Re: [UUPoly-L] TVUUA

[Gordon B <circles705@yahoo.com>]

I know this is a really old thread but I'm still holding out hope.  Is there anyone in east Tennesse that might have recorded the TN Valley UU Church santuary rededication service?  It went out live over Comcast channel 21 on the morning of 8-3.  The internet version is terrible to watch.  Thank you.

--- On Mon, 7/28/08, Wishful Thinking <third_edition@live.com> wrote:

From: Wishful Thinking <third_edition@live.com>
Subject: [UUPoly-L] TVUUA
To: "UUPoly" <uupoly-l@uupa.org>
Date: Monday, July 28, 2008, 7:33 AM

Hi Anita, I share your shock and heartbreak. It seems so ... unfathomable ...
that someone would do such a thing. My heart is heavy for the congregation, for
the families, and for the people involved ... including the shooter and his
family whomever they may be. I suppose we will each project our greatest fears,
and hence personal shortcomings, on the shooter until we know why he did what he
did. I first thought he must be a very angry person. Anger has been a challenge
in my life. I grew up in an angry household ... we were angry at minorities and
affirmative action ... angry at "uppity women" and equal rights ...
angry at, well, the world, or at least at the parts of it that were different
than us. I still wrestle with those demons ... they are more refined now, less
transparent ... and the truth is I have genuinely set aside a lot of the hate I
was raised with choosing instead to embrace diversity in love with joy. I am
inspired by the heroic actions of the member who con!
 fronted the shooter and took the blast of the shotgun to spare others. I
suppose that when I project on this scene, I see myself in the actions of this
brave person as much as in the actions of anyone else. "No greater love has
anyone, than to lay down his life for another." To have such deep love
flowing through one's self ... it brings me to tears. I want to love like
that ... I want to be loved like that. My heart goes out to all of those who in
the moment were unsure about how to react ... if you had the courage to risk
your life, should you intervene? Perhaps your intervention would result in
deaths or injuries that might not otherwise have occurred. And yet, if you
choose in the moment not to intervene I suspect you would be faced the rest of
your life with the guilt of it. I feel so sorry for the children. How on earth
do you ever face down such a horrible event etched into your early life? The
minister, the friends, the extended families ... all who must endure the !
 media circus that follows ... I saw where CNN was asking
"Ireporters" 
for their videos of this stuff ... I am sorry but that is pathetic. It is
pathetic that they would ask and it is pathetic that our culture does not rise
up in outrage with CNN for asking ... but rather waits with baited breath to see
what they get in. 
 
You said in your post that you don't think this is poly ... I suppose I
disagree. Poly is about loving many different people in many different ways ...
about relating to those whom we love in many ways. At its depths, I suppose poly
is about compassion. I believe many of us, yourself certainly included, feel a
deep sense of compassion for all of those involved in this event.
 
Best - Wishful
 
"Sometimes wishing is the wings the truth comes true on. Sometimes it is
the truth that sets us wishing." - Frederich Buechner
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