Hello.

This is my second year coaching the middle school soccer team here in Castine. Each year I am filled with apprehension about the make up of the team, and wether coaching is actually something I can do. All those kids, just looking at you to say something, anything really, so long as it relates to soccer.

And yet here I am. My second year of telling kids what to do. Interestingly, what’s most stood out from year to year is the growth of the players. Fifth graders last year who had trouble paying attention and looked at me like I was speaking Greek when I told them to hustle to the ball, have become easily motivated. Older players seem almost excited to step into leadership roles, whether in the goal or taking a midfield position with lots of running.

We’re all entitled to having off days, but it doesn’t make them any easier to work around. I woke up today without much ambition, despite the fact that we have chickens that need to be slaughtered. To add insult to injury, after we decided not to worry about slaughter, I went downstairs to discover that the toilet is not filling. There’s simply no water in the supply line. To make things weirder, the sink that’s on the same line works fine. We’ve been working thorugh issues with sediment in our well water, and it seems like this is probably related. But we really have no idea.

One of the aspects of my faith that I have the most difficulty with is accepting other people regardless of where they are. As a human, I like to hang with people like me. This is understandable, as tribalism exists in the world as an artifact of the world we have lived in for the last 10,000 years.

And yet, UUism calls me to be accepting of others and to encourage others in their spiritual growth. How can I be tribal and accepting of others at the same time? I think a big part of that practice is being honest with yourself about the biases you may have. I value thoughtfulness and intelligence highly. I do not place as much value on art and entertainment. It is not that I don’t like those things, but someone who orients their life around art make it immediately more difficult for me to find similarities and to enjoy their company.

The gospel of Matthew suggests that Christ’s heaven is an equal opportunity saver. That is, it is not a place where those who worked the hardest receive the best, or those who took and never gave suffer. The parable of the vineyard laborers more or less spells out a universal salvation message for those who would be willing to work, not for how much they work. And, as a parable, that means that those who come to find love and compassion late in life are no less entitled to salvation than anyone else.

I just finished the book The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt and was struck by a line at the beginning of his acknowledgment section. Relaying what a graduate student once taught him he explains that we do not express gratitude to settle debts or sow the ground for favors. We give our gratitude out to make stronger relationships.

I was struck by what a simple, yet profound thought that was. Gratefulness is not a selfish tool we wield to get the upper hand. Humans, while highly rational about a great many things, operate more like bees in a hive than most would give us credit for. Hives need cohesion. Strong relationships breed cohesion. The process is so clear.

Emacs is very powerful. Amazingly so. But it’s so arcane, the keystrokes could take you years to master. So what’s a developer to do?

Enter spacemacs. I honestly don’t know where this idea came from, and my brain is structured in such a way that I could have ever pulled it off myself. But an emacs configured like Vim (thank you evil mode) with discoverable keystrokes … I am always flabergasted.

I’m officially going to be on the ballot in Castine for selectmen this year!

Turned in my nomination papers, and, pending a review of the voter signature, I will be on the ballot along with Patrick Haugen and Buzz Layton. It was a lot of fun talking to folks about the town while collecting signature, and I’m feeling really blessed to be in a community that not only provides me the opportunity to run for public office, but one where my friends and neighbors are actively enthuiastic about my campaign.

I knew that monarch butterflies were born somewhere in the north and then migrated to Mexico for the winter. But today on a hike on Sears Island we got to see a field of wildflowers, predominently milkweed, that was set aside specifically for monarchs to develop in.

Indeed, we saw a few monarch caterpillers, which interesting actually share a color pattern with their flying form.

Our enthusiasm was dampened slightly when the flying insects came out. They specifically seemed to want our lunch and recent traumatic events involving ground hornets meant we had to make a hasty retreat.

An interesting discussion occurred at work today where I was forced to put into words some thoughts I’ve been kicking around for a while on the nature of leadership. None of my thoughts are original, mind you. This one was cribbed from a blog post about leading without authority. I’ll drop the link when I find it. The long and the short of that post was that leadership has only the loosest relationship with authority. In fact, it’s often a sign of dysfunctional leadership which depends on having someone give you authority.

Under what circumstances should we step off a path? When is it essential that we finish what we start? If I bought a bag of peanuts and had an allergic reaction, no one would fault me if I threw it out. If I ended a relationship with a woman who hit me, no one would say that I had a commitment problem. But if I walk away from a seemingly secure route because my soul has other ideas, I am a flake?