Melissa McKeon, President, Board of Management

I love September. It’s the beginning of so many things: school, church, autumn. But this year, I think of September in a different way, as a time when we begin a new year without so many public figures who’ve left us recently, those who left us their examples, their inspiration, and a better world.

I have always loved that Dolly Parton took the deprivation of her childhood and decided children shouldn’t be deprived of the opportunity to read. I love that Gloria Steinem left us the example of how to change the world for the better for women. I love that Wendell Berry encouraged us to find the peace of nature, that we learn to block out the buzz of the world around us. And our recent loss of Annie Dillard reminds me of how breathless I become each time I read her work, and how spirituality infuses every word.

In 1939, the world was on the verge of war and two great people passed away, inspiring poet W.H. Auden, who wrote: “. . . every day they die among us, those who were doing us some good.”

A small voice inside me, when it speaks, is afraid: who will replace these amazing people, these leaders-by-example, in this confusing, upsetting, unloving world we live in now? Who will help us? Who will provide their examples of kindness, compassion, inspiration and energy to fix a broken world? Does anyone know how to replace them?

But I think these heroes we’re thinking of now as they leave us knew something important: we mustn’t look to others. They certainly didn’t. They took their own focused vision for a better world and invested all they were in that vision; they did what they could do for their piece of the world.

Which brings me to my questions for myself, for our congregation:

What is your piece of the world? 

What is your goal? 

And how can we help achieve it?

As we bid farewell to Dillard, and Berry I have been reminded of how many times, because of writers like them, I’ve leaned on literature for the answers, and here’s a bit of poem (not theirs, but beloved just the same):

“You must hold your quiet center,

where you do what only you can do.”

—From A Center, by Ha Jin

I hope UUCW can help you find and protect your quiet center.

Namaste.

Melissa McKeon, Board President