Postscript

Background, Influences and Worldview In Brief: Affirmation, March 26, 2006

I delivered this Affirmation at Countryside Church Unitarian Universalist on March 26, 2006.

I would like to dedicate this Affirmation to my mother's memory.

Although my wife, Cherita, and I joined this church less than a year ago [in May 2005], my own involvement dates back thirty years. That's when my parents... first brought me to this church [and] where, as a child, I attended religious education classes.

The years since have involved rich exploration.

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In high school, courses in World History and the History of Philosophy especially captured my imagination. I also grew fascinated with the novels and Objectivist philosophy of Russian-born writer Ayn Rand. During recent years, I found inspiration in such sources as Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now and peace in such practices as mindfulness meditation.

The development that I've summarized took place largely outside church, however. As a young adult, I attended only occasionally. Eventually drawn by a need to experience a community that would welcome my uniqueness, I wanted to participate again in a Unitarian Universalist congregation.

Just last year, Cherita and I started attending services here with my father, while our daughter, Aliana, attended religious education classes. I quickly found myself delighting in the services and in my interactions with [others], several of whom I remember from when I participated in the church decades ago.

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So you might be tempted to call me a "born-again Unitarian Universalist."

During the last few months, after discovering, here at church, the existence of... Nonviolent Communication [NVC], the work of Marshall Rosenberg has passionately engaged me while revolutionizing my communication and spiritual growth... I'm delighted to be involved now in [three groups which I've started]... which meet here in the church and which have [compassionate, authentic communication as] a topical focus...

[In the space of this Affirmation], I can offer only a whirlwind tour of the positions I take on the religious and philosophical questions that have intrigued human beings since our dawn.

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My outlook is natural rather than supernatural. I remain unconvinced that such things as heaven, hell, ghosts or gods exist.

Even so, I learn much from those who believe in the supernatural. Even if what I gain is metaphorical, I still gain.

I conceive of our human nature as living, conscious, delicately fragile on the one hand and yet amazingly hardy on the other. I also conceive of human nature as composed of three, integrated elements: body, spirit and mind. [In my judgment,] seeming conflicts between these three arise only through obstructed awareness.

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I'm convinced that we are born embodying a life-enriching nature. So to my mind, those human actions that lead to suffering and violence arise not from any "innate evil," but from errors in our education that we [can beneficially] unlearn.

I've even developed my own system of ethics, which I call "alteregoism." In this view, actions that benefit self and actions that benefit others exist in harmony. And only by caring passionately for the needs of the self can we ever hope to create the robust foundation from which we can effectively care compassionately for the needs of others.

[Yet] perhaps I can encapsulate my worldview most helpfully by closing this Affirmation with a reading of my Credo.

My Credo appears on this website, here.

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