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thisenergeticspirit:

A quote from Unitarian Universalist Rev. David Carl Olson in his op-ed on raising the minimum wage.

A quote from Unitarian Universalist Rev. David Carl Olson in his op-ed on raising the minimum wage.

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beyondvictoriana:

knowledgeequalsblackpower:

really-shit:

The REAL Toy Story | Michael Wolf

Behind those toys are a whole new world of “fun”.

Forever reblog!

This is not steampunk, but everything to do with the contradictions of steampunk subculture that will become more apparent with the rise of mainstream consumerism: a community that scorns mass production, but to an extent, is dependent upon mass produced goods to create the styles its aspires toward.

Many steampunk props, guns, and modification source materials for the person of average means is created by a larger global production force that is undergoing their own industrial revolution.

While many people thrift, mod, and create their own subcultural goods, that is more possible for participants with a certain level of class privilege (time to thrift, time to build, financial means to get special-order goods, access to stores that sell wholesale products, etc). And there are many steampunk participants who choose to mod, thrift or upcycle using source materials that are produced overseas (the classic Nerf mod being an example).

As mass popularity of steampunk items grow, this connection to non-Western mass production will need to be ethically addressed by participants of our community.

And that’s one of the things I want to talk about in my PhD diss.

I was vaguely uncomfortable with Steam Punk, but this puts it into a new perspective for me. The vagueness give way.

“Life is surpassingly interesting, revealing, and awe provoking when we show up for it wholeheartedly and pay attention to the particulars.”

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Arriving At Your Own Door (via revnaomiking)

“Fair Hope, with light and buoyant form,
Came smiling through the clouds of Care,
Glanced bright defiance on the storm,
And hung her bow of promise there!”

Frances Sargent Osgood, “Hope’s Rainbow” (Unitarian, poet, author) From Reverent Naomi!

(Source: uuquotes)

My Coming Out Story (2012)

I am coming out to love again. As most of us in the LGBTQ community know, coming out is a continual process. I first came out at the end of a short marriage to a man. I could no longer live the straight life. I was almost thirty and was deep in the abyss of depression.

The minister of the UU church and the gay and lesbian group at church were enormously supportive. With the church group I worked on the No on 22 campaign. Unfortunately, California voted to pass proposition 22, to define marriage between a man and a woman.

After a couple of years I met my beloved. We were classmates then friends and our relationship evolved into an abiding love. We entered into a domestic partnership and had a commitment ceremony in 2002. Her mother and sister attended. Mine did not, not wanting to condone my lifestyle. At the time, I was not out to my father.

In 2007, I decided to heed the call to ministry. While waiting for the following fall semester, marriage equality resurfaced. Prop 22 was struck down, allowing a window of time to legally marry. My beloved and I worked for marriage equality, I with the faith community and she with the Asian and Pacific Islander community.

The week marriage became legal, my beloved and I were in line the first day licenses were available. We were mentioned in UU World, pictured on the front page of the local paper, interviewed for another paper, and filmed for a documentary show in the Philippines. We joyously married that Saturday with our UU congregation in attendance. My mother and sister, once again, did not attend. My father, however, was happily in attendance.

The passage of proposition 8 did not nullify our marriage. The significance of that became real when my beloved had an aneurism in January of 2010. The weeks of surgery, coma, recriminations, familial homophobia, friends’ internalized homophobia, and need for blame landed squarely on me, especially when I made the impossibly difficult decision to take her off life support after hesitating in fear of her family. Three major strokes after an aneurism had to be enough. The loss was devastating.

***

This past month I have started a ministry for LGBTQ folks in Los Angeles, starting small with a twitter feed and a meet-up, to honor her, and the relationship we had. There needs to be a safe place for people to go when something so devastating happens and other LGBTQ people will understand as the regular church may not be able to. Conversely, the LGBTQ community can come together with the regular church community in celebration.

So I am coming out to love again. I have begun to trust that love is possible with a wonderful woman I began dating this summer. I am honoring my beloved with a ministry to bring together the LGBTQ folks in LA to get to know one another, and build community.

“The most alarming of all man’s assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable: the chain of evil it initiates not only in the world that must support life but also in living tissues is for the most part irreversible. In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister and little-recognized partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world—the very nature of its life.”

As relevant today, as when it was published. Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

LGBTQ Unitarian Universalists of Greater Los Angeles

Let’s create a queer UU community transcending church walls. Let us be a truly pluralistic group of folks who grew up with a faith, whether or not we ascribe to one now, and still desire a faith community. Welcome UUs, Spiritual Seekers, Persons of Faith, Humanists, Buddhists, Atheists, Jewish, Muslim, cultural Christian, and Sikh. Let’s gather and provide safe space for healing presence, friendship, company, and accompanying one another through the minefields of religious family/friends. Look for formal and informal gatherings. Whether for dinner, picnics, contemplative practices, classes, coming out support, or workshops we have more in common than in difference. Join us.