Maze by Sara Caldwell
How Many Licks Does it Take to Get to a Tootsie Roll Pop Center?
by Sara B CaldwellI am one of the newest members to my local Unitarian Universalist (UU) chapter but, in reality, the whole thing of calling myself a UU is new in an of itself. As a young adult I feel it is valuable for me to get involved in the ways that are most beneficial to me and to the people that I care for. In part that is why after joining my UU congregation I wanted to get involved at some level. As a college student, getting involved and giving back revolves around my use of time, not money, so I decided to spend my time helping out with the Unitarian Universalist Society of Oneonta (UUSO) website. Saying that, upon reading the Synapse webpage the other night, I took a moment to reflect on this publication's theme. My first thought, 'A can of worms.' Spirituality can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but I would like to think that it is just all different ways of trying to get to the same thing.
I make mazes. I've been making mazes for the past seven years; I'm not quite sure where my fondness of mazes came from as it does not run in my family, but one day in art class all those many years ago I had to—along with the rest of my class—make a simple maze... "and make it look pretty" I remember the teacher saying. Okay, so I got done with my horse maze in one class period while my classmates got done with theirs after two or three. When I realized that I could intertwine my love of animals, the sciences, and art through the use of mazes, I was hooked.
Fast-forward to 2001. I finally had created a website. Sure I was behind the times, but I didn't care. It seemed apt that I would call it 'Great Mazes' and post some of my mazes for people to download and solve. "After all," I thought, "if people have as much fun solving them as I do making them, then this is great." Besides just posting mazes, I began to take maze requests. That's where the real joy began. Month by month I ended up doing quite a few free maze requests. Mazes were being used for birthday parties, church newsletters, school activity worksheets, non-profit organization mailings, websites, all sorts of stuff. I got to see first hand how the power of the Internet can be a wonderful thing. It was a good feeling having known that I did something good for someone whom I had never seen, never talked to before, never connected with other than through my mazes. These mazes could bring happiness to someone for a moment in time and, to me, that itself was spiritual. That communication between me, the maze maker, and them, the maze solver, was really something spiritually unique and wonderful.
But, of course, mazes are meant to confuse, not enlighten. The joy comes at the end when you reach the destination, not when you are in it trying to figure out which way to go and in turn, getting even more confused. Life isn't like a maze. I don't know what will happen when I reach my destination, whatever that destination may be. I can't be confused now in hopes of reaching the end later AND THEN being happy. I can't go back in time and retrace my steps in an attempt to make a left turn when I went right. I go where I go and we all go to our own liking.
In contrast, as a labyrinth builder I've come to know that labyrinths can at most be used as a spiritual tool, for a unicursal path doesn't give justice to the infinite number of possible directions one could take in a lifetime. With most spiritual tradition regarding labyrinths, upon arrival at the center of a labyrinth one meditates or makes some action signifying that s/he has made it to the center. The person then turns around and walks back out of the labyrinth, retracing their steps through to the entrance. Yet that person may not be the only person on the labyrinth. Encountering another person walking the labyrinth can be a strange experience because when you are set on walking that one path, staying on that line, becoming spiritual with yourself and the things around you, here comes some other person about to be in your way. In my experience it can really catch you off guard. Trying to walk around someone or let someone pass while walking a labyrinth isn't as nonchalant as it may seem. The instant of passing bodies is spiritual. It is of a connection very unlike passing someone on the street.
Spirituality to me cannot be put directly into words, placed in a box, or blanketed on the general population of the Earth. But I believe that it is available to everyone and everything, in its same and yet very different form. We are all just trying to get to that Tootsie Roll Pop center, to complete that maze, or to find a new place with use of a labyrinth. The way in which we get there is the all-important variant—religion.
My relationship between myself, my family, the people that I care for, and the living things that I appreciate and respect have helped lead me to where I am. To me, my spirituality is based around my continued understanding and journey with interpersonal relationships. Being able to speak to people through my mazes is spiritual, just as being able to develop lasting friendships with someone regardless of their age, sex, creed, or race is spiritual. To the rest of the world I have befriended some very diverse types of people. I guess you could say my acquaintances and (especially) my good friends make up a very eclectic part of my life.
But I say spirituality has no bias, so then why should we? (UUs have this at the heart of any matter.) I haven't changed my philosophy since declaring myself a UU because I suppose I have always been a UU in principle. Yes, spirituality can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but I believe that the only religion that embraces spirituality under a very wide spectrum of definitions is UUism. This to me could be a double-edged sword, but yet it isn't because of our notion of communication toward understanding and tolerance. I love every bit of good wholesome connection—building and understanding I can get. In this way I am selfish—and in this way I hope you are, too.
Sara Caldwell is a youth at the UU Society of Oneonta, NY.
For more information contact youth @ uua.org.
Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
