Feel like complaining about the UUA - Say a prayer!

I was dealing with a technical support person at Apple yesterday.  I was put on hold a half a dozen times and told that they couldn't help me twice, but finally I got some one to see the justice of my case, and I got the service that I needed.  Not the service that I wanted, but what they will do will do, and that is all I can ask.

I thought about that when I read Scott Wells post "who complains about the UUA" and my own history of complaining about individual staff and problematic programs resident at 25 Beacon Street.  I suspect I have had and continue to have more complaints than the most dedicated UUA critic.  Four decades of experience, close observation, and my own vision of what our movement can and should be gives me lots of fuel for the fires of critique.

But over the years I have come to know the players, and I have heard the rational for the programs and I have witnessed a lot of the comings and goings of headquarters staff.  Knowing the people involved has modified my response.  Now, I assume that most everyone involved is working with good intentions, and while I may disagree with a decision or policy,  it is a disagreement with people I hold in regard.  Back when I was in LRY, and even later when I was a young adult I took my disagreements personally, and railed against the bureaucrats at '25.'

Now I understand, when dealing with the UUA repeat the following prayer:

GOD, grant me the Serenity
to accept the things I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can
and the Wisdom
to know the difference.

There are some things that can be changed. We might get Emerson demoted and Parker promoted.  But as long as the UUA is a hierarchal and departmentalized corporation with the staff accountable to the President, and the President and Moderator elected by delegates and most trustees elected by their Districts the accountability will be diffuse and the corporation will have a life of its own.