Captain’s Log, February 2019

Some of you have probably noticed by now that every sermon I write has some reference to saying goodbye or letting go or thinking about the future. Think of January and its sermons on dreams, getting old, and reconciliation on the journey of life (all posted on the website).  Of course every sermon I preach is written out of my own personal experience of what I am struggling with or what I think it important for you (and me) to consider in our lives. Even though my departure is a few months off, I am still trying to figure out what the final days and months here will consist of.  We all want a place we can call home, and we all want to feel at peace with our past.  Getting older is hard both physically and mentally, and we need to admit that to ourselves and others, so that we might feel compassion towards each other and help each other. And yet even in those final years of our lives we need dreams about all we want to do and be and feel before we say goodbye. It is not a time to hold back.

So, yes, there will be references to letting go of things I have accumulated, people I have known, and a calling that has deeply enriched me.  The letting go of things is an ongoing process.  I am doing that now, especially with books.  We have already cleared out a great number of journals and files and now UU books and others, too.  Have I read it?  Will I ever read it?  Will I ever read it again?  Maybe it is time then to let it go.  That had already started to become a rule for me even before I was thinking about leaving Watertown. I ask myself when was the last time I touched this book – one year, two years, etc.?  Then why am I keeping it?  Books are like friends to me.  They comfort and inform me, and they are highly accepting of me, too. I will keep favorites and those I use in my teaching, but my books can help inform other’s lives.  Sometimes you have to let friends go.

I have a different feeling now when I look at my office shelves.  When I was a young minister I think my goal was to fill every space with some kind of book.  As a new minister I wanted every UU history book I could accumulate because they would somehow reflect that I knew it all or had it all to share with others.  I soon learned that owning every UU book was too much, and how many did I really need?  As we grow older I think (I hope) we learn that we need less and less.  Suddenly my office shelves are empty in spots, clear of debris.  In fact I plan on giving all my sermons to Harvard, who will take any UU minister’s collection.  Does that mean I won’t have any sermons?  While I have many electronically, I only plan on keeping hard copies of this year’s sermons.  This is so I have a few I can use on the road in Maine.  Besides, I can just write new ones, for as I said in the question box sermon, when someone asked what was my best sermon, I answered, the one I was about to write.

So I am beginning to learn how to let go of stuff – memorabilia, books and especially church files.  But a community, a place, a life, are not so easy. I’ll write about those next month. Getting rid of stuff is a good practice for the other things we ALL need to let go of sooner or later. End of sermon.  So, anybody want a book or two? 

 Mark