Perhaps it was, as the woman who was having her picture taken next to the Weinermobile said, "A chance of a lifetime." I couldn't resist telling her it was my second chance of a lifetime. I saw the Weinermobile in Cambridge many years ago, talked with the nice young couple who were driving it around the country. Good news for friends who saw it then with me. It has been upgraded. It is a different Weinermobile than the one we saw many years ago. Very sleek and Very Plastic. Beautiful yellow and Orange. But, hopefully, you'll see for yourself when I finally get the capacity to send photos.
A bit of information I gleaned from talking with the elderly woman (someone my age, probably) who was having her photo taken by her husband as she stood next to the Weinermobile. She had seen an article in the local paper, which I missed, saying the Weinermobile was in town. It is being driven this year by a woman and, obviously, a man, from Sarasota. The Oscar Myers' logo is on the side. It is a fancy machine.
I'm told there is a long waiting list of couples who want to drive the Weinermobile around the country. The term is one year, then another couple gets to do it. The young man who came out of the house it was parked in front on ( terrible grammar), wasn't talking. Wasn't talking to the woman. He was talking on a cell phone. No young woman was seen.
Skip opted not to have his photo taken next to the vehicle, so I drove on after taking this elderly woman's photo and a front and rear view of the vehicle. As I drove over the Stickney Point Bridge I looked in the rearview mirror and there was the Weinermobile a number of cars behind us. I pulled into a handy parking lot, took a photo as it passed and got another photo from the rear in traffic before it sped on down the Tamiami Trail. Never to be seen again that day. (Photos to follow, I hope, I hope)
There is so much going on here I hardly have time to report on tennis, the pool, the birds, the residents of Sun Rise Cove. the other Floridians and the Tourists. To say nothing of world events, politics and religion.
I'll say a little something about religion before I race out to fax my completed Continuing Education Answer Sheet to where ever it is supposed to go, so I'm legal. Our friend Al Carter, President of Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs lives here in Sarasota in the Winter. Skip is, of course, the Treasurer of Union Chapel. We see Al at First Congregation Church near Bahia Vista when we go. Well, the tennis Round Robin is on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday mornings. 9:00 a.m. until around noon, although a number of people crap out before noon, which gives me a chance to play with the "Big Buys." the better players. Better to play with and against the Better Players before the tournament, rather than for the first time in the tournament. Something that has happened to me in the past and it isn't the best feeling.- trying to figure out how to return somebody's serve you've never tried to return before during tournament play, as silly as it is.
So, when Al called and invited Skip and me to meet him at church and have lunch with the President of the United Church of Christ for the whole USA who was the guest preacher last Sunday, I knew what my answer had to be. NO. I had to keep my commitment and attend the tennis round robin here at Sun Rise Cove.. Besides, as I mentioned to Skip who couldn't believe I wouldn't attend the lunch, what would I say to the President of the UCC church? I wouldn't want to sit and smile and be passive. I've done enough of that. I wouldn't want to be a hypocrit. I would want to be honest. I would want to ask President Black a few questions or perhaps tell him some of the things that bothered me about organized religion, Christians in particular. Not that he hasn't heard it before. "The Opiate of the People." etc.
As it is, when I attend church with Skip I am really just an observer, not a practitioner. I can't in all good conscience worship some unseen deity, or pray for some unknown being to come down from the clouds and straighten things out. IT ISN'T GOING TO HAPPEN. The question I have for intelligent people, well-educated people, who I know and like, who go to church: How can you believe this fairy tale??????
Of course, the stories were written by men, for the most part, so that tells you something right there. What disturbs me as I sit with the mostly, but not completely, lilly-white congregation here in Sarasota, is this. I look around and I see SHEEP. Starting with "The Lord is my Shepard": everything goes downhill. Rather than be CHILDREN of God or SHEEP led around by some Shepard, wouldn't it be better if each person took responsibility for themselves? Aren't we as humans brought up to be adults, rather than children (of God) or sheep? Wouldn't the whole world be a better place if each one of us tried to make the world a better place. Isn't it our job, once we reach the age of adulthood, 21 years here in the USA, to try to solve the problems that confront us rather than pray for someone else to do it? I could go on, but you must get the point.
Lots of the very nice people I see in church probably think they are respectable Christians. They go to church. They know the 10 Commandments, maybe even some phrases from the Bible. But, what about what they do when they leave the one hour a week they spend in church? Do they act like Christians?
Ghandi said it best and I'm paraphrasing, When asked what he thought of Christians he said. "I've never met one." Exactly. Are you supposed to go to church to be forgiven for your sins and keep commiting the same sins, week after week, year after year. I don't think so.
Seems to me that a lot of the "Christians" I rub elbows with in church are nice enough people to my face, but what do they say behind my back? What would they say if I told them I had some questions about Christianity or organized religion? Would they listen? Would they be tolerant? Would they be open-minded?
Do these people who sit so smugly in church calling themselves Christians treat everyone with respect? Do they love their neighbor, no matter the color of their skin or their ethnicity, or their age or gender or their sexual preference or their opinions or their political beliefs? Do they feed the poor, help others etc. all the Beatitudes, etc. as much as they can? Some of them may, but I don't think all of them do. Yet all of them call themselves Christians. Isn't the definition of being a Christian, being Christlike? Isn't that why Chandi said what he said?
Some of the people I have talked with in church come across as very judgemental, not really a "Christian" trait. I've felt that judgement when I've expressed an opinion that didn't correspond to someone else's opinion. I've also experienced the freedom and joy of being able to express myself with people who are tolerant and open-minded. There is a world of difference between being open-minded and being close-minded. Open-minded means there is a chance for change, acceptance of others, acceptance of new ideas, a chance to get along in the world and leave the world a better place. Close-minded -end of conversation.
I don't think it is our place, meaning my place or your place to make judgements about other people. It is not up to me to say someone or something is good or bad. We all have the capacity to do good things and/or bad things. But doing good things doesn't make us all good. Doing bad things doesn't make us all bad. When we do bad things we have the opportunity to apologize and try to do good things the next time. No one I know is perfect.
But some people try harder than others to rid themselves of bad habits. Some people try harder than others to not say negative things about people. It isn't easy to be generous, to be patience, to be ethical to perseverve, but if we don't try what happens? We continue with the same old habits that don't serve us or others around us very well.
Now you may say I'm making judgements about organized religion. I haven't said that all organized religion is bad. I certainly have not said that all organized religion is good. I'm questioning if acting like sheep or acting like children, letting the Big Guy upstairs who some people call God, do it all, is really helping us advance as a society. Will sitting back and waiting for the second coming bring about World Peace?
Skip went to church and then to lunch with Al and the clergy and the Pres. of the UCC church. I drove Skip to church, came back and played tennis. Everybody had a good time.
Gotta go. FAN
You could have asked, "Do you really believe in this Jesus myth?"
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