Paul David
9-8-2002
Open with a reading from Nature, published as part of Nature; Addresses and Lectures by Ralph Waldo Emerson
To go into solitude, a
man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary
whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone,
let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and what he touches. One
might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man,
in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the
streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in
a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many
generations the remembrance of the city of
The stars awaken a
certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but
all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their
influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance. Neither does the wisest man
extort her secret, and lose his curiosity by finding out all her perfection.
Nature never became a toy to a wise spirit. The flowers, the animals, the
mountains, reflected the wisdom of his best hour, as much as they had delighted
the simplicity of his childhood. When we speak of nature in this manner, we
have a distinct but most poetical sense in the mind. We mean the integrity of
impression made by manifold natural objects. It is this which distinguishes the
stick of timber of the wood-cutter, from the tree of the poet. The charming
landscape which I saw this morning, is indubitably
made up of some twenty or thirty farms. Miller owns this field, Locke that, and
Manning the woodland beyond. But none of them owns the landscape. There is a
property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the
parts, that is, the poet. This is the best part of these men's farms, yet to
this their warranty-deeds give no title.
1. Begin w/ reading from Emerson’s Nature, Ch1 second and third paragraphs.
2. Kicking off the NUUC year – welcome back
a. Choir is back, RE is back, most importantly – people come back during the fall.
b. Our people shape all aspects of our community.
i. This is certainly true for all of the physical elements of NUUC – landscaping, and facilities.
ii. Our people are often a wealthy source of our ideas as well. Programs, interest groups, newsletter, articles, service content all reflect the interests and passions of the participants – all of us.
iii. All of these things, both physical and conceptual reflect tangible and important contributions from our congregation.
c. There are at least two very important reasons to participate.
i. NUUC needs your contributions in order to keep the machinery of the church going.
ii. But more fundamentally, if NUUC is to reflect your ideas and values, you must contribute them.
3. NUUC is different things to different people.
a. Some people’s answers
i. Spiritual center.
ii. Center of community (for some)
iii. Simply a place to meet fellow explorers.
b. This diversity of feeling is both a blessing and curse
i. Pro : NUUC embraces these differences in opinion/vision.
ii. Con : It can be difficult for us to find a common thing to anchor ourselves to as a community.
c. My theory – NUUC constitutes some “connective tissue” in each of our respective communities
d. The connective tissue of community
i.
In his book about suburban
1. streets
2. highways
3. town squares,
4. lakes and rivers, etc.
ii. Kunstler’s “public realm” also includes some non-physical equipment.
1. Laws
2. Beliefs
3. Social agreements
4. Language
iii. Now - with Kunstler’s “connective tissue” terminology in mind, think about what connections to others and to the larger community Northlake facilitates for you.
iv. At the center of one’s life is a sense of “home”. I’d suggest that our connections to the world around us extend from our home, at the center.
4. Home
a. The premise behind the water ceremony is that people are returning home from our various travels over the summer.
b. Although
we may call someplace close to here home, many of us are from other places
(quick sampling of three people where are you from?)
Ask for a show of hands for people who have spent their lives in the
c. It follows then that many of us have had more than one “home” during the course of our lives (I’ve had four or five myself)
d. People seem to return to places they have called home in the summer. Many of you have brought water from these places today.
i.
Aside – why leave
ii.
I have visited two of my former homes this
summer –
e. My original hometown (NYC) is foremost in my heart this week. I had a palpable sense of loss in response to the events of last September 11. These were things that happened to my hometown, a place that was a part of my childhood.
f. We
could spend a long time just dissembling feelings about September 11th,
discussing our own responses, how this shared sense of “home” relates to a
sense of patriotism (perhaps). We could
muse on the effect that the events had in the weeks and months after on the
people of
g. Rather
than speak to the tragedy itself, I’d like use
i.
Cite E.B. White’s Here is New York, regarding
White’s characterization of the city of neighborhoods. Start on pp 35 “… the curious thing about
ii.
This paradox of the larger city (and world) as a
composite of small neighborhoods and communities speaks to the intimacy we all
need, and the isolation that we all feel in turns. White says “On any person who desires such
queer prizes,
iii. To me, NYC feels like a microcosm of the larger world.
1. Many different kinds of people living in close proximity to one another, usually (although not always) walking the edge of what E.B. White refers to as an “inviolate truce”, tolerance born of disposition when we’re lucky, but failing that - necessity.
2. I will grant that this is an optimistic view. Clearly there are cultural issues brimming even just below the surface. Too often we choose not to like, understand, or learn from one another.
3. But – this demonstrates a marvel of the physical and non-physical “connective tissue” I spoke of earlier. The city illustrates the interconnectedness - both chosen and inevitable – that our increasingly crowded and interdependent world has developed.
5. Building our home – what does all of this mean to us?
a. In a sense, many of us have the experience of “immigration”, spiritual or physical.
b. Forming this conceptual “connective tissue” is intrinsic to our nature.
c. To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson (from Nature).
i. “Every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house a world; and beyond that world, a heaven.”
ii. Note that the Emerson’s Spirit builds outward from the near (a house) to the far (a world, then heaven).
d. … and that’s why we’re all here today. To build our world and heaven as a composite of spirit and house.
6. I
am bringing water from