A COMMUNITY OF BEAUTY: THE UNITARIAN FELLOWSHIP OF PETERBOROUGH June 2019 JOURNEYS Monthly Theme “Un-Pack-It” A COMMUNITY OF BEAUTY THE UNITARIAN FELLOWSHIP OF PETERBOROUGH PHOTO BY BEN WOLFE WONDERINGS on the theme of BEAUTY “Notice what’s at the front of the “Notice what’s behind it all!” From the folks at Soul Matters protest march!” Our own Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, Where do you look for beauty? UU minister Sean Parker Dennison “The world is not painted or adorned, There is universal agreement that we all writes, “The ability to see beauty is the but is from the beginning beautiful; … must make time to visit museums and sit beginning of our moral sensibility. What Beauty is the creator of the universe.” before stunning sunsets. But seeking we believe is beautiful we will not The Quaker theologian Rufus Jones beauty there is not enough. Every wantonly destroy.” With this we are writes, “Beauty has no function, no religion agrees: The secret to reminded that beauty does more than utility… It greases no wheels, it bakes no encountering spiritual beauty is to visit soothe and heal. It demands. It calls. It puddings. It is a gift of sheer grace, a and observe the unlikely places. Indeed, creates commitment. It doesn’t just say gratuitous largesse. It must imply behind one could argue that this is the job of “Love and appreciate me.” It says things a Spirit that enjoys beauty for its religion. It exists to teach us and to help “Protect me! Fight for me!” It’s steps out own sake and that floods the world us observe beauty in the less noticed in front of us and points to a precious everywhere with it… Our joy in it shows places. Just think of all the seemingly world that needs our help. It paints a that we are in some sense kindred to the odd advice that religion sends our way: picture of new ways of living and giver and revealer of it.” “Notice your feet!” declares, “Follow me there!” It’s not just Here we are reminded that beauty is There’s a beloved poem by Chilean poet what nurtures our activist efforts. It’s the more than an elegantly painted portrait. Pablo Neruda about a pair of his socks. reason we take to the streets. It is also the artistic force of the universe In this and other poems, he brings the “Notice yourself!” that is constantly painting us. Pulling out ordinary things around us to life, helping Again beautifulIssue things are not justDate the beauty in all-that-is to create the us see how they so clearly carry the objects to be appreciated and adored. portrait that is life. memories and meanings of our lives. They are not pretty things we purchase So, yes, by all means, get yourselves to Religion does the same. It tells us that and possess. They possess us. They are the museum. MakeMonthy time to gaze at the these ordinary objects are not just containers for pieces and parts of color-laced sky on your evening walks in background but beautiful partners. They ourselves. We don’t just observe them; the woods. But don’t forget to visit the don’t just enhance our relationship with we pour ourselves into them. They don’t unlikely places and the beauty that the world and each other; they are just sit there; they open themselves up awaits you there. among the most important relationships and invite us to spill our longings, we have. They are fellow journeyers in memories, hopes and hurts into their and of themselves. care. When we observe them, we observe and re-member ourselves. A COMMUNITY OF BEAUTY: June 2019 2 A STORY about BEAUTY Treasure Stones ~ Janeen K Grohsmeyer In a time not so long ago and in a place The trees and the flowers and the not so far away, there lived a boy animals in Canada were all new to named Arthur Lismer. Arthur always Arthur, and all of them were had a pencil in his pocket, because beautiful. He traveled to many Arthur loved to draw. He drew clouds. places, going to the mountains He drew birds. He drew flowers. He and the prairies and the lakes and drew many beautiful things. And he the rivers of that great land, drew pictures of stones. painting pictures of the things he saw. "Why are you drawing a boring old he would usually In his pictures, people could see a river stone?" his friends would ask. "They're say. "Let's see what we can find. Let's of snow flowing down a mountainside. just... gray. They're just... rocks." see." They saw trees with great gnarly roots "Stones are beautiful," Arthur told all twisted together. They saw a "I found a stone," a child said, one day. them. "Just look. Some stones have church and houses surrounded by "It's just gray." gold flecks. Some have tiny crystals. In fields of grain. They saw gray rocks "Let's see," Arthur said. He licked his the rain, a stone can change color. In colored bright red by the setting sun. finger to get it wet, and rubbed his the sunshine, it can sparkle. Every They saw a tree bowing in the wind, finger on the little stone. The stone stone is a treasure; every stone is and above it, little white clouds turned pink and then purple and then beautiful. Just look!" following each other across the sky gray again. "It's like a rainbow!" the Arthur would draw pictures anywhere, like little ducklings in a row. child said. anytime. He drew in the morning at People hadn't seen that before. They Arthur took out his pencil from his the breakfast table. He drew during hadn't realized just how magnificent pocket (he always had a pencil) and lunchtime at school. He drew on Canada was. "Just look," Arthur said. drew two small dots on one end of the moonlit nights outside, surrounded by "Look and see." stone, and then a long curving line on trees. He drew on train rides through the other. "It's a mouse!" the child the countryside. He even drew on Many people bought Arthur's pictures said. Sundays in church. to put in their homes. People put his pictures in schools, and in offices, and He turned the rock over so they could "Put that away," his mother would tell even on postage stamps. see all the little spidery lines in the him, and so Arthur would close his cracks. "It's a like a map!" sketchbook and put his pencil in his Five years after Arthur came to pocket, and he would listen to their Canada, he became a teacher in an art Then sunshine came, and the rock minister at the Unitarian chapel in school, showing people how to create began to sparkle. "Now it's silver and Sheffield. But sometimes, he would art. Not just with paper and pencil, but gold!" the child said. "It's like treasure." still be thinking about drawing. with wire and cloth and felt and "It is treasure," Arthur said. feather and bits of rock and all kinds of When Arthur was thirteen, he went to things. The child nodded, holding tightly the a school just for artists. After he stone that was a rainbow and a mouse graduated, he sold his drawings to On Saturdays, he taught classes in a and a map and a treasure. "It's my people. But he didn't make very much museum. People of all ages came, all treasure stone," the child said. "I can money at it. in the same room. Parents learned see that now” right along with their children. Arthur So, when he was twenty-six years old, would talk for a while about the What kind of treasures do you see? Arthur decided to leave England and paintings, about the artists who https://tinyurl.com/y4eeeogj sail across the Atlantic Ocean, all the created them and where and when the way to Canada. He got an ax and paintings were made. And then, he chopped up his desk, and he used its would ask everyone: "What do you see wood to build a trunk. He put some in that picture? What do you think it To receive these monthly packets clothes and his drawing paper and his means? What do you like? What kind by email, sign up to be on UFP’s pencils into the trunk, and he moved of beauty is there for you?" to Canada. email list. Send a request to On Sundays, he taught children at his [email protected] Unitarian church. "Let's go outside!" A COMMUNITY OF BEAUTY: June 2019 3 INSPIRATIONS on the theme of BEAUTY We can argue about the reason for We must first allow ourselves to be CURIOSITYthe universe and the meaning of the captured by the goodness, truth, or DEFINITION universe but not about the beauty of beauty of something beyond and beau·ty the universe… We all share beauty. It outside ourselves. Then we /ˈbyo͞odē/ strikes us indiscriminately. It may be universalize from that moment to noun when our child was born into this the goodness, truth, and beauty of 1. a combination of pleasing world; or a simple flower; or a song; the rest of reality, until our aesthetic, intellectual, or moral or a smile on a face; or a great act of realization eventually ricochets back qualities 2. an excellent specimen or the courage; or a dance well done; or a to include ourselves! ~ Richard Rohr pleasing features of something child’s laugh; or a loaf of bread This a wonderful day.