Reflections of Joy

Groundbreaking Ceremony June 8, 2008

We finally got to put shovel to dirt! What a wonderful celebration of the start of the building project last Sunday, June 8th. It took place around the rock on the Jefferson lawn. Those who have worked so hard to get USSB to this point were honored, we sang and celebrated with bubbles, hard hats, shovels and cake, and a beginning trench was dug out around that mysterious rock that has long been an object of curiosity among USSB members and friends. Until now, all that could be seen of the rock was the top of its “head” poking through the grass on the slope of the Jefferson lawn. Now, we can see a few inches down around the sides of the rock, and it’s clear that it is indeed a big boulder! Just how big is it? We will soon find out, as the leveling of the lawn area begins in earnest, very soon.

I had found a quote from the poet T.S. Eliot in my files that I thought would be appropriate for the groundbreaking, and then I “googled” the lines and discovered that the excerpt I had is from T.S. Eliot’s poem “Choruses From the Rock!” Though Eliot’s “rock” is metaphorical (God, Christ, the church), the reading somehow seemed even more appropriate for our rock-centered groundbreaking, once I learned the title. Here is the excerpt I read:

What life have you if you have not life together?
There is no life that is not in community…

Much to cast down, much to build, much to restore;
Let the work not delay, time and the arm not waste;

Let the clay be dug from the pit, let the saw cut the stone,
Let the fire not be quenched in the forge.

Let the work now proceed apace!
Joy Atkinson, Interim Minister