Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Why "Tour of the Univerese?"
















Why call this, "Tour of the Universe?"

Mostly because I have no idea where this is headed. Which is the way I like it. If this were to be about politics, or religion, or the heartbreak of psoriasis, I would be stuck with paranoia, more paranoia, and/or skin disease. But this way, I can go anywhere. It will be a tour of the universe of my mind, and you can go with me. You have been warned.

Perhaps it would be be best to start with a bit about my own self.

I recently retired from some 30 years of ministry. I was a Unity minister, which places me on the somewhat conservative end of the liberal wing, a bit right of the left tip of New Age, and a bit left of some "fundamental" religious views. Ours is a movement which embraces all living, breathing, thinking people of all beliefs and backgrounds. If you are comfortable with us, we'll be comfortable with you. I intend this blog to be the same.

My time as a Unity minister was a life-altering, mind-expanding, consciousness-straining experience. My experiences during those thirty years lifted me up into joy, tromped me down into despair, wracked me with doubt, and pulverized my long held views of the universe and my place in it. I will share some of those experiences, and what they meant to me in this space.

Before entering the ministry, an absolute joy, and a soul twisting experience, if there ever was one, I was a photographer. I began my celluloid path accidentally. A mildly insane neighbor, Dave, after establishing a rapport of uneven mental processes, asked me, an avid Toastmaster member, to write stories to go with the photographs he took of local motorcycle races to be published in the local newspaper, by which he was employed as a photographer. I said, "What? Me? Write? I'm not a writer!" To which he replied, "You give speeches, don't you? Write a speech -- but don't give it. Give it to me instead." A bit of thinking outside of the box before we knew there was a box. So began my newsperson career.

After a while, Dave decided I might as well take photographs as well, and he helped me buy a camera, and taught me to use it. So began my photographyperson career. I was truly fortunate to  learn photography by the side of a man who would one day win a Pulitzer Prize. I went on to be a stringer (paid by column inch and per photo) for Cycle News West and Cycle News East (Used my first name for one, middle name for the other. Hey, I never claimed I had scruples.), then on to edit St. Louis Cycle News, and, finally, editor and producer of Midwest Cycle News. Here, I did it all, being the owner and only employee. I took, developed, and contact printed some 40-50 rolls of Tri-X film a week, did the layout, type setting, took it to be printed, and then distributed it. I did this for about 4 years until stress and lack of sleep overtook my enthusiasm for the news business, and my bottled came uncorked. So, I left the paper to become a traveling portrait photographer.

Years of Big Fun photographing various groups, families, couples, singles, and kids (fondly referred to by photographers as rug rats, linoleum lizards, curtain climbers, ankle biters, and other, less kind, nomenclature), made me an expert in mass relationships in posing, lighting, and packing a vehicle with more equipment than it could actually hold. It was a good thing I didn't smoke, because I had no room for matches. All these wonderful skills, of course, helped me not at all as a minister. However, since portraiture, properly done, is as much entertainment and people skills as photography skill, it was excellent training for the next, and last vocational installment in my life story: pastor to the people.

My first real employment before meeting mildly deranged Dave, was as an investigator, which could supply enough stories to last a blog that would far outlive this blogger. Perhaps some of those will find their way here as well. During that time, I investigated a murder (shotgun blast for an insurance salesman in a telephone booth), and looked down the barrel of a chrome plated 38 pistol myself. You will be no doubt be glad to learn he didn't shoot me and I didn't die.

Well, that's enough for this time; I can hear your eyes glazing over. Next time, my subject title will be, "The Truth of Truth." Unless it's something else.

3 comments:

  1. Richard, you live across the river from me!

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  2. Thank you, Richard. I fall into the "I love it!" category. You are such a good writer, speaker, and minister. I've missed your ministry for many years now--although I subscribed to your list when you left Harrisburg UNITY and moved out to the Northwest. Well, it's great that you're back with more inspiration here. I look forward to reading what you have to say.

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