Amy Lu's View

Unitarian Universalists don’t have a bible. Although we often find inspiration in the Christian bible, we’re not obligated to revere any specific text. We’re encouraged to open our hearts and minds to wisdom and meaning we may encounter in a variety of sources.

We do receive guidance from our church – we have a hymnal filled with beautiful and profound hymns and readings among other resources. Many of us develop our favorite sources that comprise our personal and local congregation “bibles.” I’m pretty sure Mary Oliver’s poem “Wild Geese” makes the cut for many. 

Chad and I are doing our best to add the children’s picture book “Couch Potato” by Jory John to the canon of our church, Michael Servetus. This past Sunday I read it during our church service – the second time in the last twelve months. I also read it during the height of the pandemic when our services were entirely via Zoom. 

It’s not surprising that Chad and I find great wisdom in a children’s book. My “Frog and Toad” blog challenge started after I read a couple of Frog and Toad stories for church services. (Frog and Toad stories are definitely part of our bible). But why are we so drawn to “Couch Potato”?

We used it most recently to illustrate one of the themes of the sermon Chad gave: that we should be careful about becoming too “centered,” too comfortable in our beliefs and practices and ways of being in the world. 

On the surface, it’s a simple, if highly delightful, book about a literal couch potato, who discovers he doesn’t also have to be a metaphorical couch potato. That’s a great takeaway, but what makes it spiritually meaningful?

Beyond the message of not getting stuck in a spiritual or lifestyle rut, it’s full of little nuggets that can speak to us at different times and in different circumstances.

Personally, I was especially moved after days of cloudy gloom by the line: “The sun seemed brighter than I remembered.” Definitely a call to truly appreciate the seemingly mundane things we take for granted. 

I was challenged by the line: “We might watch the clouds. There’s no big plan. We just see what happens.” No big plan?! How about a small one? Or, perhaps I could explore what it would be like to sometimes not have a plan?

Speaking of possibilities…I was inspired by Potato realizing that he didn’t only have to be a couch potato, or be limited to being only one potato of any type:

“It makes me wonder…what if I don’t always need to be totally comfortable?…Because it turns out that I’m more than just a couch potato. I’m an amusing potato. I’m a smart potato. I’m a kind potato. I’m an entertaining potato.And I’m a sit-on-a-hill-and-watch-the-sunset potato.”

This feels like an especially timely message at the new year – at their best, resolutions encourage us to try and be new things.

Having more than one identity or role in life can be disconcerting and make us feel off balance, but it can also open us up to a fuller life. And just as we may yearn to be more than one narrowly defined type of person, we should support others as they expand beyond our conceptions of them.

The day after the Sunday service, I set out to read an article from one of Chad’s seminary classes, (“The Perils and Possibilities of Multiplicity” by Cynthia Linder) and it was about this very idea: we all have multiple selves that we need to have the courage to explore and honor and integrate.  

Okay, I don’t believe in fate, but maybe I need to sometimes be a Fate Believer Potato because this article was really just the academic version of Couch Potato!! What are the chances that I would read these insightful writings back to back?

Maybe there IS a Supreme Deity and it’s a potato.