Cup of Joe, January 24, 2025

Three things, dear friends:

1. A call to advocate for a refugee family stranded by Trump.
2. Giving our thanks to the land and the trees at the site our future home.
3. Connecting with the Saratoga Interfaith Alliance.

You’ll find info on those three things below and by following the links above.

I am off this Sunday, but please attend the service to hear stories from Maggie Fronk, the CEO of Wellspring. She has been doing amazing work in this community for a long time and it’s been far too long since she’s been part of one of our worship services.

With the official start of the again-President’s administration, there has been a blizzard of executive actions and other outrages.  Be mindful that you give your attention to what is worthy of your attention, as the Lutheran minister Nadia Bolz-Weber prayed last Monday.  It is important that we advocate for justice and kindness, but I believe that part of strategy of the authoritarian occupying the White House is to overwhelm us.

My current news-intake strategy is to listen to the podcast Up First from NPR.  I also often check out The Morning from the New York Times. This gives me a summary of what’s going on and then I can decide where I actually want to go deep.

Be sure that up at the top of your to do list is taking advantage of opportunities to connect with others and remember what your values are and where you find inspiration.  I hope that my weekly Braver/Wiser session is an opportunity for this.  Our next meeting is this Wednesday at 8:30. It has not been well-attended lately, so if this is something that sounds interesting to you but the timing of it is inconvenient, please let me know.

And, if there is something other sort of group or opportunity that you are looking for but not finding, I would love to have a conversation with you and learn more about that!

Take good care of yourself! Your wellbeing is important to me.

Love,

Rev Joe

P.S. If poetry can be a balm to you, take a look at this poem written by the rabbi Ariel Tovlev last November: “The Birds Don’t Know.”  I learned of the poem from the Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg here.

P.P.S. Did you spot our own Julie Holmberg and Marigold in this article about the Dr. King Celebration weekend?

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1.

Among the flurry of executive actions taken by our again-President is an order that is stranding people who were following legal pathways to immigration. Lucy Manning has been participating with the Saratoga Area Welcoming Circle (SAWC), a group formed specifically to sponsor a refugee family coming to and living in Saratoga Springs.

In line with our congregation’s previous resolution to be a sanctuary congregation and the many resolutions affirmed by delegates to the UUA General Assembly, our congregation and our Social Justice team has been supporting the SAWC.  An Afghan family that we were working with had their plane tickets in their hand and were scheduled to arrive here on February 7th.  Now, their flight has been canceled because of Trump’s executive order to “pause” the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program — who had already vetted and approved this family’s application for refuge.

The Social Justice team is urging us to contact our representatives to advocate for this family in particular and for refugees in general. Learn more about the family and how to take action here.

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2.

Yesterday, about a half-dozen of us were able to go to the site of our future home and thank the land and the trees there before the clearing of the land — which began today!

I opened with some words of E. E. Cummings:

And then, I said this:

We come here today to thank this land and these trees for the blessings they give us. The whisper of the wind through their leaves and pine needles. The carbon dioxide they take out of the air and oxygen they give and which we breathe.  The blessing of their simple presence among us. Their reminder to us of what nature is, and the beauty of the natural world.

We have chosen this site for the building of a new meetinghouse for our UU community.  We are glad for this land and we are sad that, in order for us to make our congregational home here, we need to ask the land to give up many of its trees. We need to ask many trees to give themselves up for us.

We proceed with this action with great care and gratitude, determined not to disturb more of this land or to take any more trees than we must.

Our ancestor Henry David Thoreau’s voice speaks to us of the value of trees. He says,

I have been into the lumber-yard, and the carpenter’s shop, and the tannery, and the lampblack factory, and the turpentine clearing; but when at length I saw the tops of the pines waving and reflecting the light at a distance high over all the rest of the forest, I realized that the former were not the highest use of the pine. It is not their bones or hide or tallow that I love most. It is the living spirit of the tree, not its spirit of turpentine, with which I sympathize, and which heals my cuts. It is as immortal as I am, and perchance will go to as high a heaven, there to tower above me still.

Spirit of life and love
Spirit of nature and the land
Spirits of the trees

We honor the interdependent web of all existence.  We revere the great web of life and humbly acknowledge that we are but one small part woven into a larger sacred whole.  

We honor the history of this land.  We recognize that this land was long cared for by the Mohican, Kanienʼkehá:ka (Mohawk) and Abenaki people who regarded this land as sacred.  We acknowledge that these people were forced from their ancestral lands by colonial settlers and removed to reservations far from their homes.  We acknowledge that many indigenous people did remain or return to the area to live their lives.  

We pour out this water from our congregation as a sign of our promise to protect and care for this land.  

We promise to nurture this land so that nature thrives here.  We promise to make this place an example of how people can honor the earth, the land, the trees and the critters who fly, run, crawl and creep here, and build a home.  We come to live harmoniously here, an example of balance and mutuality.

And then I sang a song written by Dan Berggren, “Birch Are Soprano”

Birch are soprano
Balsam are alto
Cedar sing tenor
With white pine on bass
Birds take the solos
Duets and trios
Wind is conducting
To vary the pace

Atonal cicada with river polyphony
Woodpecker counterpoint drumming along

Three moons per season
Four movements a year
From morning to evening
A never-ending song

I closed with these words:

May the song of this land and these trees be never-ending in our hearts and minds and spirits.  

To this land and these trees, we give thanks.

May we live into our promises

to nurture this land and

to proclaim and honor the sacredness of this world

 

So may it be. May we make it so.

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3.

The Saratoga Interfaith Alliance hosted a potluck event on Monday, January 20, 2025, following the close of the events of this year’s Dr. King Celebration weekend.

We shared some hopes and made some new friends, and we put our heads together to brainstorm ways we can collaborate and things we can do in support of our shared values.

One of the things that we want to be able to do is be in touch with each other, especially in the event of any situation requiring urgent action.  To that end, we set up a WhatsApp group.  To join it, point your smartphone’s camera at the QR code on the image below.