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... and I forget to update DW. My apologies.
Church is ... about as polarized as the nation at large, I guess. Only the issue is selling the church property. We had our special congregational meeting, followed by a vote, and I worked long and hard on that electronic ballot. The only question was "support" or "do not support" the trustees' decision to sell the property. Well, the "support" side won, 62 percent to 38 percent. But the losing side is still really, really struggling.
The SCA is ... great, when I have time for it. I haven't done a lot of A&S lately, except for working on the inkle loom I bought at Pennsic. I'm making an orange and black strap or piece of trim or whatever you want to call it. Just for practice.
Other things: Just after Pennsic, the husband of the leader of my SCA-related singing group had a massive heart attack, followed by a quintuple bypass, followed by a whole host of complications. He's still in the hospital, but slowly improving. Then I found out a friend who had esophageal cancer -- not the "heavy drinking/smoking" kind, but the "middle-aged man with a few extra pounds" kind -- died at the end of August. I think my last phone conversation with him was in May, maybe June.
Finally, I found out through an online search that the ex who abused me back in the 1980s has died at the age of 66. I'm not crying. I actually feel a bit relieved that I can wander around my old haunts in eastern Massachusetts without the chance of running into him. I'm also glad that he did not try to ruin my science-writing career. Btu still, it feels a tiny bit weird too.
Church is ... about as polarized as the nation at large, I guess. Only the issue is selling the church property. We had our special congregational meeting, followed by a vote, and I worked long and hard on that electronic ballot. The only question was "support" or "do not support" the trustees' decision to sell the property. Well, the "support" side won, 62 percent to 38 percent. But the losing side is still really, really struggling.
The SCA is ... great, when I have time for it. I haven't done a lot of A&S lately, except for working on the inkle loom I bought at Pennsic. I'm making an orange and black strap or piece of trim or whatever you want to call it. Just for practice.
Other things: Just after Pennsic, the husband of the leader of my SCA-related singing group had a massive heart attack, followed by a quintuple bypass, followed by a whole host of complications. He's still in the hospital, but slowly improving. Then I found out a friend who had esophageal cancer -- not the "heavy drinking/smoking" kind, but the "middle-aged man with a few extra pounds" kind -- died at the end of August. I think my last phone conversation with him was in May, maybe June.
Finally, I found out through an online search that the ex who abused me back in the 1980s has died at the age of 66. I'm not crying. I actually feel a bit relieved that I can wander around my old haunts in eastern Massachusetts without the chance of running into him. I'm also glad that he did not try to ruin my science-writing career. Btu still, it feels a tiny bit weird too.
no subject
Date: 2023-09-21 01:37 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-09-25 02:05 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-09-25 02:02 pm (UTC)From:Let me qualify that. It is a bit too early to tell whether people are going to resign as members because of the sale of the property. (It doesn't help matters that our longtime music director quit last week, and I don't want to say anything more about that, even under the cloak of a DW pseudonym.) If enough people want to keep the congregation going, we will go on.
At least for a while.
It is my strong opinion that the UUA, as a denomination, desperately needs to appeal to the under-40 crowd. It has to start at the top. Young people are far more interested in what TikTok influencers say than what is going on in a local building. Now if the UUA could find TikTok influencers who say, "Hey, if you want to get involved in social justice projects, here's where you can act locally," and point them to nearby congregations....
My congregation has NO members under 40 anymore. (And I was under 40 when I joined, way back when.) Last month I went to a Nationals game with a friend from my church -- we were both in the same social circle in the 1990s. He is now in his late 50s. I said to him at the game, "You're STILL one of the younger members of the congregation!"
I don't mean to dismiss the many active members of the congregation who are over, say, 65 or 70. But we won't live forever.
no subject
Date: 2023-09-25 06:42 pm (UTC)From: