Sermon: The Triangle Player

2014 September 7
by Rev Ana Levy-Lyons

[powerpress]http://www.fuub.org/home/home/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/The-Triangle-Player.m4a[/powerpress]

Please note: the podcast for this sermon only includes part 2.  You may read the entire sermon below.

Part 1:

The late George Plimpton was famous for being a “participatory journalist.” This means that instead of just watching and taking notes on his subject from afar, he would literally get into the act of whatever he was reporting on. He pitched against the National League in Yankee Stadium. He tried standup comedy at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. He spent some time as a high wire circus performer. He boxed against Sugar Ray Robinson. But of all the wild and dangerous and daring things he did, the thing that he said scared him the most was – anybody want to guess? Playing the triangle with the New York Philharmonic.

 

Now you’re all familiar with the triangle, yes? It’s a simple, unassuming instrument, named after its shape. It sounds like this:   [triangle sound]  And that’s about it. You’re just hitting a metal triangle with a metal stick. Anybody want to try it? Its simplicity, though, is deceptive because, as any triangle player will tell you, if you play it just right at just the right moment, it can add a special sparkle – a punctuation mark, an emphasis, a love bite to a symphony that can make the music come alive. And then, as any triangle player will also tell you, if you screw it up and play it at the wrong time, it’s real –  [triangle sound] – ly noticeable.

 

Bert Eisenstadt, who leads some of our children’s music here, has handed me a triangle before services on at least one occasion and said, “Here. Take this. Play it on the two and the four, just in the chorus on this song you’ve never heard before, but not on the last chorus, on the last one hit it on the one. The kids are counting on you. Don’t screw it up.” I can tell you, I was sweating it out.

 

And so I can relate to George Plimpton being terrified that he would make a mistake and ruin everything for everyone. If he missed the moment or played at the wrong moment, he must have felt that he would be destroying a work of art – like putting a small tear in a Rembrandt canvass. But, more to the point, he’d make a complete fool of himself. Because the stereotype is, of course, that playing the triangle is easy. You only have one thing to do, after all, so if you can’t do that, well… There are all kinds of snarky references online to triangle players, for example, getting paid for an entire night’s work when they strike the triangle but once.

 

To such posts, you’ll find irate responses from triangle players explaining that, for one thing, no one just plays the triangle. Triangle players are percussionists and they have to master sometimes dozens of instruments. Secondly, playing the triangle well is actually not easy – there are lots of different sounds a triangle can make – different colors, complex rhythms, louder, softer, fluttery or clangy. There’s an art to knowing exactly how to produce just the sound that’s right for the music. And lastly, there is the Zen-like practice of counting the rests – the times when you’re not playing so that you can be prepared to strike at just the perfect moment.

 

In the spring at our last service of the program year, we did some meditating on our dharmas – our calling or role in the universe. We were working with the Hindu concept of dharma where the universe as a whole, like a symphony, flows and unfolds according to the innate creative logic of a cosmic composer or of natural law if you prefer. Each element in the universe has a unique role to play in that great unfolding – each of us plays our own part that is essential to the whole. The spiritual journey is about understanding what our own part is and then living into it fully.

 

And so in the spring, each of us asked ourselves, “What is my soul’s mission statement? What is a unique gift that I have to offer the world?” And we wrote them on these flags that we called “dharma flags.” And then, Pat Bernstein, of our members, took the time over the summer to transcribe almost 200 of these dharma flag statements and enter them into a database. (Thank you, Pat!) So I’ve been reading them carefully and thinking about what people wrote. They are really beautiful. There are a few themes that emerged around the four most commonly used words. These words, in order of frequency, are: love, help, connect, and joy. Love, help, connect, joy.

 

That seems like a pretty good set of themes for a Unitarian Universalist congregation – or really for anybody. We are a people who are called to love, to help others, to connect, and to bring joy. It’s a beautiful vision. It’s ambitious. It’s sweeping. And it’s also… vague. What does that really mean? What does that look like? We can have our broad overarching vision of love and peace for all, but we are each called to participate in that vision in a very particular way. We can have grandiose ideas of playing in the New York Philharmonic of life, creating incandescent music that resounds through the ages. But we are each called to play a particular melody or a particular rhythm on a particular instrument, maybe even a triangle.

 

Like playing the triangle, living into your dharma is a lot harder than it looks. Like playing the triangle, it can make a powerful difference in the music, but there may be no glory or even respect in doing it. Like playing the triangle, people may only notice you when you screw it up. Like playing the triangle, a big part of the job is hanging back, listening, watching for your moment, and breathing.

 

Hymn: #6 Just as Long as I Have Breath

 

Part 2:

The world is full of so much violence these days, so much needless suffering, so much loss, so many impossible conflicts. As Unitarian Universalists, we tend to feel like it’s our job to fix it all. We want to say yes to love and yes to helping and yes to connecting and yes to joy. We want to play the whole symphony of healing and reconciliation all by ourselves. And of course we can’t. Not even close. We can barely make a dent. Some of us respond to this fact with despair. Some of us respond with throwing up our hands and saying, “the problems are so gigantic, nothing I do could possibly make a difference.” At our worst, at our most fearful, some of us are even like the town council members in the story that Meagan told. We say, “The town bowl is so huge, no one will notice if I don’t share the good things I have. Let everyone else give theirs. I’ll keep mine.”

 

This, needless to say, is not our spiritual calling. But neither is it our spiritual calling to play the whole symphony ourselves. A wise man once said, “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.” And so how do you neither complete nor desist from something? You play your part. You do it consistently and with integrity. You listen to the symphony of the world around you with an ear to discovering where you can live out your dharma most usefully and most authentically. Always on the lookout for how and when your own calling and gifts intersect with what’s going on. Where is your triangle moment?

 

For example, one of our dharma flags says: “To help those who are isolated to feel less alone.” If that’s yours and say you overhear at Coffee Hour that an elderly member here fell and broke her hip and is recovering slowly and can’t walk here on Sundays: “Ding!” This is your triangle moment! You are the person who helps people feel less alone! This is your moment to reach out to her and offer to come visit and give her a ride to services. And, if you want to take that same dharma and play it out on a big scale, you might want to also join the fight against the use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and speak out passionately about how isolation destroys the human spirit.

 

One of our dharma flags, probably written by a child, says, “I help clean up.” If that’s yours and you’re at a friend’s birthday party and you notice that everybody is leaving and there’s a huge mess left over, with cake smeared everywhere and dirty dishes and popped balloons… “Ding!” You are the person who helps clean up! You can start bringing dishes to the sink and picking things up off the floor and putting the wrapping paper in the recycling bin. And, if you want to take that same dharma and play it out on a big scale, you can volunteer to help with big cleanups, like after Hurricane Sandy, or if there are beaches or forests that need to be cleaned up to help the plants and animals that live there. Maybe when you’re older you can even organize cleanups like that and get other people excited about helping.

 

One of our dharma flags says, “I help others feel loved.” This is the one that’s printed at the top of your Order of Service. If that’s your dharma statement and you notice that someone in your family is feeling a little down… “Ding!” This is your triangle moment. You are the person who helps others feel loved! This is your moment to tell them that you love them, to listen to them so they know you care, and to give them a big hug. And if you want to take that same dharma and play it out on a big scale, you could get involved in immigration rights, helping people who have hard lives in other countries to be welcomed here in the U.S. and feel safe and valued.

 

When you start to listen to the world in this way, listening for your triangle moment — the triangle-shaped hole in the symphony — you might just start to hear it. You’ll be walking down the street and see something, when suddenly, “Ding!” You’ll realize that this is your triangle moment. You’ll be watching the news when suddenly – everybody do it with me – “Ding!” This is your triangle moment! You’ll hear a story on NPR or a sermon here at First U when suddenly, “Ding!” This is your triangle moment. This is exactly the kind of need, the kind of conflict, the kind of opportunity that you are here on this earth to engage. Notice it! Be on high alert. Don’t miss your moment to add your special sparkle to the symphony.

 

The thing is, and this is where the triangle metaphor breaks down a little, we are always playing in the symphony. Every single thing we do contributes, in a small way, to the music of the universe. It’s either going to be consonant or dissonant with the flow toward love and help, connection and joy. Even when you are working at a job you don’t like, you still can live out your dharma in the way you do your work. Even when you are sick in a hospital, you still can live out your dharma in the way you treat the people taking care of you. Even when you are alone, you still can live out your dharma in the way you spend your time. The world needs us desperately, every one of us. Each of us has our part to play in the symphony. And the good news is there are infinite ways to do it. Like George Plimpton, we can be bold and participate in anything. The place and time to live out our dharma is always right here and right now.

 

Hymn: 140 Hail the Glorious Golden City

One Response
  1. September 11, 2014

    I am so excited to see the sermons starting back up and available online! Makes me feel at home no matter where in the world I am listening from. Miss you all. -Kirby

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