Friends constantly hear me bragging on our smart and ever-engaging local “UU” community — the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Palm Beaches. Today came another perfect illustration of why. I was looking forward to my friend Marika Stone leading the 10:30 a.m. service. To my pleasant surprise it was a poetry service. And it was marvelous.
Marika offered the mike for others to present classic or original poems, and shared her own. We heard Robert Frost, Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes and other favorites.
It’s impossible to do justice to Susan Gross’ adept delivery of the Kaylin Haught poem she shared. Giving due respect to copyright, I’ll share just this link:
Susan’s emphatic “Yes! Yes! Yes!,” and all the other beauty emanating from the mike, prompted me to rise and share a reminder: of how far our country has come since earlier troubled times — the days of assassinations of our leaders, of my huge crush on Angela Davis, of my buddies and me singing Black Panther Party songs at our high school football and basketball games — and how far we, humanity, have yet to go.
(Two quick promotional notes: Next Sunday: Rev. Carol Yorke on “What Makes A Religious Home?” And with the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan beginning this week, don’t miss my Aug. 28 talk on “What is Al-Islam?”)
— C.B. Hanif
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