Positive Thinking
When your editor asked whether I would like to write this column for 2005 my immediate reaction was to think of all the reasons why I shouldn't or couldn't do it. How could I hope to have twelve decent thoughts that were worth sharing with you? How could I live up to the high standard that we have come to expect from this column? And there were many more negative thoughts to contend with, all down to a miserable lack of confidence.
One of my favourite comedy programmes, on the television, is the Vicar of Dibley. Good comedies always have characters we can identify with and those who are like someone we know well. Jim is the man for me. He is a man of few words, in fact one could even say he was a man of two. No, no, no, no, no...YES. His automatic response to every situation is negative but in the end he always comes up trumps.
New Year's Resolutions are similarly both negatively and positively framed. It seems we need a marker behind which we can put those things that have been damaging to us in the past as at the same time we need something to mark a positive move forward. January is just such a time, a month where it is absolutely essential to think positively.
Sixty years ago positive thinking triumphed when a small group of Unitarians entered 1945 having sown the first seeds of the National Unitarian Fellowship the previous year knowing that this was the year to look positively forward and be prepared to overcome any negativity that might threaten the success of their new and creative venture. We have their positive thinking to thank for the vibrant organisation that provides a spiritual home for 275 members in 2005. An organisation that can bring together Unitarians from diverse places both geographically and spiritually. In this, the Diamond Jubilee of the NUF, members are feeling very positive for a future where opportunities for increased networking are being created all the time.
Perhaps this very month is the time to move away from the negativity conveyed by some of the things we read in the press last year fuelled by titles asking whether we: Should call 'time' on Unitarianism? Yes, we are being compelled to change and yes we are experiencing the negativity that is bound to accompany that change. But after the 'no, no, no, no,' must come the YES.
Metaphorically I would like to see us all standing alongside those Unitarians of sixty years ago whose positive thinking brought to life the positive action that established and maintained the NUF. We owe it to Unitarians like these to think and act positively in our generation.
The Unitarian - Jan 2005 - "Thought for the Month" by Joan Wilkinson