From Here to There

The Board met on Wednesday, January 26th to determine what needed to be done to move to our new site on Alpine Road and vacate our present premises on Gilmer Road.  The following conclusions were arrived at by consensus:

1 - Ellen will write a letter to the landlord informing her of our intention to move and stating that we will be out of the building by the 28th of February.  This letter will be sent with the February rent payment.

2 - Moving date and time have been set:  Sunday, February 13th at 1:00.  Helen Ausman's program will be the last one in the old building.  Newest member, David White, will present the first program in the new building, February 20th.

3 - Huey has recruited Tim Smith and Ryan Adams to help move the piano.  Feeling strong?  They could use your help too!  Huey will rent a trailer and Richard will be consulted as to where to place the piano in the new building.  Betty and Bob will, as they have been doing, take care of getting the piano tuned.

4 - "The most important question" has already been answered for moving day.  We will eat at the new place.  Sky will take orders (and money) for sandwiches from Jason's Deli, pick them up, and bring them to the new place.  Iced tea will be provided.

5 - There will be a Move Planning Meeting immediately following services on Sunday, February 6th for all who are interested.
><><><><<><><>><>><><><

GARAGE SALE

Saturday, February 19th from 8:00 am until 1:00 pm will be our last garage sale at the place on Gilmer Road.  We might as well take advantage of the great location to make some money to pay down our loan, get rid of stuff we don't want to move (like that organ) and reduce what we have to dump or donate.

><><><><<><><>><>><><><

Meet Our Newest Members

David White
Although many of you have known me for many years, as an introductory summary let me say that I see myself as a practicing historian. I've known that I wanted to teach history since I was 10 years old. Currently I'm chair of the social studies department at Longview High School, after teaching 10 years at Trinity School of Texas.

My appearance demonstrates how much I like to cook and eat. I also love to play guitar and am perpetually reading history books, especially Cold War U.S. history.

My life experience in faith traditions began with the Presbyterian faith as a child. Then I joined the Episcopal tradition when Sarah and I married. Now I practice Buddhist Insight Meditation

although not as a religious creed but as a personal experiential philosophical perspective. Like Emerson, I do not believe in the divinity of Jesus but do know him to be a wise human teacher whose message (and its various interpretations) has had a great impact on human history. I compare his impact with other wise teachers like Buddha and Mohammed, or from the twentieth century, Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

What draws me to the Unitarian Universalist perspective is its quest for truth rather than a doctrinal profession of "truth" like other religions stipulate.  In fact, what attracts me to the UU perspective is its non-doctrinaire openness to the human experience.
 

Sara, Frank and David re-enact signing the book
so newsletter photographer can get picture.

Sarah White
I am a family law attorney with a practice that's about equally split between court appointed work in children's abuse, neglect or delinquency cases, and private clients in divorce and custody cases. I work from a home office and have been lucky enough to still have some free time to pursue my other interests, including cooking, gardening, music, writing, and reading on subjects from philosophy to political science to fiction.

David and I have been married 25 years and have 2 kids--Laura, who is 20 and a sophomore studio art education major at U.T. Austin, and Henry, who is a junior at Longview High, and who plans to continue studying music.

I'm very interested in foreign languages, and have taught all levels of Spanish at Trinity School for several years while the kids were in school there, before I resumed my law practice. I majored in Spanish and minored in French at U.T. Austin, and have also studied a little German and Italian. I love to watch foreign movies, especially in any of those languages.

I grew up in Dallas and my family attended the Presbyterian church when I was very small, then changed to the Unitarian church for several years before my parents divorced. I joined the Episcopal church when I was in high school, and I was an active Episcopalian for about 3 decades before deciding that that church's doctrine didn't match my own philosophy. David and I both began practicing meditation around 1997 and we have been
drawn more and more to the UU fellowship over the last few years, so we finally made the decision to sign the book.

go to page 3