Why to Shed Stuff (Benefits) (Part 1)

Part 1 (of 2):  Benefits of De-accessioning

For many people, downsizing, de-accessioning, and letting go  is emotionally difficult.  I think this has far less to do with discarding old clothes and far more to do with emotionally wrenching reasons that often prompt the work,   such as the death of a loved one, divorce,  ill health, loss of a job or income, or even “empty nest” syndrome.  Psychologists and doctors recommend NOT making major decisions at such times because it is so stressful (and because the resulting choices may be ill advised or regretted), but unfortunately, it is often those crises that REQUIRE rapid decision making by people who haven’t de-accessioned beforehand. 

When NOT coupled with such wrenching associations, shedding stuff can be liberating and energizing,  You may make money, free up time/money/space for activities you value, or discover that you can comfortably live within far fewer (and cheaper) square feet.

If you find the prospect of purging all those overstuffed rooms and closets daunting, this two part article can help.    

I'm Proud of My Outhouse

I surely have one of the nicest, most women-friendly outhouses in Alaska.

For one thing, it has a door.  A surprising number of such structures lack this feature.  I don’t know if the reason is to increase circulation in order to reduce spiders and flies, or to provide a clear view of a bear approaching at one’s most vulnerable moment, but I insisted on a door.  So, for ventilation, I have two high, screened windows, and additional  vents under the eaves. 

An additional plus is that it is painted.  Most aren’t.  To increase the light load, I painted the interior a cheery, shiny, butter yellow.

Women invariably comment on the décor.  My outhouse lacks magazine pictures of cars, naked women, and animal carcasses tacked to the walls.  Instead, I commissioned two stained glass pieces (of Alaska flowers) from a talented friend to hang within the window frames.  They cast rainbows on the reflective walls. 

Whereas some outhouses just have a hole cut in an increasingly splinter ready plywood bench,  I demanded a real, wooden seat.   You don’t use that in the winter, of course – the wood conducts the cold.  This year, for example, the hoar frost on the inside of the lid didn’t melt until March.  Rather, during the cold season, we keep the seat pitched up in order to sit on a ring of polystyrene, which, by virtue of the air holes, feels, if not warm, at least temperature neutral.

The building includes no magazine racks or funny books.  Let's face it: the building is unheated and uninsulated, so visits tend to be quick and business-like.

Nor does it include potpourri.  Although, come to think of it, I do keep a smoker in there in the summer (to deter black flies).  I wonder if sandalwood would work just as well...

The final advantage is its size.  Compared to some elbow clinging claustrophobic versions I've had to visit, mine is a roomy 4 x 8 with a high ceiling.  It is big enough to accommodate shelves for relevant items, including a jug of water and tin cup in the summer, a cast iron hook shaped like a leaf to hang one’s mittens, and a bin of firewood ash for occasional cupfuls down the hole.

Some people are proud of their cars or their jewelry.  Since I have neither here, I’m pretty darn proud of my outhouse.

        

A Woman's First Ice Fishing Outings

Until I moved to Alaska, the only thing I knew about ice fishing was a scene in the movie, “Grumpy Old Men.” I never thought I would do it. Who would? It seemed like the sort of thing women made their husbands do to get them out of the house on long winter days. Vendors are complicit by selling all sorts of paraphernalia so men would feel that squatting on a frozen lake is more desirable than sitting by the fire in a warm and cozy home.

But now, I have not only been ice fishing (a grand total of two times), but I actually enjoyed it and look forward to going again (as long as ithe weather is sunny and still).

The first time, I went with a group of ladies I've met by virtue of their annual women-only weekend at a cabin in the vicinity. They had mentioned this invitation before and I had hoped it would come to pass, so when I saw them whiz past my property toward their lodging the night before, I gathered together three layers of socks, two layers of pants, three layers of tops, gloves with liners, and a cap I could wear under my snow machine helmet.

The next day, at noon, I heard them snow machining across the lake and toward my cabin so I scurried into my clothes and followed them in my snow machine. Our destination was not far, as the crow flies, but we took a 45 minute route shaped like a giant “U” in order to stay on flat trails rather than hazard crossing a creek with steep sides and boulders perched in the middle of the frozen stream. We arrived at a hammer shaped lake that I never would have found otherwise. Despite no marked trail, three men and a woman were already set up, monitoring several holes. They watched as we four women unloaded a trailer of supplies.

Easter: What Did Early Christians Believe?

(It may not be what you think or believe today).

Easter is the high holy day of Christianity and deservedly so.  It defines the relationship between humanity and the divine, life and death, sin and redemption in a complicated faith story.  Believers hold that God sacrificed his only Son, to take away the sins of the world, as the ultimate scapegoat, who then ascended to heaven in his human form.  By doing so, he enabled humans to follow, and participate in everlasting life.

 Naturally, other religions don’t share this view, and, more to the point, are puzzled by it.  Maybe you are, too. Monotheists, like Jews and Muslims, see a vast, impassable chasm between God and humanity.  God is other.  The combination of man and God in one being is incomprehensible.  

Polytheistic traditions, however, are very familiar with gods popping down to earth in human form, procreating, fighting, blessing, miracle making.  Think of Zeus fathering most of the heroes, like Perseus, Theseus, and Heracles, by young virgins, like Alcmene and Danae. They don’t see anything particularly unusual about these trips back and forth between heaven and earth, or of Jesus being both god and man. 

 What may interest you, and you have surely inferred this from the readings of the Canonical and non-Canonical Gospels and the title of today’s service, is that for hundreds of years, people who considered themselves Christians didn’t believe the Easter story as we currently know it, either.  The range of interpretations of Jesus’s death and resurrection stories encompasses the full range of monotheistic and polytheistic views – not unlike the range of beliefs represented by Unitarian Universalists in this or any congregation. 

A Detective Story... What Happened to Jesus's Body?

Pretend that you are a detective.  Pick your favorite: Sherlock Holmes, Nero Wolfe, Miss Marple.  Think about how they think; how they gather and sift information.  Now plunk that person down in a year around 30 CE.  

Now imagine that grieving family and friends of Jesus appeal to you with the startling news that his newly dead body, that of a convict, executed by the Romans - is missing from its tomb.  They want your help in figuring out what happened.  What questions will you ask?  What conclusions will you draw from what you do hear and what you don't hear, from the consistencies and the discrepancies of your sources and the evidence? Bear in mind, that as a contemporary witness, you know nothing about the later theologies of the Resurrection or the Trinity.  You just know that an itinerant Jewish teacher, seen by some authorities as a rabble-rouser, was arrested and rapidly condemned to a particularly ignominious death, and now his family and friends say his body is missing.  Hmmmmm!

Now, fast forward 2000 years.  You are still a detective, but this time, a sociological, religious detective.  You sift through the early Christian documents (the canonical gospels and the apocryphal ones and various letters that were circulating then as well), and Jewish documents and political ones.  These writers had choices about what to include and what to leave out.  What do you notice about the choices that the writers made?  What conclusions do you draw about the documents, the writers, and the believers? 

We will play both of these roles, first as contemporary detective and then as literary/historical detective. We will look at many of the same passages, first in one light and then in the other.  What do you conclude?  What questions remain?  Do they matter to you?