Things UUs Do

What great fortune! Looking for a place to sit and write, and I found the pavilion in Cullum Park on a gorgeous December day in NW Houston. I get situated. I turn to get started, and..... (gasp). What is this crawling along the edge of my laptop? It looks like a stink bug, but much larger. What an amazing creature!

I flick it off the computer, thinking it will fly. It hits the ground and stumbles onto its back. Then struggles to regain a position that allows it to walk, or presumably to take off. I regret that I have caused him unnecessary suffering. Fortunately, he is quickly upright, and begins walking. Wait, what's this? The little bugger is heading right back to me. "With 360* to choose from why are you coming back this way?" He is about to climb on my laptop wire. Hmm, these fellas are not generally considered pests, bugs that pester and persist in trying to feed on you or your food. I arise and find a dried orange peel and an abandoned straw, my implements of redirection. With little effort, I have my friend on an orange transport vehicle, and I carry him to to a nearby oak tree.

I sit back down. I look up to see my little friend crawling up the tree. A sweet joy, a sense of great pleasure arises in me. It's such a ordinary event, but a stimulus for happiness, nonetheless. One cause of my pleasure is the thought that what I have just done is something that a UU would do. Oh, we are certainly not the only ones who enjoy little acts of kindness. We are not the only ones with what Albert Schweitzer called a “reverence for life.” I've seen people carry spiders, bees and such from inside their homes safely to the “outdoors.” We don't have a monopoly on "our" values. Still it pleases me to know that I am connected not just to all life in general, but to Unitarian Universalists, and especially to UUs who enjoy such things as I do.

My pleasant thought multiplies as I consider that this article could be the beginning of a series- "things UU's do." I have recently thought of several UU behaviors that please me. I'm imagining that others would enjoy reflecting on "things UUs do." Oh I guess I should clarify. I confess that I've complained now and again about some things we UU's do, but that's not primarily what I have in mind. Perhaps you can help me (us) become aware of things that we do that reflect our spirituality. Many of them won't seem religious on the surface. Many of them may seem insignificant, but my faith tells me our acting out our values in small ways as well as big, makes this a better world to live in. If you have evidence to prove me right, I'd like to hear it.