Stories about UU mystic, Harry Hollywood - Don't do stupid shit but if you do learn from your mistakes.

 

Don’t do stupid shit but if you do learn from your mistakes.

Harry was in a bar with his buddies having a couple of beers and brought up the story where the Pharisees bring the adulterous woman to Jesus and ask Him if it’s okay to stone her which is the punishment for the crime at the time.

Harry says, “Now Jesus was a funny guy. Nobody can say He didn’t have a sense of humor. The way the story is told, Jesus squatted down  started drawing in the dust. I guess He was buying time while He thought about what to say. So, Jesus finally says, ‘I’ll tell you boys what you should do.’ 

They wait with anticipation and excitement for a stoning and Jesus says to them. ‘Whichever one of you is without sin can cast the first stone.’

The air went out of their lungs and they groaned in disappointment and the story says that they started walking away beginning with the eldest. Now why would that be? Why the eldest first? The answer to that question can wait for another time. Suffice it to say now that they walked away one by one.

The woman looks at Jesus and says meekly thinking that her goose was cooked, ‘Where did they all go?’ and Jesus says, grinning, ‘I’ll be damned if I know.’

So the woman says to Him. ‘What should I do now?’

He says, ‘I guess you’re free to go.’

She says to Him, ‘Gee, thanks!’

He says, ‘you’re welcome. Take care. Oh, and don’t do the same shit again.’

She laughs with Him and says, ‘Not in your life.’”

“And so,” says Harry,  “There’s a moral to that story.”

The folks listening say, “Oh yeah, what is it?”

Harry says, “Don’t do stupid shit, but if you do, learn from your mistakes and don’t repeat them.”

Everyone laughed and one of the guys bought everyone another round of beers.

Stories about UU mystic, Harry Hollywood, Mindfulness instead of mindlessness

Harry was asked to give a talk about habits. He started the talk with this story.

There once was a fishmonger named Johnny who had been scaling, gutting, and fileting fish on the docks since he was eight years old. At the time of Harry meeting him Johnny was 37 and had been fishmongering for 29 years. Harry complimented him on his knife skills by saying, “The knife almost seems like a sixth digit on your right hand.”

“Yes, indeed, says Johnny, “it’s like I came out of my mother’s womb with it attached to my right hand.”

“What happened to the pinkie finger on your left hand, “asked Harry?

“In my youth, I was going too fast, and whoops along with the fish head off it goes, clean as a whistle, and nothing to be done at that point, but stop the bleeding,” says Johnny.

‘And what about that scar on your left forearm,” asks Harry?

“The floors they get slippery,” says Johnny, “and with my rubber boots and fish guts I lost my footing and slashed myself pretty good in the arm.”

Harry, pointing to the patch over Johnny’s left eye, “And what about your eye?

“It was a windy day,” said Johnny, “ and a bunch of gulls flew overhead and one of them crapped right in my eye. I forgot all about the knife.”

Harry said to his audience, “We can laugh but we all are creatures of habit behaving like automatons, sleepwalking through life, reacting mindlessly to all kinds of triggers. The goal is to become mindful and not mindless, otherwise, we all can maim ourselves as we go through life.”

Stories about UU mystic, Harry Hollywood - What’s of real importance to you?

“Don’t you think they should teach kids what is the good life,” asked Rachel? “I mean they teach all this crap in school but the major questions they ignore, the most important things.”

“Philosophy has never been a major subject in public school,” said George. “I mean with common core and teaching to the test the teachers don’t have time in the curriculum.”

Amanda said, “It seems strange that the really important questions about life they don’t have time for.”

Harry said, “The power to decide what  is important in life is our own. We shouldn’t blame others for allowing them to make our decisions for us. Remember each one of us is unique just like everyone else.”

Stories about UU mystic, Harry Hollywood, The differentiated world.

 

The differentiated world.

The UU mystic Harry Hollywood was at the UU book discussion group meeting where the group was discussing Jenny Offill’s recent novel, Weather, which got many rave reviews. About forty five minutes into the meeting one the members turned to Harry and said, “Harry, what did you think about the book.”

Harry smiled and said, “Let me read you my favorite part;

“I finally tried a meditation class. My knee was hurting so I sat on a chair. The mostly enlightened woman was there on a cushion. I’d wondered what happened to her. At the end, she asked Margot a question or what she seemed to think was a question. ‘I’ve been fortunate enough to spend a great deal of time in the melted ego world. But I find I have trouble coming back to the differentiated world, the one you were just talking about where you have to wash the dishes and take out the garbage.’

She was very pregnant, six months maybe. Oh. don’t worry, I thought, the differentiated world is coming for your ass.”

Harry started guffawing so strongly he could hardly catch his breath. A few of the other group members, looking scared, started politely laughing too.

“Ain't’ that the bomb,” said Harry? “It seems the differentiated world is always coming after our ass.”

Stories about UU mystic, Harry Hollywood, Wearing a mask in 2020

It was the last day of the year, December 31, New Year’s Eve, during the year of the pandemic in 2020 and Harry was on a Zoom video call with friends from church. They were talking about how it had been quite a year in 2020 and what they were hoping for in 2021. People asked Harry for his thoughts, and Harry said, “With the shut downs, social distancing, quarantining, working and schooling from home, prohibition on our usual ways of socializing, it has given people much more leisure time. The introverts have done fine and the extroverts are suffering, but whether an introvert or an extrovert, we’ve had much more leisure time and solitude on our hands. It has been an opportunity for reflection, meditation, and prayer. If this time has brought us into further conscious contact with our Transcendent Source it has been, and will continue to be, a blessing, and if not, it has allowed us to be more conspiratorial, paranoid, depressed, and crazier.”

“How has it gone for you, Harry, ” asked Rhonda.

“Well, I’ve learned that wearing a mask is not a political statement, but an IQ test.”

Stories about UU mystic Harry Hollywood - Forgiveness

Harry was talking to his friend, Bob, who was complaining about all kinds of things and was telling Harry how put upon and abused he felt by the things others had done to him.

Harry smiled and said to Bob, “Are you a victim, Bob?”

Bob said, “Yes, I suppose I am, and it’s awful.”

Harry said, “I’m sorry to hear it. I’ve never thought of you as a victim before.”

Bob said, “Yeah, well, my brother used to say there’s no such thing as gravity, the whole world sucks.”

They both laughed.

Then Harry said, “What bothers me more than anything is that you seem to have given your power away.”

“What do you mean,” said Bob.

“It seems,” said Harry, “that you have been willing to make other people and circumstances responsible for your unhappiness and that’s a real shame.”

Bob said, “Well, what am I going to do?”

Harry said, “Forgive them and get on with your life.”

Bob’s eyes welled up with tears, he patted Harry on the shoulder, said “ good bye” and walked away and seemed a little lighter on his feet.

Stories about UU mystic Harry Hollywood - The virgin birth of Jesus

 

Harry was talking with a couple of teenagers who told him they didn't believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. 

"Impossible," says one indignantly. 

"It's a fairy tale," says another.

"Nice story, " says a third, "no worse that Santa and flying reindeer."

"Every child born," said Harry, "is a sign from God that God hasn't given up on us yet no matter how that child is conceived."

Stories about UU Mystic Harry Hollywood - Don't be judgmental.

Harry was chatting with his coworkers after work for a few minutes and people were complaining about problems they were challenged by during the day. They started judging and blaming this one and that one. Harry started laughing and said, “What are you complaining about. You should realize that by definition half the people are below average.”

Stories about UU mystic Harry Hollywood - Money can't buy you love.

 

Harry's five year old granddaughter told him, "Papa, baby Jesus is coming."

Harry said, "Who told you that Eva?"

:"Mommy did," Eva says.

"And what will happen when baby Jesus comes," Harry asks?

"People will be happy," Eva said.

"What about Santa," asks Harry."Will Santa come too and bring you presents?"

"Who needs Santa's presents," says Eva, "when Jesus coming already makes me happy?"

"So you have everything you already want," asks Harry?

"Mommy told me that Jesus is love and Santa's presents can't buy you love." says Eva.

"I believe the Beatles have a song about that," says Harry.

"Oh papa," says Eva giggling, "It's one of my favorites. Money can't buy you love."

Stories about UU mystic Harry Hollywood - There they go and I am their leader.

Harry was telling folks at the coffee hour that he was starting a new organization named “Mystic Circle of Unitarian Universalists.” People were laughing at the idea and said good naturedly that Harry was sounding like a “UU yahoo.”

Harry said that trying to get UUs together to work towards any goal was like herding cats. Just then a couple of people asked to meet with Harry in a side room about this mystic circle idea and Harry said, “Excuse me, for there they go and I am their leader.”

Stories about UU mystic Harry Hollywood, God is a verb

It was a beautiful summer day in downtown Brockport, a little village in Western New York along the Erie Canal ,and Harry was having coffee at the Java Junction sitting out front on the sidewalk with a bunch of folks who were talking about their belief in God.

The opinions ranged from the fundamentalist to the atheist and some of the discussion became what could be called "spirited." When the cages were rattled and the fur was flying one of the more aggravated opiners turned to Harry and said, “Well Harry what do you think?”

Harry laughed and said, “You are all talking like God is a noun, but it's really a verb.”

Stories about UU mystic Harry Hollywood, Walking the talk

 

UU mystic Harry Hollywood wasn’t much liked by other UUs or anybody in general. A friend of Harry’s asked him why he wasn’t better liked. Harry said, “Let me quote Emerson, ‘To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.’

And then Harry said laughing, “Look at what they did to Jesus, and Martin Luther King, and Gandhi, and Malcom X, and John and Robert Kennedy. I’ve got some good company. To function at an unconventional level disturbs the status quo, goes against the grain, upsets the apple cart. If people in the conventional society aren’t wanting to punish and kill them, UUs aren’t living their faith, aren’t walking the talk”