The Yes! Digest -- April 30th, 2010

This is: Beltane, the ancient Celtic festival that marks the start of summer. Traditionally, it's celebrated with purifying bonfires. Even if you can't build one (and you probably shouldn't), you can enjoy the longer, warmer evening!

Spirit food:  "As soon as beauty is sought not from religion and love, but for pleasure, it degrades the seeker." --- Annie Dillard (again, because it's her birthday)

Brain food: Which is more environmentally friendly---your hardcover book, or your e-reader? It may not be the one you think. (via The New York Times)

Young adults today...: "are the smallest consumer demographic of print journalism." (via The Welland Tribune)

UU news: The UU Community Church of Augusta Maine will be installing Carie Johnsen, its first new minister in nearly 20 years, this Sunday. (Carie was the student minister at my congregation, First Parish in Duxbury, MA, from 2007 to 2009 and was ordained there last summer.) (via The Kennebec Journal)

UU voices: Amy Wilson, a UU young adult from Portland, Oregon, writes about her experience as a Jeopardy! champion. (Wilson won the game that aired on April 20th.) Congratulations, Amy! (via UU World)

A joy: This multitasking cardboard box fights both poverty and boredom: first it's full of aid supplies, then it becomes a soccer ball. Genius! (via The Daily What)

A concern:

• For the second time in a month, young adults have been killed in a coal mining accident. The men---Justin Travis, 27, and Michael Carter, 28---were apparently using a machine called a continuous miner when the roof of the compartment they were working in collapsed. (via AP)
•  The oil spill that's been spreading in the Gulf of Mexico all week made landfall on the shore of Louisiana today, putting the inhabitants of a wildlife preserve located there at risk. (via Good Morning America)

Churchy things: Designers are introducing clothes (even bathing suits!) that allow Muslim women to be both fashionable and modest. (via The Christian Science Monitor)

Unchurchy things: Does your inner child---or your actual child---need something new to dance to? Check out the music of Justin Roberts and the Naptime Players! Good stuff, and fun for all ages. (Via The New York Times)

Young adults of note: It hasn't been five months since 25 year-old Christa Brelsford lost her leg as the result of an injury sustained during the Haiti earthquake, but she (along with her brother Julian and other members of the Heads Together Haiti literacy program) is already back working to revitalize the community in which she was working at the time. To learn more about her efforts to help the students of  Cabois (including 18 year-old Wenson Georges, who helped to rescue Christa after the earthquake) visit Christa's Angels. (via People -- thanks to Audra!)

Happy weekend and happy May! See you on Monday morning!