in its many forms of fear and terror. The state always has violence at its disposal.

Some of you may remember a Joan Crawford film in which she put the energy of her life into having a clean and neat house. Any disorder upset her so much that she lost all perspective. As the story unfolds, she alienates her children, her friends, and finally her husband takes a China vase and smashes it on the bricks of the fireplace. Then a voice says, “They who live unto themselves are finally left to themselves.”

We had a professor in seminary who told the students that they should never trust a decision made in the month of March. I got married on the 28th of March, 1942, a few weeks after being released from the south Chicago jail for not standing up for the national anthem. I still think it is a poor piece of music, with words that remind us that we have a great killing machine at our disposal. How much better it would be to sing of “crowning our good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.” Trust your heart no matter what month it is.

I shall be living in Sawyer after March 15th. Circle May 15 on your calendars for Beth’s graduation from Meadville Lombard Theological Seminary.

Love,