Before reading this month’s Soul Matters materials, I never really associated the notions of courage and community with simplicity. “Courage”; not as a lone voice but in tune with the theme and the question, “What does it mean to be a people of simplicity?” Simple is not reduced to easy but is recognized as part of the deeper challenge of true meaning. Courage acknowledges and values the bravery and heart it takes to live grounded, compassionate choices in our ever increasingly complex world. “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction” (E. F. Schumaker).
And community: “Simplicity is not a single-player game. Our cluttered houses and full calendars are not our problem and challenge alone.” “The busyness of our lives is not just overwhelming; it is also seductive.” It gives us status and worth; it gives us a form of “bragging rights.” “No one can reject and confront a community of broken values without the promise and support of an alternative community that celebrates a different equation of ‘worthy living.’”
This morning, I skimmed the headlines in the paper to see if there was anything I needed to read. I started the draft of this column yesterday, so these words and notions were still working in my head: Simplicity, courage, community, and worthy living. Of course none of this had anything to do with why I opened David Brooks’ column, but it all came together in the ah-hah moment I heard in the end of his piece; words and notions that connect as understandings for who we are and what this fellowship offers. “Even successful lives need these [simple] sanctuaries in order to be a real person instead of just a productive one.” Brooks had referenced two authors for “these sanctuaries”: “Joseph Pieper wrote that leisure is not an activity, it’s an attitude of mind. It’s stepping outside strenuous effort and creating enough stillness so that it becomes possible to contemplate and enjoy things as they are.” “Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote that the Sabbath is ‘a palace in time which we build.’ It’s not a day of rest before work; you work in order to experience this day of elevation.”
That’s what this congregation is; the simple space you built and build in time and place. Sanctuary, community, Sabbath. Take courage, friend. Take heart. Welcome to UUFH. You are not alone. “So that it becomes possible to contemplate and enjoy things as they are.” It’s as simple—and brave—as that.
Rev. Jim McKinley, Minister