sunlight and abner kneeland

i had something resembling a panic attack this morning when i woke up to a room filled with bright sunlight. i thought i must be, like, 9:30 already and thus i was late for church. no. it was 6. ::relief:: but yay! for sunlight in the mornings. makes the whole waking up thing much easier.

guess how much i feel like going to work this morning? yep. you got it. but... well i'm a little curious about the sermon. this month, the UU general assembly is happening in boston so we have a special UU theme today. what i'm curious about is this abner kneeland guy. he was an early american UU and apparently was the only person ever jailed in the US on charges of blasphemy. the e!m said she's going to talk about him today. so, our special sing out! songs are how can i keep from singing? and flying free. the first is classic and a good arrangement except for the last page which suddenly goes wacky and has a big, minor 'amen' for no reason i can understand. i tried to cut it last year but the choir was sad so i gave up and let them sing it. the latter is cheezy, barfy don besig music that they love and know well so it gave us time to work on the mozart at rehearsal. it's all a balance. for a kickass music service, i can live with some cheezy chestnuts week to week.

things wot i learned in church

hm. just got an e-mail from camillafarfalla in which she frequently refers to me in third person, by the name phin. hm. a bit lj-influenced, perhaps?

i learned some interesting stuff in church today. oh yes. about abner kneeland - the universalist (not UU as i said earlier, as there were no UUs as such in the early 1800s) who was jailed for blasphemy. what was most fascinating was when she read the massachusetts law under which he was prosecuted. basically, it says you go to jail if you say irreverent things about god, jesus or the holy ghost. um. even more interesting? this law came under review in 1979... and was left as it is. it is still the law in this here state. so, what did this guy say? he said god is everywhere and everything is god. and he advocated birth control, interracial marriage, the abolition of slavery... yeah. blasphemy.

so. was a lazy lout today. but i did go to my parents' after church and i got this beeeyoootiful new laptop! wheee!!!! <3<3<3 v. v. happy.

oh, hey, noho kids! when is hominidj coming? are y'all coming east at some point? what's up for the weekend, yo? plans?