Do you want to participate in the Friendship Minute at Sunday Services? This is an opportunity to share who you are with the congregation, and to help form friendship connections and build fellowship at the UUCS. The one-minute limit is rigorously enforced (big hook awaiting you in the wings). These will begin being a part of the service at the end of January 2019.

Stage fright? Have someone read it for you. The subject matter is one of two areas: 1) Share an activity that you are currently doing, e.g., quilting, banjo, training cats, that may be of interest to others, or 2) share something bold that you once did, and feel good about. You get to define your own boldness, even if it might not be bold for someone else.

If interested, email one-minute’s worth of content (I will be timing it) and send to David Haber at haberd@wou.edu, or approach me at the UU.

Here is my own example of a Friendship Minute:

In the third grade my teacher asked us to tell the class who we admired the most.  Many of the girls chose an actress or singer; many of the boys chose their favorite Brooklyn Dodger baseball player.  I was the only one who chose a comedian.  The teacher said he was impressed with my originality.  He shouldn’t have been.  Most of the famous comedians in America in the early 50s were Jews from New York City, and many of those were from my very own borough, Brooklyn.

Fast forward to age 32.  I finished my graduate studies in Southern California and began my first professional job 3,000 miles away, at the University of South Florida.  I did not know a soul in Tampa.  I thought this was a good chance to start fresh and redefine myself. 

One month after I arrived, I found out that there would be a faculty talent show, to let students experience their professors in a non-threatening arena.  I volunteered, and I was the only one to do a 5-minute comedic routine.

No one laughed.  No one applauded at the end.  As I walked off the stage, however, I was filled with pride.  It was the boldest thing I had ever done—to this day as well.

Please approach me in Fellowship Hall, and I will tell you why, in 1976, I believe I was just ahead of my time.