Do more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practice. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget. Do more than dream: work. — William Arthur Ward

Big Question: Is life fair?

This session's Big Question may be the only one in Riddle and Mystery that commonly and appropriately receives a one-word answer: "No." Certainly most sixth grade participants will agree. Life is not fair. Somebody gets the short stick and somebody the long one. Bad stuff can happen to you, to me, to anyone for no good reason. (See Session 7: "Why do bad things happen?")

Well, so what if life isn't fair? Most youth already know that when something is unfair they can sit and mope or they can do something about it. Now they will learn that doing something about injustice is an aspect of Unitarian Universalist faith, and in fact a kind of answer to today's Big Question.

Activity 1 involves a snack. Find out about allergies or food restrictions to provide a snack everyone can eat. To add a brief story from your own congregation to the central story, "UUs in Action," do some research in advance.

Goals

This session will:

• Pose the Big Question "Is life fair?" and explore Unitarian Universalist responses
• Develop participants' capacity to respond to unfairness not only to themselves, but to others
• Demonstrate how some Unitarian Universalist youth and adults have worked to protest or correct unfair situations.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

• Evaluate whether particular scenarios and life, in general, are fair
• Learn about Unitarian Universalist youth and adult efforts to correct injustice
• Apply Unitarian Universalist Principles and values to address hypothetical, typical sixth-grade fairness situations
• Optional: Create video news reports about Unitarian Universalist youth social justice efforts.