August 5 – Margaret English Changing Laws vs. Changing Minds
After a tour of Southern landmarks, particularly Civil Rights museums, the clear lesson is that one can achieve legal victories without changing hearts and minds. It is easy to feel satisfaction after a law is changed, but implementation of the spirit of the law is a never-ending battle.
August 12 – Cara Chamberlin Foreign Women
Poet CaraChamberlain will read original poetry from her book Lament of the Antichrist in a Secular World and Other Poems concerning women in the Bible and discuss how trying to understand these characters can, even for the layperson, help us understand female contributions to patriarchal structures. We don’t have to be religious scholars to see that women’s subordinate roles in many societies, no matter how limiting and cruel, have also given them great insight. Simply by being contrary, a woman can open spiritual and cultural pathways that would otherwise be impenetrable.
August 19 – Donna Davis Grief & Grace: Poetry on the Spiritual Path
That we are in control is an illusion, a fiction, albeit a somewhat helpful one. As we all acknowledge –logically, at least –things can (and do) fall apart in a (literal) heartbeat. Buddhism offers help along the path; so does poetry. Donna Davis offers a bit of both of these graces that are available to all of us as we navigate the rough waters of grief.
August 26- Dr. Victor Ashear The First UU Principles Expressed in Psychotherapy
Psychologist Dr. Victor Ashear will give an overview of the contributions of Dr. Carl Rogers to the field of psychotherapy. Ashear will show how these contributions are based on our UU first principle. Ashear will also show how Rogers’ contributions can be used by all of us in our daily lives as a spiritual practice.