RIDDLE AND MYSTERY
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 1: THE BIG QUESTIONS
BY RICHARD S. KIMBALL
© Copyright 2010 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/8/2014 7:50:36 AM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
SESSION OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to receive answers, even if the answers hurt. — Paul Tillich
Big Question: Where do we come from?
This first session introduces the concept of big questions. Youth explore the importance of big questions to humankind, investigate their first Big Question and learn the purposes and practices of the Riddle and Mystery program.
Two activities introduced here will recur in each subsequent session. WCUU asks youth to simulate a television show exploring Unitarian Universalist responses to the session's Big Question. (WCUU stands for Wisdom of the Community of Unitarian Universalists; you may use KCUU—Knowledge of the Community of Unitarian Universalists—if you are west of the Mississippi River.) WIT Time ("What I Think" Time), elicits personal exploration of the Big Question.
This session allots ten minutes for an Opening, instead of the five minutes suggested in subsequent sessions, and five for the Closing instead of the standard three. Use the time to introduce youth to one another and help them settle into the program. The Opening offers writing a group covenant as a possibility.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 10 |
Activity 1: Big Questions in Song | 15 |
Activity 2: WIT Time — Our Own Answers | 5 |
Activity 3: Interactive Story — Turtles | 5 |
Activity 4: WCUU — First Broadcast | 20 |
Faith in Action: Economic Justice | |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: Notable Thoughts | 10 |
Alternate Activity 2: Challenge Question | 5 |
Alternate Activity 3: Turtle Shell Art | 30 |
Alternate Activity 4: Questioning Fun | 10 |
Alternate Activity 5: Corner Questions — Sorting Questions Out | 15 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
With everything set to go, carve out a meditative moment for yourself. Relax. Take several deep breaths.
Explore your understanding of where we come from. Then search your sixth grade memories. How would you have answered the question then? How have your ideas developed since? Why? How can you lead participants into their own moments of questioning and thought?
Enjoy knowing that to join youth in their search of life's mysteries will be good and rewarding.
SESSION PLAN
OPENING (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Greet youth as they enter, and introduce yourself to any you do not already know. Ask each youth to write their name on a small piece of card stock and place it in the Kid for the Day bag or box. Hand out nametags you have made in advance or ask participants to make their own.
Sound the bell, tingsha chimes or other sound instrument to signal the youth to be silent. Tell them lighting a chalice when we gather is a rich Unitarian Universalist ritual, one the group will use each time it meets. Say, in your own words:
In Riddle and Mystery, the program we are beginning today, we will choose a Kid for the Day to light the chalice each time we met. Then, a bit later, because the program is about big questions, the Kid for the Day will announce the day's Big Question.
Reach into the Kid for the Day bag or box and select a name without looking. Announce the name and place the paper back in the bag or box. (If a Kid for the Day seems reluctant, allow them to pass. Draw another name or invite the participant to select one.)
Indicate where you have posted the chalice lighting words. Invite the Kid for the Day to light the chalice while you lead the group in reciting "May this chalice light show the way as we search through the riddle and the mystery."
Invite the group to share a moment of silence. End the silence by sounding the bell or tingshas. Explain that you will use this same ritual—chalice lighting, followed by silence—at each session.
If participants do not already know one another, ask them each to say their name and where they live. You can do more of a check-in, but keep it focused to avoid losing session time to long descriptions of movies seen or video games conquered.
Give Riddle and Mystery a positive introduction. Affirm that Unitarian Universalists often enjoy and even celebrate asking big questions. You might say:
Participating will be an interesting and fun way to think about the big questions people have been asking since the beginning of time. In Unitarian Universalism, asking the questions is just as important as getting answers.
Give any brief logistical or other information you wish to provide about the program.
If you want the group to create a covenant, post a sheet of newsprint. Ask the group, "What do you want this group to be like? How do you think we should act when we are together?" Write "Covenant" at the top of the newsprint. Explain that a covenant is an agreement people make with each other. Ask how the youth wish to agree they should act. Write down the ideas on which they seem to agree. Keep this activity brief, post the covenant in plain view and move on. Plan to keep the covenant posted for the duration of the program or repost it each time the group meets; you can lead the group to revise the covenant in future sessions, if that seems useful.
Announce that it is time to hear the Big Question of the day. Hand the Kid for the Day a copy of Handout 1 and help them understand and implement the instructions (calling for a drum roll, then announcing the question dramatically—after this first session, the procedure should become routine). Write the question on the newsprint under the "Today's Big Question" sign.
Ask the Kid for the Day to extinguish the chalice. Move the chalice table aside as necessary to allow movement in the room.
Set aside the "Today's Big Question" sign and the Kid for the Day bag or box, with the names and extra pieces of card stock, for re-use.
Including All Participants
If the group includes youth who may have difficulty reading, be sure you routinely allow the Kid for the Day to pass.
Use this opening session to assess any special needs among the youth. Plan to speak with parents, your director of religious education, or the youth themselves about those needs, as appropriate and as required so you can adjust activities to the satisfaction of all.
ACTIVITY 1: BIG QUESTIONS IN SONG (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This activity introduces this program's first three Big Questions and engages youth to have fun with rhythm and chant and learn a great Unitarian Universalist song.
Indicate where you have posted the questions. Explain that Paul Gauguin, a French painter and thinker (1848-1903), once asked three famous big questions: "Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?" The first, of course, is today's Big Question.
Invite participants to form small groups and create a rhythmic chant or song, in five minutes, using the words of the three questions. Tell them songs may include one part or more, in any musical style. When they have finished, groups will share their creations, then learn a musical version from a Unitarian Universalist song book.
Provide newsprint and markers and help groups gather in spaces separate enough so they will not interfere with each other. Monitor the groups.
Give a two-minute warning. Then, call them back together. Let them perform their songs for each other.
Explain that Gaugin's questions have been used in lyrics for a song in Singing the Journey, the Unitarian Universalist hymnbook supplement. Post the words, if you have written them on newsprint. You might say:
UU songs and hymns tell us a lot about what Unitarian Universalists think and believe. This one shows us that UUs think the big questions are important.
Sing or at least read the words from Hymn 1003, "Where Do We Come From?" If you have enough song books, lead the song as a round. If you have a recording, play it for the group.
Explain that the song's composer, Brian Tate, added the third, "Mystery" line. Ask what participants think about that line. Do they agree that life is a riddle and a mystery? Do they think the mystery can ever be totally solved?
Conclude with words like these:
Unitarian Universalists do not always agree about the answers to the big questions. Nevertheless, they think that searching for the answers is important, and they celebrate the idea—in the words of the song—that "life is a riddle and a mystery."
Including All Participants
Be sure that small groups meet in spaces accessible to all youth.
ACTIVITY 2: WIT TIME — OUR OWN ANSWERS (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Announce that it is WIT Time. Indicate the newsprint you have posted and explain that WIT stands for "What I Think." Tell the youth they will use this time to think about their own answers to today's Big Question. You might say:
WIT Time is the time to use our wits and think about what we think.
Ask participants to pair up by turning to a person next to them. Discourage attempts to scurry around the room finding best friends. Tell them this activity will help them get to know one another better. If the group has an odd number of participants, pair one with a co-leader.
Explain that this is a timed activity. Say:
When I give the signal to begin, one partner will ask the other, "Where do you come from?" The second will answer and then ask their partner the same question. Continue asking the same question back and forth. You must each give a different answer each time. After 90 seconds, I will signal you to stop.
Offer that youth might answer with the school they come from, the address they live at, and so on.
Give the signal to begin. After 90 seconds, signal the pairs to stop.
Invite participants to call out the types of answers they gave each other. Record responses on newsprint. You will probably get answers like street addresses, towns, schools and family names or countries of origin.
Ask if anybody answered the question as if they were speaking for the whole human race. In other words, did they try to say where the whole human race comes from?
Say that most big questions like "Where do we come from?" can be asked and answered at different levels. If somebody asks where you come from, your town or street address is a good answer. However, saying where the human race comes from is a good answer, too. The bigger the answer can be, the bigger the question seems to be.
Say in your own words:
When religions ask "where we come from," they usually do not mean towns or street addresses. They mean something larger.
Explain that you will speak more about how the human race began in a later session. Today you are going to hear a story about one very big answer to the question of where absolutely everything came from.
ACTIVITY 3: INTERACTIVE STORY — TURTLES (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Present the story. As you read aloud or paraphrase the script, follow the leader instructions for making the story interactive with the group.
ACTIVITY 4: WCUU — FIRST BROADCAST (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
In this two-part activity, participants first set up their WCUU studio, then present a brief WCUU report on where we come from.
Explain that WCUU (or, KCUU) are the call letters of a television station run by the group. The letters stand for Wisdom (or Knowledge) of the Community of Unitarian Universalists. Say that today you will spend a few minutes setting up the studio, then the group will present its first WCUU news report on Today's Big Question.
Point out the space and any equipment the group will use for WCUU.
Tell the group there are a variety of jobs to do before and during the WCUU broadcast. Explain the jobs and then ask for volunteers.
Before the Broadcast
1. Ask volunteers to create a very brief theme song—ideally, 10 seconds—for the WCUU shows. If you have an audio recorder/player, have them record the song to use each time the group meets. (If you have recorded music from Activity 1, it could be the theme song, but having the youth make a new one will be more fun for them. You might suggest the youth sing or simply chant the words.)
2. Make a backdrop. While the recording is being done, invite other participants to design and make a backdrop for the show. Consider having them draw a variety of question marks on newsprint, then taping the newsprint on a wall. Or let them suggest their own design, perhaps featuring the WCUU call letters. If you have time, invite them to use heavier paper and paint, for a more durable backdrop.
3. Set up the studio, including the real or simulated equipment. Ask volunteers to arrange chairs for the Anchor, the NUUs Analyst and designate where the Roving Reporters will stand, and position cameras, microphones, lights and any other equipment. If you are using real equipment, show volunteers how to use each item properly. Youth operating unfamiliar equipment should work with an adult who knows the equipment well.
4. Additional jobs could include writing and/or drawing a short station break announcement and making name cards with On-Air People's roles (especially useful for longer WCUU segments when you may wish to switch roles midway to include more youth as On-Air People).
The Broadcast
When the theme music and backdrop are ready, ask for volunteers to staff your first show. If the group is small, co-leaders will take the Studio Crew roles. If the group is large, expand the Studio Crew as needed and/or set up seating for an in-studio audience.
Explain that you will need On-Air People and Studio Crew. On-Air People will include an Anchor, two Roving Reporters, two Typical UUs and a NUUs Analyst. The Studio Crew might include a director, a floor director, a camera operator, a sound engineer, a lighting director, a script supervisor and multiple production assistants.
Consider giving your Kid for the Day first chance at being the Anchor. The script for this WCUU broadcast is quite short; most sixth graders will be able to read it easily. Also, this script is complete (although you may invite youth to add to it, if you have time). WCUU segments in some later sessions will ask youth to create their own dialogue.
If you are using real equipment, give technical roles to youth who know how to use the equipment; if you have a recorded theme song, choose a sound engineer familiar with your music player. You should probably be the director for this first WCUU broadcast. You might ask a youth to assist you. Consider using youth directors in later WCUU segments.
Give scripts to all who need them.
Tell the group when the show should end to keep the session on schedule; assign a Studio Crew member (director or floor director) to watch the time.
Begin the broadcast.
After the Broadcast
Make sure technical equipment is shut down and put away properly. Engage volunteers to "break down" the WCUU studio and store reusable equipment and materials.
Including All Participants
Try to place youth in roles they want and which will best engage them. Most youth need an active role to be fully engaged, yet some can have a meaningful experience as an audience member. Adapt the roles as needed, to give every youth a chance to try roles that interest them.
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Briefly summarize the session with words like these:
Today we talked about big questions and we focused on one: "Where do we come from?" We heard a UU song that asks that question and says "life is a riddle and a mystery." In WIT Time, we thought about our own answers. Next, we heard a story about where absolutely everything comes from. Finally, we did our first WCUU broadcast, and heard some typical UU ideas about where we come from.
Distribute the Taking It Home handout. Suggest participants use the activities to continue exploring the themes of today's session.
Relight the chalice. Ask the group to say these closing words with you:
May this light shine on in each of us as we search for the answers to our own biggest questions.
Extinguish the chalice (or ask the Kid for the Day to do it). Sound the bell or tingshas to end the session.
FAITH IN ACTION: ECONOMIC JUSTICE
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Among the big questions most young people eventually ask are two related to economic justice: Why is the world so unfair, and what should and can I do about the injustice I see? The Faith in Action segments in the Tapestry of Faith curriculum series offers a wide variety of answers to those questions.
In Riddle and Mystery, economic justice is a recurring Faith in Action theme. Consider three possible approaches:
1. Identify a long-term social justice project that your group can work on in some way during every session.
2. Have the group participate in the specific Faith in Action activities provided for each session.
3. Combine the first two approaches.
If possible, directly involve your youth with the people they are trying to help. However, this is not always easy or even possible. In some communities, soup kitchens are welcoming places where young people can assist, while in other communities they may be less safe than you would like, or difficult to access. Some wonderful projects involve people in need in faraway communities, even on other continents.
The more hands-on the project, the better. It is valuable for youth to ask others in their congregation for money to fund a project, but it is better if the youth earn the money with car washes, bake sales and other activities. It is good for youth give money to Habitat for Humanity, but it is better—more rewarding for all and more fun for many youth—if they can help build homes.
For this first session, you might explain Faith in Action simply with ideas like this:
Many Unitarian Universalists practice faith in action. This means we try to make their actions fit their beliefs. Through Faith in Action projects, we can help make the world a better place. Faith in Action is part of the answer Unitarian Universalists give to Paul Gauguin's third question, "Where are we going?" In other words, "What are we and the world going to become?" We believe our own actions make a difference.
Explain that Riddle and Mystery often suggests that youth do Faith in Action projects connected with economic justice. Ask what the group thinks "economic justice" means. (Simply put, it means giving everybody a fair share of Earth's resources—enough to be safe, healthy and comfortable.) Then move into the activity.
Economic Justice Continuums. Help your youth explore their ideas about economic justice by offering the questions on Leader Resource 3, Economic Justice Continuums. Explain that a continuum in this case means a range of possible answers to a question. Invite the youth to stand. Indicate one side of the room to represent "yes" and the other to represent "no." Ask them to move to the answer that they think is best, or stand somewhere in between if they have reasons to answer both yes and no. Suggest they imagine a line stretching from one wall to the other with the numbers one to ten. One is for yes, and ten for no. Seven means mostly no, three means mostly yes, and so forth. Say that when youth have taken their positions, you will ask them to explain why they are there.
Economic Justice Meditation. Ask the youth to sit in meditative quiet and try to imagine a world with complete economic justice. Say that the meditation will begin when you sound the bell or tingshas the first time and continue in silence (except for meditative music if you are using it). Tell them the second ring of the bell or tingshas will signal them to quietly speak aloud some of their ideas about what full economic justice would be like. Their answers should be short—maybe one word, like "peace," or a few words like "everybody having equal health care." The third ring of the bell or tingshas will signal the end of the meditation.
Economic Justice Slogan. Ask youth to turn some of their ideas from the meditation into a punchy slogan. Process ideas by writing all contributions on newsprint, then helping youth reach a consensus.
Decide how to use the slogan. Point out that a slogan has power only when people act on it or spread it so other people will also act. How will youth share their slogan? Should they make a poster to leave in their meeting space for others to see? Make a series of smaller posters to place around their congregation's meeting space? Organize the group to take action right away.
A second, inexpensive option is to give youth simple nametag supplies and have them write their group slogan instead of their names on them.
A third, more complex option is making t-shirts. You can prepare a design in a computer program, such as Photoshop, then print out the design on iron-on transfer paper or have a specialty printer produce the t-shirt. Your group can decide together on the t-shirt design, but probably a leader or a parent will need to follow through from there. On the Computer Arts website, find out how to use Photoshop for t-shirt design (at www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials/2d__and__photoshop/photoshop_t-shirt_design).
Including All Participants
Adapt the continuum activity to include youth of limited mobility. You might have the group remain seated, write a number on a piece of paper to indicate their response to each question and hold up their paper when you give a signal.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Meet with your co-leaders after the session to reflect on it. How was your mix of discussion and action? Did you involve all youth fully and meaningfully in your sessions despite any limitations they might have? Do you feel the youth have a sense of the importance of big questions?
Identify and assign preparations for the next session. Session 2 looks at the relationship of religions, especially Unitarian Universalism, to the big questions; its Faith in Action activity suggests a visitor speak with your group about congregational social action work.
TAKING IT HOME
Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to receive answers, even if the answers hurt. — Paul Tillich
Talk about the quote. Paul Tillich was a religious philosopher who lived from 1886 to 1965. He seems to be saying that being religious means asking and trying to answer big questions. Do you agree with that? Do you think most Unitarian Universalists agree with that?
WHAT WE DID TODAY
We talked about big questions in general and one in particular: "Where do we come from?" We heard a song that includes the question and says "life is a riddle and a mystery." We talked about some of our own answers, and we heard a story that explains everything by saying it is "turtles all the way down." We set up our WCUU television studio and did a WCUU broadcast about some UU ideas about where we come from.
ANSWERING TODAY'S BIG QUESTION
What do family members and friends have to say about the question: "Where do we come from?"
HAVE FUN
Find your own way to have fun with questions. Play a question-based game, like Jeopardy. Try some riddles. Or, play Twenty Questions: One player thinks up the name of a person, place or object that others have to guess by asking "yes" or "no" questions. Whoever gets the answer (by asking "Is it so-and-so? (or such-and-such?)" is the winner and gets to think up the next challenge. Consider a round or two of Twenty Questions about people and things connected to your religion and congregation.
PHOTO CHALLENGE
Photograph something that makes you ask a question. What might that be? A grand piano in the middle of a field would make you ask, "What is that doing there?" Maybe you look out a window and see a bird feeder that makes you ask, "What kind of birds come there?" or "Does it need to be filled?" Bring your photo to the next session of Riddle and Mystery.
SHARED SEARCH
Visit a place that can help you answer big questions. What will it be? A church? A museum? Where else can you go?
FAMILY RITUALS
The sessions of Riddle and Mystery all begin with a chalice lighting ritual. Many other UU events also include rituals. Rituals are not just for religions. Families have rituals, too — ways they usually act together on certain occasions. You might have rituals that you follow together on holidays like Hanukkah or Christmas. Some families share the ritual of beginning each meal by saying grace, or thanks. What are some of your rituals? Where did they come from? Are they connected with your religious ideas? Do they help your family affirm or celebrate something else?
NIGHT WALK
Take a family walk to look at the sky on a nice, clear night. What do you see? What questions come to mind? Think if you were a cave person who lived many centuries ago and never saw a science book. Would your questions be different? Would the places you looked for answers be different?
TEACHING THE SONG
Share the song from the session with your family. It is ""Where Do We Come From?" Maybe you can borrow a copy of Singing the Journey to look at the music together; the song is Hymn 1003.
FAMILY FAITH IN ACTION
Look around your home for images of people working for economic justice. Include books, magazines and newspaper articles, as well as congregational and community service projects that involve your family members.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: NOTABLE THOUGHTS (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Notable Thoughts is the first Alternate Activity offered in each session of Riddle and Mystery. Participants record their thoughts about today's Big Question in notebooks you provide and keep in your meeting space. In most sessions, five minutes will be enough time. This session suggests more so you can distribute notebooks and have youth write their names on them.
Distribute notebooks and pens or pencils. Invite participants to write their names on the notebook covers. Tell them the notebooks are a place to record their own thoughts, in words or drawings, about each session's Big Question. Say the notebooks will be private. You will keep them between sessions but not look at them. Youth can take them home at the end of Riddle and Mystery. They may wish to use them in an activity suggested for the final session.
Remind them of today's Big Question: "Where do we come from?" Say that if they have nothing to record, they should feel free to doodle or relax.
Give them about five minutes to work quietly in their notebooks. When time is up, offer that they may seal their notebooks with masking tape before handing them in. Collect the notebooks.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: CHALLENGE QUESTION (5 MINUTES)
Description of Activity
Challenge questions guide a deeper inquiry for especially thoughtful individuals and groups.
Remind the group of the last line spoken by the woman in the story:
It's turtles all the way down.
Say that two men named Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein wrote a book called Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar. They tell the turtle story in the book, then talk about what philosophy is like. They say:
Questions beget questions, and those questions beget another whole generation of questions. It's questions all the way down.
Ask:
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 3: TURTLE SHELL ART (30 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Have youth create paper-plate turtle shells with thoughtful and artistic content and use them to explore the idea of "turtles all the way down." You can have the youth work individually or in pairs.
Show the youth where to get supplies and where to make their turtle shells. Distribute Handout 2 and review the instructions with the group so everyone understands what to do.
When all have finished their turtle shells, let volunteers share with the group. Give special attention to the inside art—the items youth would want in their own turtle-shell homes, and the big questions they think turtles might ask.
If you have time, ask the group to make a turtle tower by stacking all their turtle shells together. Remind them of the story's idea of "turtles all the way down." Lead a discussion with these questions:
Mention that turtles are found in the creation myths and folktales of many cultures; share any examples you have found.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 4: QUESTIONING FUN (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This light-hearted activity makes the important point that questions can be fun as well as thought-provoking and reinforces that questions are a vital part of life.
Invite youth to talk about fun with questions. Explain that we can have different feelings about different questions. Some questions may cause us to say "Huh?" Other questions might cause fear. Ask for examples of scary questions. (Some possibilities: What is that hairy thing crawling up your leg? Did you hear what happened to so-and-so? Are you ready for a test on yesterday's homework?)
Point out that people spend lots of time and energy on questions that are meant for entertainment. Ask for some examples and record them on newsprint. Responses might include quiz shows, games like Jeopardy and Twenty Questions, riddles and other jokes.
Ask why question-and-answer jokes are so popular. (One reason might be that the question makes you think before you hear the punch line, and while you are thinking, you are expecting something funny, so you tend to laugh even at jokes that are not very funny.)
Ask youth to describe any questioning games they like. Invite them to share any jokes they know involving questions. Point out that they are in a religious exploration program, and request that they share jokes that are on the clean side and do not make fun of other people. You might say:
The rule is: If in doubt, keep it to yourself. Some jokes that you and your friends find harmless and fun may not be appropriate here.
If nobody has mentioned knock-knock jokes, mention them yourself and give an example. (Knock knock. Who's there? Ben. Ben who? Ben knocking so long my hand hurts.) Ask for other examples. Then challenge the group to complete this sequence: "Knock knock. / Who's there? / UU. / UU who?" Possible completions include: "You, you usually are," and "You, you UU." The completions do not have to be great.
If you have time and feel comfortable, mention that there are jokes about Unitarian Universalists which involve questions. One of the best known begins: "Why did the UU cross the road?" One answer is: "To support the chicken in its search for its own path."
As time allows and as appropriate, contribute additional questioning jokes of your own.
End by asking if participants are surprised to realize how questions bring fun, connection to others and maybe even a sense of meaning to our lives.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 5: CORNER QUESTIONS — SORTING QUESTIONS OUT (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This activity gives participants a sense of how human questioning relates to religion.
Point out the four signs (RELIGION, SELF, SCIENCE, FRIENDS & FAMILY) posted in the corners. Explain that you will ask a series of questions, and that after each one, youths should go to the corner showing the best possible source for good answers. You might say:
For example, if the question asks, "What causes lightning?" and you believe the explanation is entirely scientific, you might go to the science corner. Or, if you think thunderstorms might come from God to punish or reward people, you might go to the religion corner.
Sometimes you may think there are two or more sources that could answer a question. In that case, go to the corner of your first choice, and point to the corner or corners of your other choices.
Have the group stand. Then ask any of the questions from Leader Resource 4, Corner Questions, and let youths move to the corners of their choice. When all are in place, ask volunteers to explain their reasoning. Why have they chosen to stand where they are? Say they can move to another corner if somebody else convinces them that the new corner is a better place to be.
Ask as many of the questions as you have time for, in any order you wish. Add some questions of your own, if you like. When youth stand in one corner and point elsewhere, ask them to talk about why more than one source might provide a good answer to the question.
With three or four minutes remaining, lead the youth to discuss what types of question each of the sources is best at answering. Use these questions:
Conclude with words like these:
Most Unitarian Universalists agree that you need to go to different places and use different tools to answer different questions. We will see that all through Riddle and Mystery. In fact, Unitarian Universalists have a list of sources we use to help answer questions—especially the big ones. We will talk about our Sources more in another session.
Including All Participants
Modify the activity so youth with limited mobility can participate fully. Instead of standing and moving, participants might point to the corners of their choices. Or, give each youth four cards with 1, 2, 3 and 4 on them, and invite them to hold up a card to make their choices.
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 1:
STORY: TURTLES
Adapted from an anecdote told in A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (Bantam, 1988), Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein (Penguin Group, 2007) and other sources. The Wikipedia website presents the story in a variety of versions.
What if I ask you where everything comes from? What will you say?
Leader: Invite responses. You might repeat the questions to elicit multiple responses and sustain the conversation for few moments.
There's a well known story about a famous person who was explaining how things got started. Some people say the person was Bertrand Russell, a British philosopher and mathematician, but that doesn't really matter. Whoever it was spoke for a time about stars and planets in orbit and comets and things like that, then finally stopped and asked if anybody had questions.
An older woman stood up at the back of the hall and objected. She might have used words like these: "That sounds good. But it's just plain silly. It's gibberish. It's poppycock. That's not at all how things are."
"Well how are they?" asked the lecturer.
"The earth is a flat plate," said the woman. "And it's resting on the back of a giant turtle."
Leader: Ask what the youth would have replied if they had been the lecturer. Accept some ideas and then continue with the story.
The lecturer smiled. "I don't see how that can be true," he said. "Because if the earth is a flat plate being held up by a turtle, what is holding the turtle up?"
"You are a very clever young man," the woman replied. "But the fact is that it's turtles all the way down."
Leader: Ask for comments on her response. Accept a few. Then continue, allowing further comments as time allows.
The lecturer and the old woman were both trying to answer some of the oldest and biggest questions: How did everything start? How does it work?
The old woman's explanation is something most of us do not believe in. We think that if we sent a rocket ship out as far as it could possibly go, then asked it to take a picture, we would not see a big turtle holding everything up. If we went back to the beginning of time we might see a big bang, but not a turtle suddenly holding up a flat plate with everything on it. But somebody—maybe the old woman in the story—might say, "You cannot go back through time. And the rocket has not gone far enough out into space yet. Forever is a long way away, and if the rocket could really go forever you could see the turtle. But you cannot ever quite get to forever, so you will just have to believe what I say about the turtle."
There are many different stories about where everything comes from. The Bible, for example, says that God created everything.
Leader: Ask participants if they know any other creation stories. Note that a later session of Riddle and Mystery asks how life began and talks about evolution.
That's the thing about a lot of big questions. It is difficult, and maybe impossible to prove the answers. We are still asking the big questions that millions of people asked before us and that billions of people will ask after us. That is one reason we have religions, to help us think about the big questions and possible answers. You might say that big questions are the ones that religions are best at helping us answer.
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 1:
HANDOUT 1: TODAY'S BIG QUESTION
To the Kid for the Day:
You have two jobs. The first is getting your group excited about hearing today's Big Question. The second is announcing the question.
1. Say to the group, "Give me a drum roll!" Then wait for a minute while the drum roll builds. (Here is how to do a drum roll: Everybody slaps their thighs, one leg first, then the other, back and forth, beginning gently and getting louder and louder.)
2. When the drum roll is good and loud, hold up your hands to signal "Stop!" Then read today's Big Question. Here it is:
Where do we come from?
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 1:
HANDOUT 2: TURTLE SHELL ART
Here is how to do your Turtle Shell Art project:
1. Get two paper plates and drawing supplies like markers.
2. Think ahead to what your completed turtle shell will look like: As you finish, you will put the hollow sides of your two plates together and staple or tape the rims together in one spot so people can open them up and look at the insides. But before you do that, you need to draw and write on the plates.
3. On the inside of one plate, draw pictures of "must-have" items you could not do without and would have to have in your house if you carried it with you wherever you went, the way a turtle does. You might draw a computer, for example, or a pet dog—if you think these are really "must-haves."
4. On the inside of the other plate, write three or four big questions that you think a turtle might ask about life.
5. Now decorate the other sides of the two plates (the sides that will show when you put the plates together) to look like a turtle shell. One plate will be the top, and the other the bottom. Feel free to create a unique turtle.
6. Do anything else you like to the plates.
7. Now, fasten them together. Use tape or staples to hold the plates together in only one spot so you can open them and show other people.
8. You are done.
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 1:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: UU PRINCIPLES AND SOURCES
Create a poster of the Unitarian Universalist Principles and another poster of the Unitarian Universalist Sources.
There are seven Principles which Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote:
Unitarian Universalism (UU) draws from many Sources:
These Principles and Sources of faith are the backbone of our religious community.
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 1:
LEADER RESOURCE 2: WCUU SCRIPT
To the Anchor:
Today's WCUU program is a news report about Unitarian Universalist ideas on where we come from. Your job is to read your lines and keep the show moving as this script describes.
[Director: Cue the station break.]
[Director: Cue the Anchor.]
Anchor: This is WCUU, Wisdom of the Community of Unitarian Universalists, on the air.
[Director: Cue the theme music.]
Anchor: Good morning. I am [give your real or stage name]. I am here in the WCUU newsroom with a UU report on one of the biggest questions ever asked: "Where do we come from?" Today we will hear two roving reporters interviewing typical UUs about their views. Our report will conclude with a brilliant comment by WCUU's brilliant NUUs Analyst. That is NUUs with two big Us. We take you now to our First Roving Reporter.
[Director: Cue the First Roving Reporter.]
First Roving Reporter: Hi there, Anchor. Hi there, world. I'm standing on a street corner talking with the morning's First Typical UU, and I am just about to spring Today's Big Question. So tell me, First Typical UU, where do we come from?
First Typical UU: That's an easy one. We come from stardust. That is where it all began in the huge Big Bang a long time ago. First there was nothing. Then there was stardust. Then there was everything. Science explains it all from then on, and that's where we come from.
First Roving Reporter: Thank you, First Typical UU. Now back to you, Anchor.
Anchor: And now it's on to our Second Roving Reporter. Hey there, Second, what have you got for us?
[Director: Cue the Second Roving Reporter.]
Second Roving Reporter: I have the Second Typical UU, and I'm asking Today's Big Question right now: So what do you think, Second Typical UU, where do we come from?
Second Typical UU: Mostly from mystery, then from a million different places after that. I come from here, and I come from there, and I come from my parents, and I come from everywhere, and I come from mystery. How did life begin? That’s a mystery. Did a god get it started? That’s a mystery. I love a good mystery, don’t you?
Second Roving Reporter: Now wait a minute, I am asking the questions around here.
Anchor: Wait a minute both of you, you are getting ahead of us. WCUU will talk about the beginning of life and whether there is a god on later programs. Right now Today's Big Question is "Where do we come from?" So let's turn to our NUUs Analyst to hear what UU wisdom says.
[Director: Cue the NUUs Analyst.]
NUUs Analyst: Thank you, Anchor. As we have just heard, UUs respond to Today's Big Question in many ways. In fact UUs respond to all big questions—and little ones, too—in many ways. Some people say that UUs can believe anything they want. That is not really true. UUs do not believe that humans appear out of space ships that pass by in the night. Science tells them otherwise. But UUs love exploring mysteries. That's why our theme song talks about life "as a riddle and a mystery." UUs look to science for their answers, and they look to all the world's great sources of ideas and information. Like books, like different religions, like stories about turtles all the way down. UUs . . .
Anchor (interrupting): Thank you, NUUs Analyst. I am sure you have more to say, but we are out of time today. All you viewers out there will just need to keep watching our future reports to find out more about big questions and UU responses to them.
[Director: Cue the theme music.]
[Director: Cue the station break.]
Anchor: This is WCUU now going off the air. That is WCUU for Wisdom of the Community of Unitarian Universalists. Tune in again—same time, same station. This is [your real or stage name] signing off.
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 1:
LEADER RESOURCE 3: ECONOMIC JUSTICE CONTINUUMS
1. I believe one of the biggest questions people should ask is how to achieve economic justice in the world.
2. I think there is economic justice in the world right now.
3. I believe it's everybody for themselves. Everybody should work to get as much money as they possibly can and keep it for themselves.
4. Economic justice means my little brother (pretend you have one even if you do not) should give half his toys away to a kid who has nothing.
5. Economic justice means the government should take my iPod or cell phone or camera or bicycle away from me and give it to some other kid who has nothing.
6. It is the job of governments to create economic justice.
7. If one country is poor and another country is rich, the poor one should attack the rich one and make it share its wealth.
8. It is the job of religions and congregations to create economic justice.
9. It is the job of individuals like you and me to create economic justice.
10. There should be a law that limits how much money any one person can have.
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 1:
LEADER RESOURCE 4: CORNER QUESTIONS
Should I go out for the soccer team this year?
Why does the universe exist?
Why does water boil when you heat it?
What happens when you die?
Why doesn't so-and-so like me?
Why do I look the way I do?
Should I believe in God?
What's the best way to cut sandwiches? Side to side or corner to corner?
Should I watch that show even if my parent said not to?
Where do dreams come from?
What am I allergic to?
What should I be when I'm an adult?
Why do airplanes crash?
Why do roses smell so nice?
Was Jesus the son of God?
What's the name of that dog over there?
What does "faith" mean?
How tall am I going to be?
Will the world ever end?
What's my favorite color?
Should I take that bicycle that somebody left on the street?
Why do wars happen?
FIND OUT MORE
Read "Home grown Unitarian Universalism," (at www.uuworld.org/life/articles/90610.shtml) an article in UU World, Spring 2008 by William J. Doherty, for more ideas to extend this session at home.
The National Public Radio program, "Present at the Creation: The Quiz Show," offers information on the history of quiz shows (at www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/quizshow/index.html). For more about quiz and game shows, visit The Museum of Broadcast Communications (at www.museum.tv/archives/etv/Q/htmlQ/quizandgame/quizandgame.htm) website.