Ann Schranz    002-  Curiosity and Binoculars

 

Ann was in Nicaragua in 1977

 

 

Ann sharing the beliefs that are most important to her

 

 

At age 16 Ann gained an interest in birding

 

 

Ann wanted to be a journalist in Brazil, then go birding in Amazon forest on weekends

 

 

Nicaragua was a transformational experience for Ann: Personal, Political, Religious

 

 

Ann was sensitized to issues of privilege and oppression

 

 

Ann's consciousness shifted to all the movements, colors and sounds around her

 

 

Ann could not watch humanity through binoculars

 

 

Lasting and significant change is messy and confusing

 

 

Anyone's life can change in an instant

 

 

Sustaining conversion requires the discipline of curiosity

 

 

Serious religious inquiry is entered from many starting points

 

 

Serious religious inquiry --crawling through the rubble of what we used to believe

 

 

Beauty + Social Justice need to go together

 

 

The quest to combine politics and art, beauty and social justice

 

 

Nicaragua artists most artistic, political, compassionate and resilient people

 

 

The cultivated discipline of impartial curiosity

 

 

UUs draw attention to what is outside our view of life

 

 

UU congregation is a place to arouse curiosity

 

 

UU encourages discipline in our curiosity

 

 

We do not want to only be around like-minded people

 

 

Disciplined curiosity is the approach of scientists, mystics, humanists, theists

 

 

Approach to truth =allow disciplined curiosity to guide us

 

 

Disciplined curiosity supports beauty and social justice

 

 

UU is not a social club for religious and political liberals

 

 

Religious cousins of UUs is the United Church of Christ

 

 

United Church of Christ uses a comma = revelation is not sealed

 

 

Never put a period where God intended to put a comma

 

 

UUs do not value questions over answers

 

 

UUs ask many questions and listen to many answers

 

 

Muslim Sufi Poet Rumi = "There's hidden sweetness in the stomach's emptiness"

 

 

Rumi = "Every moment a new song can come from the fire"

 

 

UUs require all the punctuation marks to describe who they are, including accents in foreign languages

 

 

UUs are shaping the future which requires finesse

 

 

If all we have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail

 

 

May we care so much about answers that we ache

 

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