Older blogs and writing

How many of us grew up in homes where Christmas didn’t feel like Christmas without cozy nights under blankets, watching holiday cartoons on their annual TV reruns? For many, these half-hour or hour-long specials were as much a tradition as trimming the tree or hanging stockings by the fire. Back then, before streaming services made everything instantly available, watching your favorite holiday classic required planning. Families checked TV guides, coordinated schedules, and g

Do you remember that old book and then movie, “The Stepford Wives?” It told the story of a town where every wife became a robot, making them the perfect wife, mother, and homemaker. Like most horror stories, it is frightening because it edges on the real world – it touches on the emphasis on conformity that seems embedded in all human communities. In many ways we all live as Stepford Wives. Our lives take on a pattern that can be nearly identical to our peers. We are born int

UU Santa Fe, November 27, 2022 “A Blessing for Risk-Takers and Failures” written by Robin Tanner. Today we share in a blessing for losers, risk-takers, all failures far and wide.... Blessed are they who fall in the mud, who jump with gusto and rip the pants, who skin the elbows, and bruise the ego, for they shall know the sweetness of risk. Blessed are they who make giant mistakes, whose intentions are good but impact has injured, who know the hot sense of regret and ask for

I just want to point out that all these politicians who keep claiming they are protecting children by taking steps to criminalize transgender and nonbinary people and ban drag shows, forget that some of us remember the wholesome television of our own childhoods. Like "Little House on the Prairie." That show had it all - rape, incest, sex, unplanned pregnancy, racism, pandemic, death, murder, crime, homelessness, and bullying. The episode where the baby burned to death gave me

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. - Nelson Mandela There are 26,727 high schools in the United States. Only seventeen percent of those schools currently offer classes in all four art disciplines, a total of just 4,543 schools. Comparatively, there are more than 16,000 high school football programs and over 17,000 basketball programs. Ask the coaches of these sports programs and they will tell you it is because they help self-fund th

We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams. - Jimmy Carter Many years ago, I visited a home where the homeowner had never thrown away the broken and chipped dishes that happen. Instead, each little piece was taken into the yard where they formed a beautiful and resplendent path that was never quite complete. It was lined with flowers and small seating areas. It was glorious. T

a reclaimed blog from years ago There is a song in the musical Rent where Maureen sings, “Take me for who I am, who I was meant to be…” Unconditional love for another means giving up our expectations for the other person. But acceptance also means giving up our expectations for ourselves. It means recognizing that not everyone will like us, even if they do love us. It means realizing that sometimes relationships are so damaged that they can no longer be healthy. Acceptance is

12,351 Sunrises 12,351 Sunsets 34 Years 12,351 Days 296,424 Hours 17,785,440 Minutes 1,067,126,400 Seconds 106,712,640,000 Moments Loss Love Fear Hope Change Growth Be the reason someone else is around to take count of their life. Invite someone for a cup of coffee. Call that friend you haven't spoken to lately. Listen and love the people around you. And if you are feeling like there is no reason to go on, ask for help. September 10th is World Suicide Prevention day. The last

One of the myths in American history is that Abraham Lincoln, a poor man from Illinois, was an underdog who changed the world by sheer conviction. Lincoln might have grown up humbly, but he was far from poor when elected to the presidency. His estate would be worth over $2 million in 2024 dollars, placing him firmly in the top 10% of Americans by wealth. Today, the wealth gap in politics remains stark. Donald Trump is the wealthiest person ever elected, surpassing the fortune

“Never has America lost a war...But name, if you can, the last peace the United States won. Victory yes, but this country has never made a successful peace because peace requires exchanging ideas, concepts, thoughts, and recognizing the fact that two distinct systems of life can exist together without conflict.” – Vine Deloria Jr., Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto Can we exist without conflict? Is there a path to becoming a nation where we are not viewed as our

When I was in the 7th grade, I briefly tried to get my friends to change my name to Michael. Growing up in a conservative religious family in small-town Wyoming, I had had little exposure to LGBTQ+ people. The concept of gender diversity was even further beyond my understanding. All I knew was that I didn’t fit into the roles assigned to me. I didn't feel like a girl and the changes my body was experiencing in puberty were hard and traumatic. My soul tugged toward something m

A recent New York Times article posed an intriguing question: “Why Are So Many People Going ‘No Contact’ with Their Parents? A growing movement wants to destigmatize severing ties. Is it a much-needed corrective or a worrisome change in family relations?” As someone with personal experience on multiple sides of this issue—having gone no contact with my parents for nearly eight years, losing touch with my bio father and his family after my adoption, and being cut off by one of

The worst is what happens when you’re blithely going about the dogged routine of your life, those moments when you’ve forgotten to have a guard up at all. - Kristy McGinnis Three weeks ago, nothing could have prepared me for approaching Christmas that could have been my last. Shortly before relocating my life from Minnesota to Santa Fe in May, I did my due diligence and attended to my physical and dental care to allow me to find and become established with new providers for t

Each day, the litany of voices and self-recriminations and guilty what-ifs. You see the poster that was hanging in the bedroom walking down an arroyo with a hamper that once held his clothes. You see the shirt, not yet worn, walking by on a body that isn’t who it was given. You see boxes, and pieces, and bits. But you don’t see him. You see other people’s children, and you know others walk the world that you now inhabit, the world of not knowing where the piece of your heart

What do you do when you feel yourself sinking— when the weight of all that could be feels like ten thousand universes pressing on a body meant to carry only one human spirit? Do you turn to faith,or science, or education? Do you seek despair,or anger, or revenge? Where do those paths lead? When you emerge, on the other side of this journey will your presence have been a beacon of hope, or a force of destruction? We each have the power to choose. We decide who we love, who we

In one of my all-time favorite episodes of Star Trek, the crew of the USS Enterprise stumbles upon an extraordinary encounter with Apollo, a god figure from ancient Greek mythology. This celestial being resides on a distant planet, where he has created a lavish, idyllic environment reflecting ancient Greece's splendor. Upon their arrival, Apollo makes an imposing entrance and immediately demands the worship and adoration of the crew, asserting that he is the god they should r

Today, Christmas is a time many associate with joy, decorations, generosity, and community. However, this wasn’t always the case. During America's colonial history, Christmas was a highly controversial event. Without Unitarian Universalists (UUs for short), Christmas would not have been celebrated in the same ways in the United States. The only true "war on Christmas" in North America occurred between 1629 and 1728, when the Puritans banned its celebration multiple times. The

We always knew it would be close. Those of us who’ve watched the pendulum of history swing understand that anger, fear, resentment, and hatred are the forces behind colonialism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and nationalism—rising whenever too many are ignored or oppressed by the status quo. We who seek to center hope, love, compassion, and community over violent rhetoric are not naive. We are not deluded, nor are we "snowflakes." We knew the fight would be hard. And yet, we

Ah, the holidays. Days filled with Christmas traditions - moments and things that center our holiday memories. Some are specific to our families, but others have become part of how we celebrate each year. Many of us assume they have been handed down, year after year, generation to generation. And some of them have been. Others are assumed to be centuries old but have a much more modern origin. Some people in the immigrant-established United States have even created mythologi

Perhaps no person is more responsible for the modern celebration of Christmas than Saint Francis of Assisi, and it is to him credit goes for music becoming such an important part of our holiday traditions. Prior to the 13th century, it was common for people to travel from home to home to share the good cheer of the holiday. Each home and inn commonly kept wassail, a thick broth that helped warm travelers before they continued their wintry journey. Although storytelling was c