Some Writings
Unitarians and Universalists draw inspiration from a vast collection of writings and texts. These include the Bible and the works of Unitarian and Universalist writers, but go well beyond -- we seek and find inspiration from a vast collection of writings that wise men and women have created and handed down over the centuries. On the pages that follow are a few passages from some of these writings, a small sampling.
(Note: * indicates a Unitarian or Universalist author)
My Symphony
To live content with small means, to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich.
To study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly, to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart, to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never.
In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common.
This is to be my symphony.
William Henry Channing*
We as Creatures of the Earth
Humanity is an infant species, newly evolved from life’s web. And what a magnificent species we are; we can look out and feel spiritually uplifted by the beauty of a forested valley or an ice-coated Arctic mountain, we are overwhelmed with awe at the sight of the star-filled heavens, and we are filled with reverence when we enter a sacred place. In the beauty, mystery and wonder that our brain perceives and expresses, we add a special gift to the planet.
But our brash exuberance over our incredible inventiveness and productivity in this century has made us forget where we belong. If we are to balance and direct our remarkable technological muscle power, we need to regain some ancient virtues: the humility to acknowledge how much we have yet to learn, the respect that will allow us to protect and restore nature, and the love that can lift our eyes to distant horizons, far beyond the next election, paycheque or stock dividend. Above all we need to reclaim our faith in ourselves as creatures of the Earth, living in harmony with all other forms of life.
David Suzuki, “The Sacred Balance”
The Independence of Solitude
What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
Ralph Waldo Emerson*, “Self-Reliance”
The Mystic Stirrings of a Common Life
Ours is a faith taught by no priest, but by our beating hearts: faith to each other; the fidelity of men and women whose pulses leap with kindred fire, who in the flash of eyes, the clasp of hands, nay, in the silent bodily presence, feel the mystic stirrings of a common life that make the many one.
George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
To Live Deliberately
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and to be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.
Henry David Thoreau*, “Walden”
Science and Religion
Science and religion, religion and science, put it as I may, they are two sides of the same glass, through which we see darkly until these two, focusing together, reveal the truth.
Pearl S. Buck
Our Religious Education
The role of liberal religious education toward the end of the twentieth century is to help individuals of all ages experience connections, compassion, and creativity. We need to understand our connection with our liberal religious heritage: the Jewish and Christian roots from which we spring; the Eastern religious traditions that have nurtured us; the insights of philosophy and science that have expanded our knowledge; and our mystical sense of union with one another, our planet, and the universe. We need to feel compassion and act upon it; to empathize with the struggles and joys that are a part of every life journey; to transform oppression into justice; to persevere on behalf of what is right. And finally, we need to encourage and unlock the creativity in each of us in order to utilize fully our individual gifts and, in so doing, to find new solutions to complex problems.
Rev. Makanah Elizabeth Morriss*, "Univertarian Universalist Handbook" (2004)
