Happy New Year, everyone. A couple of notes:

There's a site redesign in the works, complete with a new name. We'll only be working eponymously for another day or two. I'll be sticking with MT 2.6 - mostly cosmetic changes, but I think it will make the page a little easier on the eyes, and maybe a little less cluttered.

What I'm not posting about today:
An essay entitled "Light Unto the Nations"... One trend I see among many UU's is to think of the church as a refuge or safe haven for "the rest of us". And that's fine as far as it goes - I know I see the church largely in terms of a home for the spiritual homeless. But that can go too far, and we can become cloistered, and (horrors!) even elitist. A conversation I had with some people in our church recently led me to do some thinking about what the proper role of a church like the UU should be in the larger religious community. But that's a long essay, and I just don't have time to write it. I will when I can.

A presidential power grab. I really have nothing to add. I don't want to bleat for impeachment... but I can't figure out what can be done short of that, to stem the usurpation of power by the executive that seems to have been underway for the last 5 years (4 at least). With nothing else to add to what others have said, there's no point in posting about it. Don't think that means I'm not worried.

A Liberal Allegory of Narnia... I'm still thinking this over... I want to start on it sooner rather than later, but not until I'm through puzzling out exactly how it would work.

But stay tuned... This is going to be an interesting year all around, and we denizens of the blog for a short time longer known as "smijer & Buck" plan to have front row seats and plenty of interesting conversation. We look forward to it.