Bigger on the Inside • STEVEN MEAD

STEVEN MEAD

Steven provides Program Ministry services to UU Santa Fe―learning, small group ministry, connecting, and justice-making support. He has served congregations large and small in the East, Midwest, and now here at UU Santa Fe.

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“Idris: Are all people like this?
The Doctor: Like what?
Idris: So much bigger on the inside.”
―Neil Gaiman

Doctor Who is a British science-fiction television program produced by the BBC since 1963. The program depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called "the Doctor", an extraterrestrial being, who with various companions, combats foes, works to save civilizations, and helps people in need.  His (and now her!) time-traveling space ship (the TARDIS) is cleverly disguised as a police box, a common enough sight when the program began. One of the many fascinating features of the TARDIS is that it is 'bigger on the inside.'  A quality that I hope we all share with this iconic conveyance.

I am confident that we have all met someone awesome whom we think the world of and wish we could be like them when we grow up.  They go by many titles, Friend, Hero, Spouse, Mentor, Sensei, Buddha, and others.

My observation is that all of the folks who land in this 'awesome' category have five things in common.

1. They are comfortable in their own skin and accepting of their unique self.
2. They move among us with grace, accomplished in their expression of their communal self.
3. They all practice serving needs greater than themselves, embodying their interconnected self.
4. They are all open to life’s gifts and “otherness”. An expression of universal self.
5. And here's the remarkable thing—they move effortlessly from one of these 'selves' to another throughout their day.   An integrated self.

Respectively, balanced, whole, fulfilled and open. If the prospect of evolving into such a person calls to you, then I think you are in the right place here—UU Santa Fe. We gather to fashion each one of us into such a potent force--civilized, socialized, actualized, and realized. As I often say 'human being training.' It's no accident that we have teams here dedicated to affirming each of these 'selves.' Learning, Community Life, Justice, and Ministry teams respectively.

Can we all make it this far? To awesomeness? Yes. Will we all make it this far? No, and that's OK; it's the striving that counts, I say. It's the becoming, belonging, engaging, and being practices that are our path, our challenge, and our redemption—our processes and our experiences here at UU Santa Fe.

​Be bigger on the inside than your outside. Here's hoping I get this far someday. It's my wish for us all.