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Strangers In a Strange Land A sermon offered at Countryside Church Unitarian Universalist By The Reverend Hilary Landau Krivchenia On May 3, 2009 And I will name him Gershom, for I was a stranger in a strange land… Exodus 2:22 Stranger in a Strange Land Page 1 of 6 Readings Valentine Michael Smith, from Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein: We're not trying to bring people to God; that's a contradiction in terms, you can't even say it in Martian. We're not trying to save souls, because souls can't be lost. We're not trying to get people to have faith, because what we offer is not faith but truth — truth they can check; we don't urge them to believe it. Truth for practical purposes, for here- and-now, truth as matter of fact as an ironing board and as useful as a loaf of bread… so practical that it can make war and hunger and violence and hate as unnecessary as…. as — well, as clothes here in the Nest. But they have to learn Martian first. That's the only hitch — finding people who are honest enough to believe what they see, and then are willing to do the hard work — it is hard work — of learning the language it can be taught in. A composer couldn't possibly write down a symphony in English… and this sort of symphony can't be stated in English any more than Beethoven's Fifth can be. Also from Stranger in A Strange Land Valentine Michael Smith, the Man From Mars Said: I am beginning to wonder if … I am on the wrong track entirely — that this race must be split up, hating each other, fighting each other, constantly unhappy and at war even with their own individual selves… simply to have that weeding out that every race must have. Jubal Harshaw, mentor and waterbrother replied: If one tenth of one percent of the population is capable of getting the news, then all you have to do is show them — and in a matter of some generations … those with your discipline will inherit the Earth. Whenever that is — a thousand years from now, or ten thousand — will be plenty soon enough to worry about whether some new hurdle is necessary to make them jump higher. But don't go getting faint-hearted because only a handful have turned into angels overnight. Sermon When I was 19, I had a semester in England. I flew there alone and had a reservation at a Bed and Breakfast in London the first night, before taking the train up to Bradford, Yorkshire, where I’d be working. I dragged my heavy suitcases through Kennsington and arrived at the address I’d been given. I approached the front desk and introduced myself. The friendly man at the desk spoke to me. I stood there, momentarily frozen. “I beg your pardon,” I said. He repeated what he’d said – and now there was no mistaking it – I couldn’t understand a word coming out of his mouth. I had a moment of terror. Four months in a country unable to understand anything said to me…. Then I took a deep breath and asked him to repeat what he’d said … slowly. Another man in the lobby barely suppressed laughter. Eventually, I understood a few words and the man confirmed that I was booked at the B&B and I went up to my room. I took some time stretched out on the bed, wondering how I was going to survive the next months in a country where they might as well have been speaking Greek – which I’d never studied. In the meantime, I was a stranger in a strange land. I didn’t want to look anymore foolish than I had to and I didn’t want to be – you know – the dumb American. The Vietnam War wasn’t making us friends around the world and I was clearly a Yank abroad. Stranger in a Strange Land Page 2 of 6 About two weeks ago Wayne Stein came to my office after the service and handed me the book “How to be a Perfect Stranger”. He’d found it at the library, where he volunteers and they were going to get rid of it. He thought it would be a great book for the library of this congregation. It is. It’s an invaluable book that introduces the customs of many cultures and helps people learn how to be patient, humble, and open while traveling in order to learn about the people they are meeting rather than offending or judging them. It’s helpful, too, when considering the multi-cultural setting in which we now live – as a nation and a world. We need to find ways of celebrating the beauty in diverse cultural traditions and living well with the challenge of complex world. Sadly, we don’t seem, very easily, to do that. We do try international foods and even integrate them into our own diets. But we face more complex differences than accents and exotic foods. We need a real guidebook on being a perfect stranger – or even an exemplary host – which are two different sides of the same coin – and such a book could be given to every nation, community, and person, we might find ourselves a very different world than the one which we inhabit now. We are all strangers at times and we are all hosts, as well. When, at the auction this past winter, David Cohen won the sermon and chose the theme Stranger in a Strange Land , based upon the 1961 cult classic by Robert Heinlein, I knew that I’d have an opportunity to explore these ideas. It had been many years since I’d read the book. It’s probably a coincidence that 1961 was also the year of the merger of the Unitarian and Universalist associations into one Unitarian Universalist Association. Since then, the genre of speculative fiction has grown by leaps and bounds. Speculative fiction is a term that Heinlein himself coined to describe writing that projects into the many possible futures – that engages in an exploration of ethics, society, and history in a story form. It’s social commentary and philosophy disguised as fiction. Once the purview of dime novels about gadgets and tough guys – speculative fiction became all that Heinlein could have hoped: 1984, I Robot, Shikasta, the Handmaid’s Tale, and most famously on TV with Star Trek. Stranger in a Strange Land introduced Valentine Michael Smith (or Mike as he was often called) – a human, raised on Mars by Martians – truly an alien. Though human his mind was shaped by the seemingly sophisticated ethics of Martian culture and his mental powers – his ability to do telekinesis, to stop breathing for long periods of time, to strengthen his body, to pay deep attention are all a result of Martian training. The quintessential outsider – he arrived on Earth without any earthly context - no preconceptions about the culture. Far from the sinister aliens of “War of the Worlds” or “The Day the Earth Stood Still” Mike was a good soul who wanted to bring peace to the world. He emerged from Heinlein’s typewriter and gave millions of folks in the 1960’s a model for looking critically at their world. Mike’s entry into the world of humans was tough. His passivity and good nature were mistaken for some sort of backward, wild boy syndrome – as though he’d been raised by wolves. He couldn’t understand the human world and they couldn’t understand him. How many of you remember Grok? To Grok is a Martian word that means to drink – but it’s more than that. It is to drink in as in beauty – to drink in a sunset or the beauty of your sweetheart. To Grok is to understand and something more. Throughout the book word is used over and over but cannot be defined – because it cannot be Stranger in a Strange Land Page 3 of 6 translated from the Martian. It’s consciousness, understanding, compassion, connection, interdependence all rolled into one. In an effort to explain Mike says “You grok. I grok. The grass under my feet groks in happy beauty.” We have a marked shortage of grokking in the world. From people to nations there is often a divide that prevents people from simply understanding one another – much less grokking. You’ve felt that divide – it might be over religion – it might be over politics, religion. The other person can’t grok what you’re telling them and you can’t grok what they‘re saying. And more – somehow you fail to grok one another. I admit I watch the Daily Show and love it. At the same time I know that it doesn’t promote grokking – any more than conservative humorists and commentators do. There are countless programs on tv and radio that seem to devotedly promote divisions and misunderstandings – that promote the defense of a point of view at all and any costs. When President Obama was elected, it was on a platform of unity – reaching across divides to mend our fractured union. But it’s taken little time for the static of division to crowd the airways. When I asked Dave what he wanted from the sermon on Stranger he said: it reminded him of the gulf between our religious movement and other religious movements. He spoke of his frustration with the frozen channels of communication that prevent real communication between people.

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