June Herold's Blog (44)

I've written a new post on my www.thenewuu.com blog about my experience during the recent storm and heat wave. I also provided a grant work update as well. This external blog is where I write about UUism in general and particularly my grant work. I love this congregation and am grateful for the chance to lead its digital ministry.

On Cape Cod, people talk about Aqua Cultcha quite a bit but right now the only thing you can hear is Peeper Cultcha. And  you can't get a word in edgewise.

They humble me.

They even drown out stragglers at Guapo's, a roadhouse-like establishment that comes in handy. It's close to the house and also major bike trails. We're staying in a home that is surrounded by marshes and ponds, with cranberry bogs filling in here and there. When we're not entertained by the peepers, we hit…

Hello from Cape Cod! Heather and I spontaneously decided to experience the Cape decades after all the partying we (well, really me mostly) lived through in Provincetown. We decided to take advantage of off-season rates to see what it's like living in a remote place.  

Meanwhile, a Spanish translation of sermon I requested greeted me upon our arrival. It's the one Rev. Peter Morales, the UUA president, gave at UUCA earlier this year that talks about the future of our faith and the…

What really is the size of our congregation?

Social Media Ministry, a 2.5 Year Review

Here is a presentation I made to the professional staff and stewardship committee…

facebook has changed, yet again, how its profiles and pages function and appear. This change is perhapse the most dramatic of all previous so-called improvements and its being forced onto users faster than previous ones.

It's yet another example of the company's arrogant disregard for 100s of millions of individuals. Its only task master is its bottom line, which increasingly is becoming more of a challenge for it to maintain and grow. Given that it is free, it believes it has cart…

Church year 2011/12 has been a milestone of communication for Unitarian Universalsim because of the explosive growth of UU lay and clergy collaboration in social media - in particular in facebook.

facebook has been a convenient channel to aggregate UUs worldwide. But the level of involvement of UUs is finally at critical mass, IMHO.

facebook has been a convenient place for many of our members to stay up to date on what is published and discussed on uucava.org, our online…

Jill Herndon, fellow UUCAer and quilter extraodinaire, gave me one of the best 50th birthday presents I could hope for: She taught me intro level quilting! I've loved quilts for a long time and wanted to make them myself. Only recently have I had some time to learn how. 

Jill agreed to…

While waiting recently for a flight to California, I tweeted: “Is there a bookstore in San Fran with a great poetry section?”  A response: “u do know that the city is The City of Poets? Whaddabout “City Lights?” 

My heart had skipped a beat, literally.…

You can read a summary of it here.

And download the full LGBTQaginghealthreport.pdf

Not sure who started the emails, but thank you Louise Van Horne for sending me email that calls for a boycott of products made by Koch Bros.  The list of consumer products in that email are made by Georgia Pacific, which the Koch bros. bought in 2005. 

Koch Bros.--Two brothers = $35 billion in wealth. Major, major backers of the Tea Party and all things ultra conservative. They are attacking …

Hi. I've given Rev. Peter Morales's white paper, Congregations & Beyond, some thought and have written a blog post on it. I haven't published it here, however. It's written with a nod to my UUFS grant-sponsored work and therefore in the blog that occasionally discusses that work. 

You can read…

Digital death and digital estate law are in their infancy as distinct "industries." The first professional conference to discuss the issues was last year in the UK. I have been thinking about death and online life since 2004. I was at AOL at the time, and we were brainstorming how to present cloud technology to AOL members. It struck me that even in the early 2000s we were encouraging people to put insurance information, health information, financial portfolios and other sensitive personal…

UUGrowth.com shares the following: 

We will not have a text of this sermon. So I'll offer a summary here and hope that fellow members in attendance comment at the bottom of this blog to fill in gaps and add their thoughts.

Summary and slides from the service. Photos are by UUCAVA member Todd Parola.

Rev. Mark Kiyimba, minister of the Unitarian Church of Kampala, preached a moving sermon that traced the foundations of his ministry from the days of dictator Idi Amin - who killed his father - to the…

Dec. 15: Among the patches of protesters of all sizes, ages and shapes of Oakland-area citizens, I met a quilter, Anne Marie, who has been experiencing OWST from a few different perspectives. She's felt torn between the moral side to OWST and unintended consequences. A social worker by profession, she works with low-income and poor families who are directly connected to the docks. She's listened to closed-door concerns about lost income. I referred to some of those concerns in my original…

     Visiting the National Museum of Jewish Heritage in Phily today brought memories back of the first digital Santa Claus to reach tens of millions of people. Had I not seen the original sheet music to "White Christmas" at the museum, I'm not sure I would have remembered. Irving Berlin, a Jew, composed the music and lyrics that Bing Crosby and others interpreted into one of the most beloved songs of all time.…

This week I'm thankful for many things: the love of my spouse; my life and its lucky circumstances; fools I know; my nieces; friends; privileges; challenges; virtuous UUs and righters of wrongs. This poem, in particular, strikes a chord right now.  What are you grateful for? 

Starfish by Eleanor Lerman



This is what life does. It lets you walk up to

the store to buy breakfast and the paper, on a

stiff knee. It lets you choose the way you…

For all those facing a 4th quarter finish line with wobbly legs, here's a meditation on what to do when the marathon's over and what to remember when the pace of life quickens in 2012: