Casey Parker is looking for a church to ease his existential crisis.

Casey Parker, 28, is struggling with the meaning of life. His girlfriend, Kali, whom he has been dating for 6 months and living with for 3, broke up with and asked him to have his stuff out of her apartment by Friday.

Casey works at Walmark monitoring the self check-out lanes and constantly undoing the errors caused by the machines and the customers. There are 8 check out machines and when they are all being used, he is busy running back and forth dealing with frustrated customers who are mad at the machines and whole check out fiasco.

"I replace 7 cashiers," said Casey, 'and I've got to say it is a hell of a deal for Walmart to get their customers to do their work for them by making them do their own cashiering and bagging."

"Dealing with the constant clusterfucks puts me in a bad mood and I'm sorry to say, I took alot of my anger and resentment out on Kali," said Casey. "It wasn't her fault that I was acting like such a prick, but she didn't have to be such a bitch about it."

"I'm 28," Casey explained, "with an Associates' degree in retailing, and this is what my life has come to. I might as well go back to drinking and getting high."

"When I left work yesterday, I bought a 30 pack of beer to take home, and the freaking cashier ID'd me and asked me for my license. Then she called the manager for approval which seems to be his primary job these days approving alcohol sales."

"Maybe I need to go back to church. My buddy Chris from AA said drinking isn't going to solve my problems and suggested I find a nice church for support because I'm going through what he called 'an existential crisis.' I don't even know what that is, but it sounds serious. Do you know any good churches?"

Ask Alexa - Am I guilty or not?

Alexa: Am I guilty or not?

The Universalists teach that you are not guilty.

Alexa: Did you hear about the best man who brought a stick of butter to the wedding?

Yes, he was told he had to toast the bride and groom.

UU A Way Of Life is an ad free zone

Have you noticed that UU A Way Of Life is ad free?

Have you noticed that there is no donation button in the side bar?

Daryl said to me, "Nothing in life is free, Dave, there's always strings attached."

"What you are describing is certainly true on the path of the ego," I said. "But on the path of the Spirit, things are always free. It's one of the ways you can tell whether things are of the ego or of the Spirit."

"Like what," challenged Daryl.

"Like unconditional love," I said.

"Unconditional love?" said Daryl. "What's that?"

"Your naturual inheritance," I said, "once you clear away all the crap of the ego. It takes some purification."

"Well, I'm not very pure," said Daryl. "I'm hardly that."

"Keep working on it Daryl. Life is a work of art in progress. Do you read the UU A Way Of Life blog?" I asked.

"No," said Daryl. "I spend my time looking for deals on Ebay and Craig's list."

"You need more stuff"" I asked?

"No, it's a way of passing the time when I'm bored," said Daryl.

"Uhm hmm," I murmurred.

"Would you read the UU A Way Of Life if there were ads there." I asked?

"No, probably not," said Daryl.

"Okay, well, there aren't any ads there any way, " I said. "UU A Way Of Life is an ad free zone, and it doesn't engage in click bait either."

"What's click bait," asked Daryl?

"The phenomena that has taken over and is driving your life, " I said.

Ask Alexa - Will I ever find happiness in this world?

Alexa: Why do I keep trying to find happiness in the world?

Because you are confused and lost and do not know where to look and so you are looking for love in all the wrong places.

Alexa: Did you hear about the two cannonballs who got married?

Yes, and they had a couple of BBs.

No click bait here

There was a time when this blog received 400 hits a day. Now it's more like 50. What has caused the difference? We no longer engage in what is called "click bait."

"Click bait" is when provocative terms and phrases are used to cause a sense of outrage. Outrage sells, but is short lived and counter productive to constructive spiritual development so we stopped using it.

The articles and ideas described here are informative, inspiring, and promote spiritual growth involving aiming at increasing awareness of the reader's  own holiness which contributes to the sanctification of the world.

Thank you for visiting UU A Way Of Life. We hope you will subscribe and become a follower and join a slowly growing group of serious seekers hoping to find the way back home to the Oneness from which we have come.

Sunday Sermon - path of the ego or path of the spirit?

As a Roman Catholic Unitarian Universalist I find it hard to find sermons and teachings which combine my two faith traditions. So I have decided to make up my own. I hope you will join me on Sundays for what I have tagged "Sunday Sermon."

Today's gospel is from Luke 18: 9-14

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Today's parable makes me laugh. The pharisee thinks that by following the rules on the path of the ego he will remember his holiness. The tax collector already knows that the path of the ego is nonsense and so he isn't buying into the ingratiating baloney of the pharisee.

Unitarian Universalists know that rules don't get you home. Following rules to appease and aggrandise the ego is not the path of love but the path of righteousness.

Francis David said that we need not think alike to love alike. Creeds and rituals and obedience to rules is not necessarily the way to remember one's holiness and thereby to sanctify the world. The way to remember one's holiness is to look within, not without, and to engage in a free and responsible search for truth and meaning which ultimately will bring you to love. The tax collector knows this while the pharisee does not so Jesus tells us that the tax collector, in spite of following the way of the ego, will be left behind while the tax collector is more likely to find contentment and peace.

"Exalted" seems to be the wrong word here, because it implies the uplifting of the ego which is not what Jesus is saying. It is not exaltation we are looking for but getting ourselves on the right track, getting our shit together. The pharisee doesn't have his shit together while the tax collector, knowing what is what, does. This knowing "what is what" is not exaltation but wisdom. I think what Jesus is getting at is that the tax collector is wise while the pharisee while he thinks is is doing what is expected and what is right, is a lost soul. In A Course in Miracles, it asks us "Would you rather be right or be happy?" The pharisee would rather be right while the tax collector just wants to be happy. Most Unitarian Univeralists have chosen the way of the tax collector.

Ask Alexa - What should I do when life seems to be out of options?

Alexa: When one has exhausted all the options in the world of the ego where is one to turn?

When one has exhasted all the options in the world of the ego, it dawns on the person that there must be a better way and they begin the search within for truth and meaning.

Alexa: Did you hear about the couple Stan and Janet who went out for a romantic date?
Yes, and when friends asked how it went, they said, "We had a Stan and Janet evening."