About Alison Rittger
· Gender: Female
· Occupation: 73 and counting · Location: San Francisco: California: United States I first noticed spirit flowing thru when I looked at what was and said okay, this has to be enough because it is what it is. Ram Dass says that the first half of our lives we worked at becoming somebody and the second half, the one I’m in, we can work on becoming nobody “for when we are nobody, …the natural state of the mind shines through unobstructed,” and it is pure love. From this acquired perspective of embracing what is and getting out of the way, I speak publically when invited, facilitate small groups, tutor writers, write about what is for me, and hopefully serve as a conduit for the funny and sad everyone feels. My work in the world is to tell my truth. All of this matters but none matters as much as the advice from a ninth grade English teacher when I cried and told her why. Mrs. Plummer, who always whispered, said, “Alison. Aren’t you lucky. You have so much to write about.” Most of what you will want to know about me you will learn from reading my posts. But here is background. My spiritual practice is Unitarian Universalism. Mine was a trip from cynic to religious enthusiast, though never theist.’ My father started out Jewish, but didn’t stick with it, preferring sports to Hebrew studies. My mother was pretentious. And if you think pretention doesn’t require commitment akin to religion, you are sorely mistaken. I went to college, conceived a son, married, had two more boys, taught high school mostly in Southern California at Narbonne High School and was pretty good at it, particularly advising student publications, but through some official oversight was never named Teacher of the Year. I believe I was mainly admired though occasionally not. In 1999 I retired to San Francisco, lived in a flat in the outer Richmond, above my oldest son and daughter-in-law and two pitbulls, Otto and Leeloo. I fell in love with plants, was a docent at the Arboretum in Golden Gate Park, got a tattoo, decided not to be overweight and lost enough weight to be hired as a lecturer by the weight loss company. There I nurtured myself and my classes, but being light on salesmanship and short on “chipper”, I wasn’t popular with the “hire-archy”, so after eight years of scoring in the lower sales percentile, I resigned. Clearly, I was not named Leader of the Year. I will share the credos I wrote and spoke from the lectern on the chancel in the sanctuary, and in them you will learn about my falling in and out of love with my girl friend as well as about my life in San Francisco as I search for and sometimes discover the holy in the daily. If you want me to comment on what matters to you, contact me on Facebook . |
Contact Alison
To contact me, please contact me on Facebook
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