Readings

By Phillip Simmons, Unitarian Universalist and author
from "Learning to Fall" which was written as an attempt to grapple with the meaning of ALS, the degenerative disease that later claimed his life.

Traditional religion teaches us to accept our afflictions as belonging to a larger scheme beyond mortal grasp. We're to trust the one or ones in charge. As I heard one unhappy young woman say recently, "I guess God's got his rhymes and reasons." ...But maybe we're looking for the wrong thing from God. Rhyme and reason, after all, are human values, not divine ones. Wanting human suffering to fit some divine plan is like wanting to fly an airplane above tornado wreckage and see that it spells out song lyrics or a cure for acne.

At some point in life, in the face of illness, violence, accident, or injustice, each of us confronts the possibility that rhyme and reason may not be on God's agenda. ...And perhaps this is how it should be. Perhaps we shouldn't turn to religion for solutions and explanations of this sort. The first of Buddhism's Four Noble Truths is after all the one that our experience most easily confirms: that to be human is to suffer.

By Stephen Crane, author of the great American story, The Red Badge of Courage

A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"Yes I see. Nevertheless," replied the universe,
"that fact has not created in me
a sense of obligation."

By Reverend Don Wheat, Unitarian Universalist minister

Some define a mystic as one who sees the universe as a conspiracy organized on their behalf. Wouldn't it be wonderful to think of all creation, all history, as an organized conspiracy to assist you and nurture you? And what, I wonder, is the opposite of a mystic? One who feels the universe is conspiring against him? Indeed, I have a friend who believes that some traffic lights are green for several days, and only turn red as he approaches them.

Readings of November 11, 2005