Once upon a time in the city of Seattle there was a sleepy little fish market. Customers who wanted service had to catch the attention of one of the big, burly fishmongers lurking behind the counter. It wasn't always easy. The staff seemed to work in slow motion. Picking up cold, smelly fish all day was hard, boring work. But at least it was a job and paycheck.
One day the new owner of the market gathered the fishmongers around him. He asked for their ideas on how they could sell more fish. At one point a young fish guy spoke up, "Hey, why don't we become world famous?"
It was a radical idea, the kind that often comes from someone too innocent or inexperienced to know any better. But the idea took hold and grew.
In the "old days" at Pike Place when a customer placed an order, the fish guys used to walk from behind the counter to pick up the fish, and then hike all the way back to wrap the fish and ring up the purchase. But one day they did something different. One of the fishmongers threw a salmon over the counter to another guy. WHOA! Not only did this cut out all the walking back and forth, but it created a new kind of performance art. Soon all day long fish were being tossed over the counter by the fish guys to the delight of local shoppers and tourists from all over the world. The stall with the flying fish at the Pike Place Market did indeed become world famous, and the fish guys weren't slow and bored any more. Their work had become play. They had a successful business and were even hired by other businesses to teach their workers what the fish guys had discovered.
The fish guys discovered that if they wanted to become world famous, they had to put four ECPs–or Essential Creative Principles–into practice each and every day. These principles are: SHOW UP! CHOOSE YOUR ATTITUDE! PLAY! MAKE PEOPLE'S DAY!
ECPs, Essential Creative Principles-PLAY! BE THERE! MAKE THEIR DAY! CHOOSE YOUR ATTITUDE! The fish guys from the story believe that these principles show us how to create and to live a vision every day. I believe that these principles also embody some fundamental religious truths.
In the flying fish story, the transformation of Pike Place and the beginning of a vision achieved, to be world famous, turns on a moment of play-throwing a fish like one would throw a ball in a game. In that moment of play, of recreation, is the re-creation of a sleepy little fish market with bored, dispirited workers into a spirited, lively, unexpected place that makes the day for its customers and workers.
When Paul McGhee presented the Humor Workshop last year, he listed four parallels between spirituality and humor and play:
A young novitiate in a Franciscan monastery once told me stories about his favorite monk. The monk always wore a habit with sleeves that were also deep pockets and he was always pulling unexpected things out of these pockets while he was conducting worship, teaching, going about his daily life. The story I remember best is about the monk presenting a worship service on the topic of abundance. As he talked, the monk pulled all kinds of fruits and vegetables out of his sleeve pockets. All kinds of things just kept coming out of his pockets, the young novitiate told me, his eyes widening at the memory. More than you thought could be possible, until there were heaps of all kinds of fruits and vegetables. The joy engendered was still clearly visible in the young novitiate–in the delight on his face and in his laughter as he recounted the surprise and pleasure of everyone present at this vivid demonstration of abundance. Holy play. Creative, transforming play. Play for its own joyful self and at the same time for a greater purpose of living his faith in the world.
Be present. Attentive. Mindful. The young fish guy seems to have been fully present with his feelings of boredom and desire for change, when he said, "Let's be world famous."
A message of many religions is, "be there," be conscious of the world around you and yourself in the world. Be aware of your blessings and desires. Be aware of unfairness and despair.
When I was growing up, I used to hear preachers and other spiritual leaders in the church encourage us to be "present to the Lord" and to "take it all to God." This was their way of talking about being fully present in and to our lives. "To take it all to God," one had to be conscious of what "it all" was, the wholeness of who one is–the range of thoughts, feelings, deeds, from shameful to noble that make up who we are.
Those we consider saints or good people are not the people most good by nature. Rather, they are people acutely aware of the human condition, including their own-as aware of their frailities as they are aware of their efforts to live more consciously "the good." I think the Franciscan monk who lived with such playful joy and creativity could have given an ongoing honest assessment of his character that most of us would not be able to match.
What did you notice on your way to church this morning? About your surroundings? About yourself? Did you experience wonder at this "most amazing world" this morning? Did you feel gratitude for life? I'm not sure if the fish guys mean the kind of "Be There" that leads to wonder and gratitude, but that is the kind of "Be There," the kind of consciousness that our Unitarian Universalist religion calls us to practice. The Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh describes this kind of consciousness so well, "I'm being completely myself, following my breath, conscious of my presence, and conscious of my thoughts and actions." "I think the real miracle is ... to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child-our own two eyes. All is a miracle."
What does it mean to make someone's day? I think I commonly use that phrase when someone has made me laugh or smile or has treated me with an unexpected kindness. I'm not sure I have a phrase for when my day has been make by someone in a way that results in my being treated with more justice or in a way that has a deeper impact on my life.
The morning of my first surgery for breast cancer, I had a migraine headache and was quite frightened. I had never been to the hospital for myself except for the birth of my two children. The nurse helping with the pre-surgery procedures was a kind, lively, cheerful, energetic person with a sense of fun, of play about her. I can easily imagine her throwing that fish if she worked at Pike's Place.
There were delays with a couple of the pre-surgery procedures. One in particular they kept having to redo while I waited, seated on a stool, for them to check results and try again. Because I was so sick with the migraine, the nurse was concerned I might fall off the stool, so she stayed with me. She was in perpetual motion, occupying herself with whatever she could find to do in the room. If I made the slightest movement, however, she was immediately beside me. She was keeping a close eye on me. She also talked the whole time, general conversation, stories about her preschooler, and reassuring information about my upcoming surgery. Gradually, I realized that she was concerned about my anxiety and low spirit. Normally I would have acted like her reassurances were working, but I was too sick with the migraine to pretend or to be other than I was at that moment. She could see that nothing she was saying was having any effect on my spirits. She began to slow down her activity around the room and finally stopped a few feet in front of me. She was still for the first time since we'd been in the room together. She looked me in the eyes and said that I had one of the best surgeons; that she knew this because he had been her surgeon during her miscarriages. She continuing detailing the ways in which he was an excellent surgeon while I sat in wonder at our remarkable human condition that allows us to convert our pain into a gift we give to another.
Sometimes the Essential Creative Principles of Play, Be There, Make Their Day, lead to flying fish and the transformation of the workplace. Sometimes they lead to a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables from a Franciscan monk's habit that re-creates a religious vision and inspires a new generation. Sometimes Play, Be There, Make Their Day lead to a transcendent moment in a hospital room that does not remove pain and anxiety but that places along side them the deep inner stillness that strengthens one and re-creates one's inner resources.
We do not choose our feelings. We feel what we feel-anger, hurt, love, joy, embarrassment, disappointment, sadness, grief, wonder. Many of our thoughts we don't choose. They come into our consciousness, sometimes with a seeming randomness, propelled by past experiences, partial knowledge, prejudices. We can and do choose what to do with our feelings and our thoughts-how to express them, what actions to express them.
We, in our Unitarian Universalist faith tradition sometimes give more "thought to our thought" because the use of reason is fundamental to our understanding of how to be in the world and the use of reason is firmly rooted in our history. However, as Rev. Leslie Westbrook says, "feelings are where our religious life is. We need our intellect also, but intellect alone is not where we will find our religion." As Unitarian Universalists we also hold a deep conviction that our living, our actions in the world must reflect our beliefs–"Living Our Faith" is a focus of our faith tradition. For us, choosing our attitude is closely connected with choosing our actions and our words.
The religious question that Choose Your Attitude points to is, "To What Do I Give Witness?' As Unitarian Universalists, our principles and purposes, which we have convenanted to affirm and promote, is one answer to the question for us, "To What Do I Give Witness?." In connection with the Essential Creative Principles we are considering, our second principle, "Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations," and our sixth principle, "The goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all," are particularly relevant. If we want to incorporate "Make Their Day" into our living, part of doing so is a clear call to make our work for justice and peace more present in our consciousness and more integrated into our daily living. We are in continual need of our creativity to do so.
Our creativity. Rev. Harold Rosen writes, "Most of my own personal, spiritual-intellectual heroes and heroines have been elaborators upon this basic insight: that we are called upon in this life to make a contribution to our world. ... I consider myself at my best when able to help individuals or groups catch a glimpse of, or help inspire them to fulfill, their own relatively unique and creative powers. I believe that when education and religion are interpreted universally, they conspire toward this end: the fulfillment of humanity's creative potential." Rosen was inspired, as am I, by the work of theologian Henry Nelson Wieman and his understanding of creative power in the midst of our human condition; his understanding of we humans as co-creators with creation. This is the theologian underpinning for consideration of Essential Creative Principles. Here, for example is a passage from Wieman:
Human creativity consists in bringing together these two sides of discovery, open awareness on the one hand and theorizing on the other–with its analysis, discrimination, definition and experimentation. When these two are united and rightly balanced, human life leaps forward like an open spill-way or a hound unleashed. Life becomes suddenly and marvelously abundant. When these two are brought into fruitful interaction, the richness of the world and the fertility of life is shown to be amazing. The artist, the prophet, the moral and social reformer, the scientific genius, the religious seer, all rise up in numbers and power when awareness of the wide, rich, novel fullness of concrete experience can be combined with the scientific method. But wide open mystic awareness flounders helplessly and blindly when unassisted by scientific method. And scientific method becomes a barren definition of concepts without yielding anything to enrich life when not supported by open awareness.
Make choices, now, for abundant life leaping forward. Rosen writes that, "Co-creative persons manifest the 'dual commitment of faith'–commitment to the best that their tradition and current experience offers on one hand, but a deeper commitment always to the life–giving source of all values: universal creativity." Choose. Choose universal creativity. Choose play, be there, awareness, make their day, choose your attitude, choose to give witness to our Unitarian Universalist principles. Choose to take yourself playfully enough to allow your creativity to surface and to allow the power of that creativity to transform yourself and some part of your world.
Be playful and aware enough to make some one's day during coffee hour. You may want to begin by taking a moment before leaving the worship hall to be aware of yourself. I recently read that sitting with one hand on each knee, palms up make us more open to our feelings, that our feelings flow through us most easily in this position.
If you aren't sure how to make someone's day, I have a few ideas. You can make my day by signing up for the two session "Stages of Faith" class that begins this Wednesday. There is another way you can make my day. Since being called as your Director of Religious Education in 1985, I have been a strong convert to Unitarian Universalist religious education and had an equally strong sense of my ministry here as grounded in my Quaker understanding of and training for ministry. It was a long discernment process to understand a call to Unitarian Universalist ministry for myself. As a congregation, you voted to sponsor me for the Unitarian Universalist ministry in 2000 and I was granted candidate status last year. In addition to working on the next set of requirements for meeting with the Fellowship Committee, I am in the process of forming some new understandings for my ministry, re-creating it as a Unitarian Universalist ministry. I want my re-creation to include the Essential Creative Principles and choose them as I ask you to choose them. I know I will need reminders to play, to be there, to make their day, to choose my attitude. Some of you can make my day today by telling me that you will give me reminders, challenge me, and be co-creators with me in living these principles.
You can make the day of some of our volunteer teachers by going into one of the other buildings during coffee hour, expressing your appreciation for their share in our Sunday morning ministry and telling them that you know that some of the most creative work in our religious community happens with our teachers, children, and teens every Sunday morning.
You can make the day of our Transitional Support Team by finding a member or leaving a note in their mailbox, pledging to attend the congregational meeting on March 18th.
You can make the day of Mary Lanigan by telling her or by leaving a note in the Social Justice mailbox that you will join the Action In Montgomery (AIM) task force and bring your creativity.
You can make the day of many of us by finding a few other folk who would like to play with you in re-creating our church lobby into a more attractive and welcoming space.
Actually, I have more than a few ideas. I have a lot of ideas of how you can make the day for some or many of us, but I'm pretty sure that you do as well. Choose.
And, like a flying fish guy in Pike Place, a monk in a Franciscan monastery, and a nurse in a surgical unit, may you find transformation growing from your choice and may you discover the power of re-creation.