Church poetry reading in Alaska, and reflections on ritual, politics, etc.

As an unrepentant pagan, I tend not to attend any kind of church-in-a-building. But the ravens here in Sitka have started hinting around that I should at least try and make some human friends in this town. So yesterday, I decided to check out the local Unitarian Universalists' service.

On the way, I saw the neatest looking church in town -- a presbyterian spot, I think:

When I got to the Unitarians' place at the appointed time on Sunday morning, I was delighted to find a nice group of thirty or so people in some kind of home church building. After a couple of unfamiliar rituals, the bulk of the service consisted of readings of Mary Oliver's poetry. Which was great.

Although this poetry reading didn't really make me any friends -- much to the chagrin of a raven I call Bad Listener, to whom I complain each morning -- the Sunday service did get me thinking about some unique particulars of my own education related to politics.

Like when I tried to start "Anarchist Youth Organization" in 1996 at age 15:

And when the late Paul Wellstone sent me a letter asking for advise on education policy when I was 17:

And when I got a diploma in the wake of my tiny experimental school being shut down due to corruption:

What does one thing have to do with the other? Well, the whole church thing got me thinking about social rituals, and Mary Oliver's poetry got me thinking about how documentation can transform personal rituals into social rituals. This, in turn, got me considering how social media has encouraged the transformation of personal educational and political rituals into explicitly social, lasting things ... all to unknown effect.

Not that any of this is too important, but it has been interesting food for thought while playing this song on repeat: )