"We're
All Swimming To The Other Side"
I was driving my car when I heard this NPR story about folk singer Pat Humphries. The narrator mentioned how a reporter overheard Pat at a folk concert and her ears perked up as she listened to the words. Pete Seeger, renowned folk singer, had a similar reaction. I just wondered how we could get her to sing at the 333 Coffee House. Her whole song embodies Unitarian Universalism and brought tears to my eyes. Later, Max told me she had already played at our coffee house and would be coming again in January next year. He offered to teach the song to the congregation if I wanted to incorporate the song into a sermon. Needless to say, I agreed.
As I’ve said goodbye to so many people over the last several weeks, I am reminded of what we take with us whenever we meet and connect with one another. I remember how the Catholic church bells chimed during my first sermon when I quoted John Donne, “Don’t ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.” Though it was very funny when it happened, it sounded a reminder about how we are all connected in very deep ways. Over the last twelve months, your faces, your families, and your stories populate my waking life and sometimes, my dreams. You are a part of my experience and I am a part of yours. Our memories will fade and become shadowy. I firmly believe that once people are connected, they live on in our lives and their influence remains with us forever. That John Donne quote and this song are the basis of this sermon—we are all on a journey with many common bonds. Yet, we have different approaches as we swim to the other side.
As I listened to Humphries’ song and reread the words, I noticed that the chorus, reprinted in your order of service, uses the pronoun “we”. However, the first two verses use “I”—“I am alone and I am searching”, “I am gathering the tools together”, “I’m preparing to do my part”. I thought what this has to do with us as Unitarian Universalists. We UU’s are perhaps the most “rugged individualists”. Our transcendentalist forebears like Emerson and Thoreau emphasized the individual, but also looked at the ways we are connected to nature and to the stream of life. This perspective of balancing the individual and the community is reflected in the “swimming” song.
Rev. Peter Tufts Richardson, a recently retired Unitarian Universalist minister, always knew he would write a book about the “harmony” of the world’s religions and how we take different approaches to understanding our spiritual journeys.[1]
His four spiritualities parallel swimming strokes. Some people prefer floating on their backs; others do the breaststroke, the sidestroke or an energetic butterfly. Richardson links together the Myers-Briggs personality types with our natural inclinations for four different kinds of spirituality. His four ways are the Journeys of Unity, Devotion, Works and Harmony. The journeys are not restricted to particular religions for one can be a practitioner of any of the world’s faiths and feel most at home in any of the four pathways.
The path of Unity calls to those who search for organizing principles in the universe. They primarily use their intellect to understand the world and spirituality. The Devotional path is one of direct experience through spiritual practices, using stories or setting things in well-ordered or ritual ways. The Journey of Works primarily appeals to those loyal to the institutions they serve. They are the realists who understand nitty gritty details and are adept at problem solving. Those on the Journey of Harmony are interested above all in building a spirit of world community. They are usually the dreamers and the idealists who have a vision of world peace and harmony.
We may have one primary spiritual lens, but we can increase our understanding and compassion if we realize that others have orientations quite different from our own. We also are drawn to live out our principles or actualize our faith along a vast continuum. This concept sheds some light on how we all swim to the other side –some swimming straight to the other shore while others take the circuitous route, gazing at the scenery along the way.
Part of the first verse of “We’re All Swimming To The Other Side” relates to the Journey of Unity: “I am alone and I am searching, hungering for answers in my time. I am balanced at the brink of wisdom.” But the second half, “I move forward with my senses open, imperfection be my pride. In humility I will listen”, uses a Devotional approach. We take in the world and understand it through our own senses. Slowly, through insight and experience, we see the fine connections between us.
Both the Journeys of Devotion and Works emphasize serving individuals and organizations as in the words, “I am gathering the tools together. I’m preparing to do my part”. At this point we realize that we have a responsibility to share our gifts and our insights—to make this world more harmonious and whole. Though we began our search alone and will always be on our own to some degree, we share our journey with others for we are all part of the interdependent web, our seventh principle.
Though many others have paved the road before us, it is up to us to keep the vision fresh and alive. Someone recently told me that an inscription on the statue outside the national archives, “Past Is Prologue” is from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The other statue quotes Confucius: “Study the past, if you would divine the future”. We have so many guides from the past who can help us negotiate our swim to the other side.
The last verse brings us full circle as we understand that our gifts have always been with us, but it is only through life experiences and our interactions with others that we can realize the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all, our sixth principle.
It is the chorus that speaks to the unity in our diversity—the things that bind us together, the yoke of our common experience of living. The UUA has a Commission on Appraisal that studies various issues of importance to UU’s. This year, they’ll study what unifies us in spite of our pluralism. I think that this song gives us some clues—simple things like the fact that we all live beneath the Big Dipper, that we acknowledge that some people have many resources while others have very few. We share this world with many creatures. We are blessed to live on this earth, full of beauty and mystery.
Rabindranath Tagore wrote the beautiful poem, Gitanjali, which I read earlier, with images of joy and thanksgiving. Yet, he is aware that things must end for new life to come forth. This seems appropriate as I prepare to leave—this internship must end so that the new intern can arrive and her new ministry will begin. Tagore knew about endings and loss for he lost his wife, his daughter, his best friend, father and son within a five-year period.[2] How is it possible for such joy and celebration to come across in a person who has gone through those heartaches? Tagore had a vision where he experienced God in his relationships and in all of nature. He found this connecting tissue within himself and all around him. It worked to heal his pain. He could write the most beautiful poetry because he believed in the continuity of life and our connections to one another as he journeyed to the other side. Something sustained him throughout the pain and over to the other side. We can all experience that depth of love—“loving spirits will live together” as we swim to the other side.
What a journey we took together this past year! We watched the meteor showers under the great Big Dipper. We didn’t always enjoy the “same rain” because we’ve been in a drought much of the year. We “cherished the beings that we live beside” in our blessing of the animals. And I know one thing for sure—though we will all have lonely, heartbreaking times, we are “loving spirits” that lived together and we will always be together in spirit. Through our services and groups, through times of tragedy and loss and joyous celebration, we have forged a connection that is the essence of our liberal religion. We are tied together in this gracious interdependent web—part of a mutual network that feeds our souls. Though I say “goodbye” to you today and may not see many of you again, we are all linked because of our common experience. “Loving spirits will live forever”, my friends, for “we are all swimming to the other side.” Blessings be and amen.
Go back to the Sermons Archive or the UUCA Home Page
Send Mail to the Church.