Unitarian Church in Mission Viejo

I'm in Southern California at the moment for work and had a chance to go to the Unitarian Church here in Mission Viejo. Their motto is "Where people of different beliefs can worship together with one faith," a sentiment that I admire and respect.

There was a speaker from the Network of Spiritual Progressives named Lauren Nile. She reported on the results of a 28-year study that answered the question "Why is it that poor people who are actively harmed by the policies of the Right--tax reductions for the rich, reduced medical care & services, etc.--nonetheless so keen on voting for and supporting the Right?" The answer, after talking to thousands of people in the US, Canada, and England, is that the Right has acknowledged that people have spiritual needs, and the acknowledgement of spiritual needs was greater than the fact that at the same time, the Right was voting and acting antithetically to the aims of that spirituality. The Left, btw, was viewed as being snotty and superior and anti-spiritual. (Well, shucks, I know I'm guilty of at least the first two far more often than I think is admirable.)

It was a fascinating presentation. The Left has lost the trust of the people it actually needs the support of and who it can potentially do the most for because it hasn't been acknowledging that there needs to be a spiritual component for many people. Jesus was a liberal and you'd think it'd be an easy sell from that point to emphasize how love, service, and community values are consistent with the goals of progressive thought and action... but we've COMPLETELY dropped the ball on this. ~sigh~

Unitarian Church in Mission Viejo

Kim's back

I've been very sad for the past year that Kim, one of my oldest friends, had dropped out of sight. I couldn't reach her on the phone, email and snail mail weren't effective... I didn't know what was wrong, but it saddened me greatly.

I got email from her the other day and we talked on the phone for an hour or so on Wednesday. She's alive, she's fine, and she had been suffering from sleep apnea to the point that she simply couldn't do anything. I'm greatly sorry her health was so bad, but I'm quite happy that she's on the mend now. Old friends are always hard to lose and she's one of the best. It's great to have you back in my life, Kim.

Kim's back

Time has passed, once again....

It's the 24th and I haven't posted anything for 3 weeks. Oy!

I'm currently down in Lake Forest, CA (Orange County) for work. Normally, I'm here for a week and then home, but this time I'm down for two weeks.

The weather's been quite decent. I was worried I'd be fighting the effects of the heat, but no! It's been in the high 70s and I can survive that. I'm working with great people and they're all here, too.

There've been several fun things that've happened so far:

• The space shuttle was landing at Edwards AFB near here, so we got to hear the sonic boom as they passed overhead on landing approach. We didn't see the shuttle, but chances of that were small at the speed they were traveling.
  
• The four of us staying here at the hotel went out for a morning walk a couple days ago. We saw someone dressed in voluminous white cotton clothes and a huge sun hat walking in the same area we were. As she passed us, I saw that it was Julia Gnuse. She suffers from porphyria and has a sun hypersensitivity. To cover up the scarring, she's had her whole body tattooed. This doesn't prevent the sensitivity from causing new blisters and so on; it's cosmetic. She's listed in the Guiness Book as the "World's Most Tattooed Woman." She lives in Foothills Ranch, a mile or so from where we're staying.
  
• Most of the staph went out to our boss's place in Riverside for a pool party Saturday. That was a Good Time Out.
  

I need to do laundry or I'm not going to have shirts to wear tomorrow. Bleah.

A problem has been detected and Bush has been shut down to prevent damage to your country

Time has passed, once again....