My mother’s name will only appear in texts or in conversations because she was my mother — the mother of a man who inexplicably became famous. I want you to know, however, that my mother was a great artist, a powerful artist who poured creativity and ingenuity and brilliance into raising her children, infusing us all with imagination and the ability — with no paranormal influences — to remove ourselves, to lift our bodies and our minds, from locations and situations that were brutal. That is art, and if we studied people like my mother, there would be shelves of books on her work with her children, her friends, her small circle of enchanted friends. Tennessee [Williams]’s mother was like this. I bet yours is too.
We walk among art each and every day — not just the music and the buildings and the offerings of professional so-called artists. Examine a life — any life — and you’ll find the artist at work. We survive by so many means, by the crafting of characters, the stringing together of words and biographies that get us from nine to five; from humiliation to humiliation; from sunrise to sunset. Study those artists as well. And ask all of us so-called professional artists how we might encourage everyone to build and honor that artistic impulse within all of us.
The artistic suicide is not only the drug-addicted actor; the alcoholic singer; the writer who makes bad choice after bad choice. Artistic suicide, like charity, begins at home. We kill the artists within ourselves in the quest to get by, to walk within the lines, to mind our manners.
Write about that.
— Marlon Brando, in conversation with James Grissom, July 1990
We are currently having a full service on the first Sunday of each month, and a discussion on the other Sundays. We have completed Exploring, volume 2 of Building Your Own Theology, and this Sunday are continuing our practice of discussing a different short reading each Sunday.
We will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, after which members will guide each other through the discussion. This week’s reading is from James Grissom’s interview with Marlon Brando in 1990.
All are welcome to participate.
** NOTE: ZOOM will not be available this Sunday. **
Please Join us for Worship.
Our services are Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on ZOOM and in person at the Progressive Women’s Association Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse.
Children are welcome. The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park in the lot on the west side of the building; DO NOT PARK in the Washington Avenue pay lot. Please enter through the door at the back on the west side of the building.
Note: ZOOM will not be available this Sunday.
A coffee hour, a time for discussion and socializing, follows from the end of the service until 12:00 noon. More about us.
If you are a regular attendee, we have added you to our Google Group if we had an email address. If you have not gotten a group email already, please email westforkuu@gmail.com so that we can add you to the group, which we will be using for staying in touch with each other. Public announcements will continue to be posted here on the website and on our Facebook page and Twitter account, as usual.
Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302
West Fork Unitarian Universalists 