Where previously there had been nothing, now there was something. Within a black hole, a “singularity” developed. What’s a “singularity?” It’s an area in a black hole where the density is so great the pressure squeezes bits of finite matter into a piece of infinite matter. Do you understand that?

You have probably seen pictures of the man from India known as “Gandhi:” a skinny, bald-headed man with wire-rimmed glasses, a white cloth wrapped around him. Gandhi made history by practicing nonviolence as a way to confront power. Nonviolent “civil disobedience” is a way for oppressed people to…

Compiled by Tirrell H. Kimball of the Allen Avenue Unitarian Universalist Church in Portland, Maine.Read — or ask volunteers to read — as many entries from this collection as time and interest allow. Twice upon a time, the religious education leader of a UU church in Portland, Maine, decided to…

Adapted from “The Story of Henry Bergh and the First Humane Society” in the curriculum Holidays and Holy Days by Charlene Brotman and Barbara Marshfield (Brotman Marsh-Field Curriculums). Copyright 1983. Used by permission. Sometimes, anger can be a good thing. Henry Bergh’s anger was….

Based on Hebrew scripture. Have you heard about Job? He had quite a story. You can find it in Hebrew scripture—the Book of Job. Job lived in the land of Uz, and at the beginning, he was a happy man—as he should have been. He had ten great kids and a wonderful wife. He was wealthy, and he was a…

The date is January 15, 2009. The time is 3:06 p.m. You are on board U. S. Air Flight 1549, still on the ground at LaGuardia Airport in New York City. You are excited. This is the first time you have been on a plane without your family. Today is a Thursday….

“My UU Experience” is taken from the website of the First Universalist Society in Franklin, Massachusetts, and used by permission of its author, Margaret Barthel….

“Better Living through Chemistry.” This was the motto of one of America’s leading corporations in the 1950s. Chemicals could make better clothing. Chemicals could improve food—not to mention food packaging. Chemicals could increase farm yields and improve our environment. Chemicals had helped us…

Based on excerpts, adapted with permission, from Love and Death: My Journey through the Valley of the Shadow by Forrest Church (Beacon Press, 2008). Reverend Forrest Church is a minister of a very large Unitarian Universalist church in New York City. Rev. Church has cancer….

“The Big Question” by Betsy Williams is taken from uu&me, Summer, 2006 (Church of the Larger Fellowship). Used by permission of the author. Milo liked numbers….

Based on a wisdom tale of Japanese origin. Once upon a time, there was a stonecutter. He spent his life cutting up rocks for use in this and that and the other. He liked his work. He was a happy man. At least he thought he was, until one day he was cutting stone for the house of a rich family.

“The Thief Within” is taken from Kindness, A Treasury of Buddhist Wisdom (Spokane, Eastern Washington University Press, 2001). Many centuries ago, a young, novice monk traveled alone in the mountains of Tibet. He wandered about penniless, begging for a meager meal from time to time….

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. What if I ask you where everything comes from? What will you say? Leader: Invite responses.

The First Situation is based on “Taking Justice to the Community” by Kimberly French, in UU World, September/October 2002. The Second Situation is based on “Work Camp” by Heather Robb, in UU World, September/October 2002. The Fourth Situation is based on First Situation: Life is unfair….

A speaker in the Bible says to God: “Truly you are a God who hides himself, O God and Savior of Israel.” This is verse 15 from Chapter 45 in the Book of Isaiah. But the Bible is not the only place people talk about God hiding. Stories from different times and cultures tell of the same thing….

Characters Scenelet One: Narrator, Parent, Little Kid Scenelet Two: Narrator, Pediatrician, Parent, Little Kid Scenelet Three: Narrator, Adult, UU Minister Scenelet Four: Narrator, Old Scientist, Old Scientist’s Young Friend SCENELET ONE Narrator: A Parent and a Little Kid were at the beach on a…