Wednesday, December 21, 2011

HUDSON VALLEY SANGHA

Allow me, to my own relief, to turn from painful introspection to a new hopefulness. As life has tossed me around from one spiritual community to another, or if you will, from one set of pews to another, I’ve finally found a resting place at the Greater Newburgh Unitarian Society, located in Rock Tavern.
There were almost Biblical overtones in the way I’d been led there by a well known, local activist emeritus—I believe the quote goes somewhat like “whither thou goest…”. Just as with other very close friends and allies, she led me through the dark tunnel of earlier this year until now at its end, I am regarding a landscape containing some entertaining and even exciting prospects. Stirring the pot of my own bisexuality, both at the LGBT drop in center in White Plains known as The Loft, as well as floating some ideas at The Society, it would appear that not only a monthly Bi Brunch, but perhaps also a more inclusive gay group may be forming in Newburgh. The possibility that this might ultimately morph into a service organization for the entire Mid Hudson region would rearrange the entire sociology of the region. As of now, there is a two-hour journey by car between the two drop in centers in White Plains and Kingston, with nothing in between. In what I expect will turn out to be a series of conversations between Rev. Chris Antal and myself, he helped me connect with another ‘B’ in the congregation. Now that arthroscopic surgeries have been performed on both knees, starting the Brunch at a local diner is a mos def beginning in February, with my Bi support group facilitator helping with publicity. Too, the exchanges between the man who has said he would be my ‘minister’ if I liked, look as though they may well prove life changing. It’s taken a while to get my bearings with him. A fellow parishioner and I both made the observation that it is almost like meeting with a holy man, he seems so utterly unable to function, relate or communicate on other than the deepest of levels. Our first conversation felt like walking over a mine field, or perhaps a better characterization would be the sensation of falling off a cliff. With only a casual reference and a brief exchange, the most profound explorations open up. Whew! I’ll see him on Saturday for an unexpected Christmas Eve service, suggest we meet again at the end of next month. In an unrelated development once again underlining my philosophy that ‘everything happens for a reason,’ I’ve begun initial conversations with a nudist colleague about opening up my house as a Bed and Breakfast, offering him a commission if he sends up business room the more populated NYC vortex. It would be the Belle Terre B&B since that is the moniker he gave my humble estate. The property is in excellent condition, and the woman from The Society who’s been helping me with some housekeeping is prepared to be the first, and perhaps only necessary employee. For the first time this year there were no prospects for renting the room, and since necessity is the mother of invention, let her give birth to an entrepreneur!