Centering (5 minutes)

This is a time to make the transition from the busy world to the group experience. A member of the group may read these words from the American poet Langston Hughes:

Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor –
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
‘Cause you find it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now –
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

Check-in (10 to 25 minutes)

Each person in the group has the opportunity to share something about his or her life. What significant events have taken place recently in your life? Have you accomplished something meaningful to you? Have you experienced any losses or setbacks? Have you had any insights or new ideas?

Group Discussion (45 to 70 minutes)

Our spiritual theme for this month is Hard Times. We will explore the spiritual theme of Hard Times by asking questions such as these: What assistance do we most welcome when we are experiencing Hard Times? During Hard Times, how might our sense of responsibility toward others and toward the larger community change?

For group discussion, please consider the questions associated with one or more of the following numbered sections. You need not address all of these sections, and you need not address them in this order.

1. Karen Armstrong wrote, “We are probably deluged with more images of pain than any previous generation; they are beamed into our homes nightly on the evening news. It is easy to get compassion fatigue and tempting to dismiss these spectacles from our minds, telling ourselves that there is nothing we personally can do and that this misery has nothing do to with us.”

Have you ever experienced compassion fatigue? Have you ever experienced “micro-despair” that discourages you from doing small positive actions because you are convinced that they will not make a difference?

2. Karen Armstrong wrote, “Instead of steeling ourselves against the intrusion of other people’s pain, we should regard our exposure to global suffering as a spiritual opportunity.”

How could exposure to global suffering be a spiritual opportunity?

3. Karen Armstrong wrote, “If we hug the memory of our own grief to ourselves, we can close our minds to other people’s wretchedness. We may even think that our unhappy experiences give us special privileges. But the Golden Rule requires us to use our afflictions to make a difference in the lives of others.”

Have you ever used the afflictions of your life to make a positive difference in the lives of others? Perhaps this was not apparent when you began but later you could discern that this was exactly what you were doing.

Have you ever used the afflictions of your own life as a way to avoid making a positive difference in the lives of others?

4. Karen Armstrong wrote, “Because we have a self-protective tendency to keep suffering at bay … we sometimes fail to recognize the signs of poverty, loneliness, grief, fear, and desolation in our own city, our own village, or our own family.”

Must we travel to exotic locations and make splashy entrances to make a positive difference in the world? Can we make a positive difference right here in Pittsburgh? How would that work? Can we make a positive difference in our own families? How would that work?

5. Karen Armstrong wrote, “Do not imagine that you are doomed to a life of grim austerity or that your involvement in suffering will drain your life of fun. In fact, you may find that alleviating the distress of others makes you a good deal happier.”

How would you describe the happiness that Karen Armstrong has in mind? How would this happiness differ from other kinds of happiness?

Conclusion (5 to 10 minutes)

What will you take away from this discussion? What would have made this time together more meaningful or satisfying to you? What did you enjoy? A group member may share these closing words by Unitarian Universalist minister Burton Carley:

One of the traditional values of the American way of life is captured by the phrase “live and let live.” It is a good value for respecting individualism and promoting tolerance, but it can never establish the beloved community which requires that we go a step beyond. The beloved community requires that we “live and help live.” To live and help live is what people of faith are about.