DEAR DIARY

April 28, day 42 of strict social (physical) distancing for me. I have a good network of friends and family. We connect by telephone and internet regularly and waving to strangers has even filled a little niche in the need to be human. But the past few weeks have been difficult. Covid-19 is like a snake with two heads. It kills people who have been weakened by compromised health or old age. My health is sound enough but there is noting I can do about my age. On the other end, the civil construct that we take for granted, fresh water, electricity, grocery stores, jobs, and an economy that is tailored to meet our needs; it slows to a crawl. In both cases, being human takes on risks that we never prepared for. So I am anxious by way of the risk for infection and equally, I fret over precarious times. 

When you need to know something and don’t know what it is that you don’t know, it’s easy to be caught unawares. How do you plan for a never-before, not a clue emergency? I don’t think you can. With good luck and good instincts, versatility and cooperation can be godsends. But all of our invention and smarts seem to be focused 0n politics. Pandemics are not new but with short memories, we think we think and the survivors have to reinvent a new normal. Who knows what that will look like? 

May 3, 2020:day 47. I went to virtual church today. My internet connection at the house is so weak it fails about every 10 minutes and it can take another 10 to get it back. So I transfer everything to the truck cab and drive up to the shopping center parking lot. I get 3 bars there and did the whole service with no interruptions. The sermon was about ‘Grace’. Christians have some pretty narrow beliefs when it comes to Grace but the whole idea is older than Jesus and it’s incorporated by nearly every religion. Unitarians have no trouble getting their heads and arms around Grace. Grace, by definition is an unexpected gift. It doesn’t have to be about salvation, it doesn’t need a god. Today our Intern Minister did a nice job with it. The fundamental premiss for the 15 minute oratory was; the only appropriate response to an act of Grace is, Gratitude. Then, Gratitude expressed with action gives birth to a new form of Grace. It’s sort of like paying it forward. I liked it. Sitting in the truck with towels draped over the window and sun visor to keep glare off the screen and out of my eyes; I must have been a weird sight but it was a big parking lot, far away from the few stores that were open. I don’t think anybody noticed. 

Out of the need to create a ‘Tribal’ sense of identity, religion relies on all forms of ritual and liturgy. Stand up together, sing together, responsive reading together, Lord’s Prayer together, sit down together, kneel together; you get the picture. Absolute conformity to fundamental ritual does that. Even Unitarians use ritual and liturgy. In every service we recite our covenant: “Good will is the spirit of this church and service is its law. This is our great covenant, to dwell together in peace, to seek the truth in love and to help one another.” Isolated in my truck, in a deserted parking lot, we recited our covenant together and I felt the connection with over a hundred other Unitarians, scattered around the city, attending virtual church. I know exactly how, “Hail Mary full of grace” centers Catholics and how it bridges the space between them. I’ll not convert but then, neither will I insult their intelligence or snub their traditions.