Side Columns and Flexing

August 18, 2026

Beloved:

          My house is wide open to this morning’s deliciously mild air.  I’d love to spend the day fussing over my flowers, staking the zinnias that have collapsed under their own weight.  But emails, projects and people are today’s responsibilities.  Maybe a walk with Birdy in the afternoon.
          Two billy goats boarded a bus in Portland, Oregon and were shooed off by other passengers.  A cottonmouth hid out in the helmet of a high school football player in Arkansas.  He practiced a good while when a teammate saw the snake’s head poking out of the helmet earhole.  Snake and player escaped unharmed.  A truly good person and beloved IU professor emeritus of religious studies passed away at age 92.  Two adopted girls from India lived 100 miles apart in The Netherlands and became friends as teenagers when they met at camp.  Years later in adulthood they discover they are sisters.
          The headlines have just been too much for me, so lately I’ve been skipping to the sweet news first.  And the ordinary news of people living their quotidian lives which, as Donna Ritter* used to say, is funnier, sadder and more interesting than anything that ever happens in a movie or a book.  It sets me in a better state of mind for reading about wars and government corruption, reminding me that even in these times there is cause for hope, and joy, and lightness of heart.
          Headlines’ Despair is real ~ that hopeless helplessness that feels like a backpack full of rocks carried through our days when bad news fills our brains.  Scarcely do we notice at first, the steady drip-drip of that hopelessness into our spirits, until we are paralyzed in faith as well, believing we can do nothing meaningful to push back against the corruption of the day.
          Reading the side columns is not just a feel-good exercise, friends, but the flexing of our faith.  From hope and joy flows the courage and strength required to serve and build the better world for which all good people long.  
          These are the stories that remind us we are not alone, that the world is full of people watching out for one another (and the billy goats) and calling us to join them in the repair of the world.
          I pray this day finds you light of heart, full of joy and leaning into the hope we have in Christ Jesus! 
~ peace & prayers, 
Pastor annette


* Donna Ritter was a long-time member of UBC who loved opera and literature and eating out.  She had lots of kids, lots of books, and little formal education, and she taught me more about ministry than most of my seminary professors. 

Note:
* Come visit our table at Bloomington Pride downtown this Saturday, August 22nd.