with Rev. Clay Nelson

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Clay Nelson © 8 November 2020

My advertised title for today’s musing was “The elections are over. Phew! Now what?”. After the predictably chaotic US election I think a better title would have been “The elections are over. Phooey! Now what?” But. upon reflection, I am now leaning towards “The elections are over. It was a curate’s egg”.

You may not be familiar with the phrase. I wasn’t before coming to New Zealand. It goes back to a cartoon published in Punch by the Victorian era’s most celebrated cartoonist, George du Maurier, grandfather of novelist Daphne du Maurier. The cartoon shows two clerics having breakfast. One is a bishop and the other is a curate, the lowest of the low in Anglican Church hierarchy. The bishop apologises to the curate, “I’m afraid you got a bad egg. Mr Jones.” To which the curate responds, “Oh no, my lord. I assure you parts of it were excellent!” The joke of course is that if part of a boiled egg is bad, all of it is bad.

with Rev. Clay Nelson

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‘Faded coat of blue’ by John H MacNaughton (1865)

My brave lad sleeps in his faded coat of blue
In a lone solemn grave lies the heart that beat so true
He fell faint and hungry among the valiant brave
And they laid him sad and lonely within his nameless grave

He cried, “Give me water and just one little crumb
And my mother she will bless you in the many days to come
Oh! tell my sweet sister, so gentle, good and true
That I’ll meet her up in heaven, in my faded coat of blue.”

No more the bugle calls the weary one
Rest, lonely spirits in thy grave unknown
I’ll know you and find you among the good and true
When the robe of white is given for the faded coat of blue

Long, long years have vanished, and though he comes no more
Yet my anxious heart will start with each footfall at my door
I gaze over the hillside where he waved his last adieu
But no gallant lad I see, in his faded coat of blue

No more the bugle calls the weary one
Rest, lonely spirits in thy grave unknown
I’ll know you and find you among the good and true
When the robe of white is given for the faded coat of blue

Clay Nelson © 1^st November 2020

It might strike you as odd that I open these musings with a lamentation on what most of Christendom celebrates today as All Saints’ Day. Faded coat of blue was a folk song written by J. H. MacNaughton following Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War. I do so because it is about remembering. Ultimately All Saints’, All Souls’, Samhain, Dia de la muerte, the Buddhist celebration of Obon in Japan, Chuseok in Korea, Gai Jatra in Nepal, Pchum Ben in Cambodia, and Hungry Ghost Month celebrated by Taoists and Buddhists all centre on remembering the dead.

with Rev. Clay Nelson

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Clay Nelson © 25^th October 2020

As I shared last Sunday, there are times when the preacher loses control of his talk, not unlike a wild horse taking the bit in their teeth, hellbent to go where they will. Last week was a wild ride like that. While surprised to have my intended journey interrupted I was not unhappy where my musings took me. I saw some unexpected sights. Even so, I am going to try again to reach my intended destination.

Like many of us I have spent considerable time thinking about how Covid has changed the future both in the short term and for the long term. I don’t have a crystal ball for this task. And if I did, this being 2020, it would malfunction: Filling with smoke before rolling to the floor and smashing into smithereens. What I do have is current events and, more importantly, history to offer insights.

with Rev. Clay Nelson

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Clay Nelson © 18^th October 2020

I find myself feeling a little more at peace this morning. We have once again eliminated Covid 19 from the community. And the election season that felt like it would never end is now over for another three years. Perhaps now life can go back to the way it was, a 2019 normal. Phew! I wasn’t sure how much more I could take, for neither pandemics nor elections necessarily bring out our better angels.

But who am I kidding? We will never turn back the calendar. The way it was has been irretrievably interrupted by a plague of biblical proportions. How will it play out? It is a question that has been explored as long as there have been pandemics.

with Rev. Clay Nelson

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Clay Nelson © 11^th October 2020

New Zealand has a very strong right-to-die movement and polls suggest that at least 60% of us support voluntary euthanasia.

However, the minority is equally passionate in their opposition. From the perspective of a politician, supporting the right to die with dignity is a no-win situation. This issue has been avoided for twenty-five years since a bill presented in 1995 was soundly defeated. This election the issue is before us again as a binding referendum.

with Rev. Clay Nelson

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Clay Nelson © 4^th October 2020

Compared to what is going on in the US, our election season is not filled with much drama or suspense. Thank you, Spirit of Life! Polls suggest that the current government will get another term. The only question is will Labour be able to govern alone or will they need a coalition partner. What suspense there is surrounds the two referendums on the ballot. Considering that each has the potential to be transformational, they have not had nearly the air time of the political decisions most Kiwis seem to have already made.

with Sally Mabelle

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Sally Mabelle © 27^th September 2020

For the past couple of years, I’ve been involved with the West Auckland Women’s Interfaith initiative… this began in the wake of the Christchurch Mosque shootings as a way to break down the barriers of fear between People of different faiths, to form interfaith friendships, where we could realise our essential unity as a human family, despite our differences of belief, ritual, and culture. Visiting some of the women in their various congregations, and I had some surprising adventures.

with Rev. Clay Nelson

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Clay Nelson © 20^th September 2020

I have to confess to envy. I am in awe of anyone able to converse in more than their first language. I have studied six languages but I can’t order fish and chips in any of them, granted two of them are dead biblical languages, ancient Hebrew and Greek, now replaced by modern versions. While I do have a passing ability to read and write in several of them, it might be reasonable to ask why I have bothered.

The most satisfying reason is they reveal a world view and culture that would be closed off to me otherwise.

with Rev. Clay Nelson

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Clay Nelson © 13^th September 2020

Living on an archipelago at the bottom of the South Pacific, the human incarnation of the kiwi, a flightless bird, has evolved into an intrepid traveller eager to fly everywhere and anywhere around the globe. To be suddenly grounded by a virus and having to spend all our time in what Trump labelled a hellhole has inspired our sense of humour to cope with our harsh conditions of incarceration. Checkout #NZhellhole on Twitter to take solace in the many ways to mock Trump with tongue-firmly-implanted-in-cheek examples of how awful it is to be so confined. We laugh but it goes against our basic nature not to travel, explore, learn, and expand our understanding of being human on a fragile planet. It explains our resorting to black humour. One of my favourites is a listing of airport codes we can travel to during the pandemic on Facebook. Instead of CDG for Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, we have DNG for the dining room. Instead of LHR for London’s Heathrow, we have BKY for the backyard. My personal favourite is MNC for mancave.

with Rev. Clay Nelson

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Clay Nelson © 6^th September 2020

Unitarians have a class problem. We don’t talk about it.

While the problem requires an extended conversation, my musing today is only intended to put a crack in the wall of silence. You might ask, “Why can’t I leave well enough alone? Don’t we have enough on our plate supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, welcoming the LGBTQI community, promoting Women’s Rights, challenging neoliberalism, demanding a Living Wage, protecting the environment, protesting the treatment of immigrants of colour and migrant labourers, nurturing progressive religious thought, safeguarding democracy, imagining a peaceful world, and building a Beloved Community?”