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“If I could give you one key, and one key only, to more abundant life, I would give you a sense of your own worth, an unshakable sense of your own dignity as one grounded in the source of the cosmic dance, as one who plays a unique part in the unfolding of the story of the world.” — Greta W. Crosby
All of Us Together is a collection of the Reverend Greta W. Crosby’s elegant sermons and writings, providing a retrospective representation of her humanitarian legacy.As a Unitarian Universalist minister from 1959 to 1996, Greta often found herself on the precarious edge of the envelope of social justice. She was a trailblazer for women’s rights, Civil Rights and the abolition of the death penalty. She advocated for LGBTQ causes, the prevention of hate crimes, as well as the protection of survival rights for marginalized people.
Greta’s sermons, meditations and letters to the editor compassionately convey her powerful Vision for improving the human condition by honoring the dignity and worth of every person. When this is established, equanimity flourishes and we, All of Us Together, will live more abundantly.
Published by Together is Home Publications in association with Fearless Literary
325 pages, trade paperback • $18.95 print / $5.99 digital • ISBN 979-8-9875932-8-8
P R I N T A N D K I N D L E
A L L D I G I T A L F O R M A T S___________________________________________________
LARA POLLOCK (pictured with her husband Danny) is a sensitive-intuitive healer. She has practiced Traditional Chinese Medicine, therapeutic massage, and energy work for several decades. As an educator, she has shared her knowledge of these modalities throughout her career. In 2008, Lara’s life transformed when she discovered the great wisdom teaching, A Course in Miracles. She is now writing books as she and her husband live with and care for Lara’s mother, Greta W. Crosby, who is in her nineties. Lara is also the author of Together Is Home: The Healing Messages of A Course in Miracles, produced with the assistance of Fearless Literary.
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PREFACE
My mother, Greta W. Crosby, was a Unitarian Universalist (UU) minister from 1959 until her retirement in 1996. Afterward, she continued to be a voice for social justice for years to come. At this printing in 2024, she is 93 and my husband and I currently live with her and care for her. While many memories of her years as a UU minister have faded from her mind, my mom still reads the newspaper every day. She stays informed on current issues, and she still cares deeply about the human condition.
Her dedicated ministry was characterized by her humanitarianism, her social activism and her highly intelligent compositions. Though she referred to her Sunday presentations as ‘sermons,’ she felt the term had a bit of a preachy connotation to it. Early in her career, she sometimes called her compositions Spoken Essays; then later in her ministry, she preferred to call them Commentaries.
My mom’s sermons consistently reflect her main philosophy of life, which is to see the potential good in every person. Her Vision has always been to affirm and promote the worth and dignity of every person. She asserts that everyone should be afforded equal protection under the law, and everyone has the right to work and to earn a living wage. And most important is her encouragement to exercise empathy for people living in different circumstances. It can be so easy for someone to say, “Well I don’t have to worry about ‘this or that,’” such as poverty, discrimination, abuse, or disenfranchisement. Then it seems so easy to express short-sighted, egocentric opinions or to enact inappropriate policies based on these entitled circumstances. Yet my mom has always taken time to understand a situation from many different perspectives, which allows compassion for others to naturally flow from within.
Over her years of service as a UU minister, she composed and presented well over 1,200 insightful Commentaries, often presenting a Vision of a better way for all of us to thrive together. Idealistic, perhaps, but without a Vision of how it could be, it’s harder to see past our present dissatisfaction. Rather than staying stuck bemoaning the ways of the world, Greta empowered people to envision a better way to live together, collaboratively and cooperatively.
After she retired, I shared a collection of her early Spoken Essays with the Rev. David Carter, who was the minister of our church at that time. He was so impressed with her poetic prose that he called it ‘High Literature.’ When he described her collection in this way, I realized that the content could genuinely be likened to the philosophical essays of Emerson and Thoreau.
This brings attention to the concept of the sermon as an art form. It’s not commonly viewed in this way, but there is much to be appreciated about sermons/Spoken Essays/Commentaries from any minister. Their insights reflect the current issues of the time, as well as the timeless relevance of messages of Love and compassion shared throughout the ages. Yes, more and more I am learning that the sermon as art form is a valid and valuable conceptualization.
I credit my father, Robert J. Crosby, for planting the idea of saving my mom’s sermons for eventual publication. My father was brilliant, yet unhealed childhood traumas contributed to his mental illness and clinical depression. I would describe him as a dysfunctional genius. This caused difficulty with all of his relationships over the years. My parents were married in 1961, and there were some good times together, but eventually Dad’s dysfunction became too much to bear, and they were divorced in 1984. Likewise, I was estranged from him for many years. Fortunately, due to my husband Danny’s encouragement, my relationship with my father improved in the later years of his life. During the time of his passing in 2015, through the miracle of heartfelt forgiveness, all of my grievances against him fell away, and there was only Love left between us.
I now find that Dad’s messages about many things have proven true even if he sounded crazy at the time — he was far ahead of his time. One of his important messages was, “Save Greta’s sermons, they are deeply meaningful, share her legacy with the world.”
Now I have finally reached the time in my life where I can accomplish this goal. Thankfully, the self-publication process has made it feasible to begin the journey, with this book as the first step, and more to follow after that. Now is the time to publish my mom’s profoundly insightful works, and I am grateful for the opportunity. For me, it’s not a matter of the marketability of the content or selling a certain number of books, it’s about providing access to thought-provoking, compassionate messages of hope for humanity.
For those who feel prompted to explore these pages, I say, “Yes! Thank You!” It will be well worth your time to sit with these insights, and in doing so, to gracefully share Greta’s Vision of unity for All of Us Together. — With Gratitude, Lara Pollock
