Why did Thoreau Leave Walden Pond?
© Rev. Ted Tollefson June 19, 2016
WHY did Thoreau leave Walden Pond?
WHY am I leaving this beloved UU Society?
1. Why did Thoreau leave Walden Pond?
Let's talk about Thoreau first,
my mentor in walking, wondering and writing since my late teens.
If you look at Walden ("Conclusion" paragraph 19)
the answer seems clear enough
he had "worn a path" from his cabin to Walden Pond;
he had "more lives to live";
he was ready for something new.
His journal entry from Jan. 22, 1852 goes a little deeper:
"Why I left the woods? I do not think I can tell....
Perhaps I wanted a change....
Perhaps if I had lived there much longer,
I might have lived there forever."
Even a voluminous journal keeper like Thoreau
discovers mystery at his core.
He does not know exactly,
but instead offers a check-list of responses that do not quite add up.
His best biographer of our time, Robert D. Richardson,
adds a significant detail which Thoreau chose to omit:
Waldo Emerson, his neighbor and mentor
who owned the -lot where his cabin was built
ASKED Thoreau to move in with his family
while Waldo was away in Europe
for a long lecture tour.
2. Why am I leaving UUSRF?
I find myself in a similar position when I ask the question:
why am I leaving this beloved UU Society?
after 10 years of joyful and often productive ministry?
I felt it was time for a change.
I felt like both of us have "other lives to live"
and new chapters to write.
I have decided to take the advice I have often given to younger ministers:
don't over-stay your welcome!
All ministry is interim ministry as Rev. John Cummins told me.
Or as Ronald Reagan said, it's better
to leave the stage while the audience is still applauding
rather than wait 'til they start throwing tomatoes.
It's also true that Kristen and I have decided
after 25 years of commuting 74 to 154 miles to work,
that it's time to consolidate our work lives closer to home---in the river and bluff lined arc connecting
Red Wing, Frontenac and Lake MINNESOTA
It's time for our vocation and location
to come closer together.
For almost 40 years, I have lived my life
in 9 or 10 year chapters:
9 years at the WBUU Church
10 years at Mythos Institute
10 years at the UUFN
2 blessed intervals at First Universalist Church Mpls
and now 10 years at the UU Society of River Falls.
All of these answers are true,
but they don't quite add up.
My life, like Thoreau's, is riddled by mystery,
by unknowns, by what we now call "the unconscious".
I could marshal statistics, but mystery abides...
And something else too
that Thoreau and his buddies understood
and on a good day they lived for.
Some of what we have created here together
exists outside of clock-time, contracts and causes---we have shared timeless moments:
when body and soul clap their hands to sing,
when heart and mind conspire
to temper challenging truths with kindness and humor,
when resources are multiplied
because we have shared what we had
---- just like "Loaves and Fishes".
These timeless moments abide in a dimension
where they will resonate for years to come
like a wind-chime stirred by an unseen wind
they will be with us and we can draw strength from them
as long as memory lasts,
as long as hope persists,
as long as our reach exceeds our grasp....
(or what's a heaven for? Tennyson)
This community, Kristen and I,
are facing many unknowns in the months ahead.
We do not know what we will do on Sunday mornings.
As one of my colleagues said: “Once you've been a pickle,
you can't become a cucumber again.” (Rev. Ward Knights)
Once you've become a minister,
it's hard to act like a congregant on Sunday mornings--because there's always something that could be done better
or at least differently.
You do not know yet how you will deal
with the 20+ tasks of ministry
that I outlined two weeks ago in Sneak Preview.
Some things will go undone,
until someone steps forward to pick them up--who will pick up the brush and clean the Men's Bathroom?
Like Thoreau and his buddies at their best
you are self-reliant, good-hearted and resource-ful.
With help from your Ministerial Search Team and Board
you will find your next minister or ministers.
My hope is that you will find a minister
who thrives in the presence of this
self-reliant, good-hearted and resourceful community,
who will work with your strengths to multiply them
who does NOT need you to be needy so they can “save” you.
When Kristen and I come back to visit in a year or so
we will check first with the board and committee on ministry
to see if your welcome mat is still out for us.
We'd like to meet you under the May-pole for another good turn.
Until we meet again in this beloved place
or until you come to visit us
on the Minnesota side of the river
to what the "Thoreau Society" or “Mythos Institute” are doing.
May your resources always exceed your needs.
May you keep an open heart and mind and door
for all the unknowing Unitarian Universalists
who may not realize who they are
until they meet you face to face
and come to rest, for a moment, in this place
where love and truth conspire together
like ice-cream and root-beer combine
to make a root-beer float.
Amen! and Blessed Be!