Sermons by Reverend Don Beaudreault
COUNTING YOUR BLESSINGS – IT’S NEVER TOO LATE (Thanksgiving Sunday)
Rev. Don Beaudreault
Unitarian Universalist Church of Sarasota, FL
November 20, 2005
OPENING READING:
We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures, for our hearts are not strong enough to love every moment.
Thornton Wilder
On certain mornings, as we turn a corner, an exquisite dew falls on our heart and then vanishes. But the freshness lingers, and this always is what the heart needs. The earth must have risen in just such a light the morning the world was born.
Albert Camus
MEDITATION READING: “Let Us Give Thanks”
Let us give thanks for a bounty of people:
For children who are our second planting, and, though they grow like weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may they forgive us our cultivation and fondly remember where their roots are.
Let us give thanks:
For generous friends with hearts and smiles as bright as their blossoms;
For feisty friends as tart as apples;
For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers, keep reminding us that we’ve had them;
For crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;
For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants and as elegant as a row of corn, and the others, as plain as potatoes and as good for you;
For funny friends, who are as silly as Brussels sprouts and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes; and serious friends, as complex as cauliflowers and as intricate as onions;
For friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as dill, as endless as zucchini, and who, like parsnips, can be counted on to see you throughout the winter;
For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time, and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;
For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils and hold us, despite our blights, wilts, and witherings;
And, finally, for those friends now gone, like gardens past that have been harvested, and who fed us in their times that we might have life thereafter;
For all these we give thanks.
Max Coots
SERMON: “Counting Your Blessings – It’s Never Too Late”
One of the grand history lessons about showing gratitude occurred in Stockholm, Sweden in 1912 when that great Olympic champion, Jim Thorpe, was presented with a bronze bust by King Gustav V. Upon the monarch’s praising Thorpe with: “You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world,” Thorpe replied simply: “Thanks, king.”
Would that more of us on the planet would express such thankfulness with HUMILITY, and I would add: INTENTION and JOY – and not just when the grand events occur, but during those simple but profound moments of ordinary existence.
Unfortunately, we often do the opposite – existing as if life were a ceaseless conflict rather than a fulfillment of possibilities; as something to get through rather than savor. In stressing the negative, our lives are made even less satisfying than they might be. And this is truly, a tragic dimension of our humanity, one that needs rectification if we are to create a more loving world.
Indeed, psychological models describing how human beings perceive and act in the world posit these very concepts:
THE CONFLICT MODEL: that assumes each person is inevitably caught in the clash between two great forces defined as continually acting, necessarily opposed, and unchangeable. (Personality Theories: A Comparative Analysis, Salvatore R. Maddi, p. 18)
Indeed, here is a negative way of looking at the gift of life! Nothing will ever be okay! The attitude that we should count our blessings is anathema, a non sequitur. “Blessings! What blessings?” asks the forever-conflicted person. This is most certainly a “scarcity” model – where there is never enough!
THE FULFILLMENT MODEL: (that) assumes, at the core level, only one great force and locates it within the individual. (Ibid, p. 20)
And as the term “fulfillment” suggests, this is a hopeful, positive attitude. It is one that allows us to count our blessings. It is not a way of perceiving the world without recognizing the bad things that happen (even to good people); rather, it is an attitudinal forward-thrust; a “prosperity” model.
Let me give you an example of each model as we attempt to create a “Counting Your Blessings – It’s Never Too Late” attitude on this Thanksgiving Sunday, a time to remember our national past, so that it might guide us into the future.
CONFLICT MODEL: “The Story of Fulton’s Folly” – the first steamboat
It was a fine day…in the summer of 1807, and everything was in readiness for the Clermont, Robert Fulton's crude and ugly little (steam) boat, to begin her trial trip up the Hudson. Crowds of jeering and incredulous people were on the wharf to laugh at “Fulton's Folly." Sure failure was inevitable…
One story has it that there was even a general shout among those who believed the steamboat would never get underway that proclaimed: “She’ll never start! She’ll never start!” Still…
with considerable puffing and blowing of whistles the vessel started out boldly, the wheels churning the blue waves into foam. A moment of silence; then a rousing cheer. Suddenly the boat stopped. The cheer died away, and the passengers thought the Clermont would never go any farther. It was as they had anticipated. Impatience gave way to open reproach and ridicule.
Fulton begged for a short delay, and in thirty minutes, amid the roaring hurrahs of the spectators, "Fulton's Folly" rode proudly up the Hudson. The impossible had been accomplished.
Then, of course, the same people who believed that the Clermont would never start, were now shouting: “She’ll never stop! She’ll never stop!”
(But) success had been achieved and our hero came hack from New York after having made the trip of 150 miles in thirty hours, to find himself not merely the owner of " Fulton's Folly," but the most famous man in America. http://home.mindspring.com/~railroadstories/rrmmv1n1/crisesin.htm (“Crises Invention’s Drama,” Jackson Harvelle Ray)
Here then is a story that illustrates the inability of some people to ever be grateful – you just can’t win with some!
Laurence J. Peter speaks of such people with this thought:
A pessimist is a (person) who looks both ways before crossing a one-way street.
FULFILLMENT MODEL: “The Story of Thomas Edison’s Laboratory”
There is another way of looking at life – with gratitude, no matter what may befall you. Consider the following about that freethinker who was so inspired by reading Tom Paine’s The Age of Reason, another Thomas, this one with the surname Edison.
In 1886 construction began on Edison’s new laboratory and research facility in West Orange, New Jersey. The new lab employed approximately 60 workers and Edison attempted to personally manage this large staff. The story goes that when a new employee once asked about rules, Edison answered, "There ain't no rules around here. We're trying to accomplish something.”
When his West Orange laboratory complex was destroyed by fire in December 1914, Edison remarked: "I am 67; but I'm not too old to make a fresh start. I've been through a lot of things like this. It prevents a man from being afflicted with ennui."
The story also goes, that despite this loss, as the building was going up in flames, Edison turned to his son and positively asserted that the destruction was an opportunity because all of the mistakes that had made in the laboratory were now burned up and everyone could start again!
Talk about forward-looking! Here is a supreme example of someone from whom the rest of us can learn: to know that life will have its downside – but that we must keep trying to get it right; to improve matters; to hold an optimistic attitude; and to be grateful for the opportunity to “start again.”
Edison, the grand experimenter who knew that in being such, he would make mistakes; but that the mistakes were ways toward success; that the only real “failure” would be not to try at all.
Emerson’s words come to mind here, when he gives this advice:
Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little course, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble."
*****
Which are you: Conflict Oriented or Fulfillment Oriented? Obviously there is lots of room in between these two approaches, and by the very virtue or being alive, we are not precluded from moving around freely. In fact, this dance between seemingly opposite approaches is sometimes unavoidable, if not just plain necessary for a more completely developed human psyche. As Carl Jung, speaking in a similar vein, says:
Conscious and unconscious do not make a whole when one of them is suppressed and injured by the other…both are aspects of life…and the chaotic life of the unconscious should be given the chance of having its way too – as much of it as we can stand. This means open conflict and open collaboration at once
But let us hear of some of the advantages to moving toward the Fulfillment model, realizing with Jung, that there is only so much “we can stand” when it comes to looking at the “unconscious” – or what he would call “the shadow” in its more sinister form.
Think about the positive effects on your health when you intentionally try to think in a positive way. A study at the University of California at Davis confirms this fact. One set of students was asked to keep a diary listing all their daily hassles and complaints; the other set was asked to list their daily joys and successes. The latter group – the so-called “gratitude” one - reported fewer illnesses, and also showed itself to be more emotionally supportive of students who did have problems. (“Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,” Emmons and McCullough, February, 2003)
Certainly one of the classic studies of the effect of negative versus positive thinking (the Conflict Model versus the Fulfillment Model), is a book called Negaholics: How to Overcome Negativity and Turn Your Life Around by Cherie Carter-Scott. Rather than merely jumping on a populist bandwagon in attempting to find the latest American neurosis, Carter-Scott has written a well-documented treatise – and one with some practical methods to overcome this malady (which, of course, is not merely an American invention).
Her introduction to the book sets the premise and can provide us with at least a launching pad toward gaining a “Counting Your Blessings – It’s Never Too Late” attitude:
This book is about a condition that is sweeping the nation called negaholism. Negaholism is a syndrome in which people unconsciously limit their own innate abilities, convince themselves that they can’t have what they want, and sabotage their wishes, desires, and dreams…Self-imposed limitations on happiness, joy, and fulfillment contaminate the consciousness of the majority of the population in subtle ways. The beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions which keep us restricted, constrained, and curtailed have reached epidemic proportions.
*****
Certainly, we can see this in human society in regard to how the leadership in any organization – church, state, business, military, the health field – can make or break the spirit of the entire group, even nation! Repeat the negative often enough (according to the political and psycho/social pundits) and “the people” will start to believe what is being said – even if it very well might not be the truth.
Just read history – or a current newspaper.
Part of that negativity is oftentimes based on what that social critic Robert Nisbet calls “effrontery:
The Latin root of this word tells something of its current meaning: shameless…it is unblushing impudence…Effrontery is the exhibiting for gain of the unbuttoned ego; it is the hypertrophy of brashness, and the embodiment of insolence…associated with an individual’s sense of effortless superiority: arrogance at its zenith.
This statement, written in 1982 comes from Nisbet’s book Prejudices: A Philosophical Dictionary, (p. 93) but it could have been written this morning and must stand as a warning to our nation and its leaders today.
Nisbet’s words illustrate a conflict-oriented model – where life is perceived as one composed of “the other,” the “enemy,” the “evil one” – that which must be destroyed by those who believe that they are the ones who know what is right, noble, just, and accurate.
Such a pervasive, negative, doomsday attitude in our nation – and in the world today – continues to be ‘preached” from various “pulpits” – both so-called “secular” and so-called “sacred.”
Contrast this egomaniacal, superior attitude with that of the humility of our 16th U.S. President, Mr. Lincoln:
During Lincoln’s visit to Richmond after it had been evacuated by the Confederate troops, an old black man approached him and removing his hat, bowed and said, “May the good Lord bless you, President Linkum.” The president took off his own hat and bowed silently in return.
Humility of sprit, not pride of place or position or “victory”; a quiet, noble dignity, not brashness or braggadocio or buffoonery.
Again, it is not to deny that bad things do happen to good or not-so-good people, but it really is about how we perceive such events and act upon them. We can be heirs to those who dubbed John Fulton’s steamboat “Fulton’s Folly” or we can take up the mantle of that noble experimenter who was not afraid to make mistakes or accept his loses, Thomas Alva Edison.
But in taking up the Fulfillment Model of human interaction we must, truly be intentional about it in regard to manifesting sincere humility and joy.
Thanksgiving time can be such a rallying call to these higher ideals – not just a time to reflect on the wonderful aspects of our lives that we already have (like those gifts of various types of friends illustrated by Max Coots) – but a time to shift our negative, “can’t do” attitude to a positive, “can do” one! It is never too late to count our blessings!
And friends, our nation, our communities, our friends, our families need us – each one of us – to do so at this critical time in our history, lest those historic deeds, documents and ideals that go by such names as Mayflower, Plymouth Rock, Magna Carta, Freedom of (and from) Religion, Constitutional Freedoms, Democracy and so many more upon which this America, our America was firmly established, become a “house divided against itself”
both here and abroad.Let the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, be our call to such an attitude of gratitude when, speaking of service to others, he affirms:
Do all the good you can
by all the means you can,
in all the ways you can,
in all the places you can,
at all the times you can,
to all the people you can,
as long as ever you can.
And so, I wish you and yours, a very Happy and Fulfilled Thanksgiving!
CLOSING WORDS:
Best of all is it to preserve everything in a pure, still heart, and let there be for every pulse a thanksgiving, and for every breath a song.
Konrad von Gesner