By Pam Kennedy

When I was in eighth grade, a long way back, a new student came to our school. His name was Greg. He had been born without arms and wore the old-fashioned prostheses with metal hooks for hands and fingers. Kids made fun of him mercilessly.

One girl was not mean to Greg. She would speak with him at lunchtime. Their classes didn’t cross; Greg had been placed in a special education class, because of his physical disability. It couldn’t be said that he and that girl were friends. They were acquaintances, with a cordial relationship.

Greg often took papers back and forth from the school office. One day, he dropped a paper in the school corridor. That girl happened to be going to class and saw a big ring of kids in the hall, like the kind that would form when there were fistfights. Nobody was fighting, however. The kids were watching Greg and making fun of him. He couldn’t slip his hook under the paper to grab it. He was kneeling on the floor and trying to pick it up with his teeth.

The girl was outraged. Pushing through the students, she picked up the paper and gave it to Greg, to catcalls and disgusted groans. Pushing through the crowd raised a lot of adrenaline for her and, as I remember, her face turned red. Some comments were made to her in the hallways that day, the results of her spoiling others’ fun. But she was glad for what she had done, no matter the social consequences.

That girl was me. I don’t share my story for any congratulations or honor. I share it because it came to mind when I was preparing to talk with children at my Unitarian Universalist congregation about “Brave Love.” I sat with it for a bit and had a “wow” moment. Had I really done that?!

I remember having a surge of anger that brought on this act, where I could part a gang of kids and storm toward Greg. I was angry because Greg was always ostracized and bullied. I’m sure when I was running in there my mind was also running, a mile a minute, thinking what the repercussions would be. Yet I went on.

Sometimes brave acts are planned; sometimes people just follow their instinct for what is fair and right, without second-guessing. Righteous anger can be like fuel that helps us stand up for love, justice, and peace.

If you have ever approached someone who said, “What a retard” or “That’s so gay” and told them their words were offensive, you have exhibited Brave Love. If you sit at lunch with a schoolmate who is bullied or shunned because their clothing is old, they immigrated to the U.S., or they belong to a different race or ethnicity than most of the other kids, then you are showing Brave Love.

Turning our anger at injustice into acts of love is what UUs do.

Additional Activities

Download the Winter 2014 UUWorld Families Pages (pdf) for more activities.

Originally published in the “Families Weave a Tapestry of Faith” insert in the Winter 2014 Issue of The UUWorld.