LOVE CONNECTS US
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 12: SEEING TRUTH/TRUE SEEING
BY MICHELLE RICHARDS AND LYNN UNGAR
© Copyright 2010 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/7/2014 8:23:56 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
SESSION OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Truth, like surgery, may hurt, but it cures. — Han Suyin, writer, A Many Splendored Thing
The Blake covenant asserts that we "seek the truth in love." This session offers the story of Unitarian Universalist minister David Pettee, who sought the truth about his family's history of owning slaves. In finding truth, he found pain, but also joy and healing. The children discern truth from lies in a game, and express the "tied together" theme of this program by weaving a God's Eye, an emblem of true seeing.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Welcoming and Entering | 0 |
Opening | 10 |
Activity 1: Story — Hard Truths | 10 |
Activity 2: Two Truths and a Lie Game | 20 |
Activity 3: Weaving God's Eyes | 15 |
Faith in Action: Political Issues Research | |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: Interview about Hard Congregational Truths | 15 |
Alternate Activity 2: Sharing Joys and Concerns | 10 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Find a place where you can be quiet with your thoughts. Close your eyes and breathe deeply for about five minutes, perhaps repeating a word or phrase to separate yourself from the activities of the day. When you feel settled and relaxed, consider:
Religious education is, at its heart, an ongoing process of seeking the truth. The loving framework you provide in leading this session sets the stage for participants to pursue the truth, wherever it may lead them.
SESSION PLAN
WELCOMING AND ENTERING
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
As participants arrive, invite them to make question mark ornaments. Tell the children that later they will hang the ornaments on the Rainbow Wall Hanging.
Including All Participants
If any participants have difficulty with fine motor control, encourage them to choose a sheet of card stock and hold a template on it for another child to trace a question mark. Children who have trouble tracing and cutting may be able to decorate ornaments with markers. Make sure they leave room on ornaments to write.
OPENING (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Love is the spirit of this church,
and service its law.
This is our great covenant:
To dwell together in peace,
To seek the truth in love,
And to help one another. — James Vila Blake
Description of Activity
Invite a participant to light the chalice. Lead the group to read aloud the Blake covenant. Say something like:
The covenant we said together talks about our covenant to "seek the truth in love." What happens when discovering the truth is something that is painful or uncomfortable for you? Can you think of some truths we might discover which could be hurtful to us? What would be an example of your seeking the truth—or telling the truth when it was difficult to do so? On our question mark ornaments, we will write ways we are truth seekers even when it is hard to do.
Invite everyone to select a question mark ornament and a marker, pen, or pencil. Encourage them to write on their ornament an example of seeking or telling the truth which was uncomfortable to do or had a painful result. Allow participants a few minutes to write. Then, invite them, one at a time, to tie their ornaments to the wall hanging, and as they do so, if they feel like sharing what they have written, read or say it aloud to the group.
After everyone has had a chance to attach an ornament, gather around the chalice and extinguish it together.
Including All Participants
Invite participants who cannot write on an ornament to share verbally while you or another participant serves as "scribe." If you know some participants may feel uncomfortable sharing in a group, let them know as they enter the room that later they will be invited to share about ways people can seek truth. This may help them prepare an idea before the sharing time; they can also pass.
ACTIVITY 1: STORY — HARD TRUTHS (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Read or tell the story to the group.
Invite the group to be silent for a moment to think about the story.
Begin a discussion by asking participants to recap the story in their own words. What they recall indicates what they found most meaningful or memorable.
Lead a discussion with these questions:
ACTIVITY 2: TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE GAME (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Description of Activity
Distribute paper and pencils. Invite the group to play Two Truths and a Lie. Explain:
Each participant writes down two things about themselves that are true, but which others might not know about them, or might find surprising. They also write down one lie—something that is not true about them.
Give them a minute to write. Then, invite each participant, in turn, to read their three statements aloud; encourage the children to mix up the order of true and false statements. Once a participant has read all three statements, invite the others raise hands to vote for the statement they think is a lie. After everyone has voted, the reader tells the group which statement was the lie.
Process with these questions:
Including All Participants
Ask volunteers to read their three statements to the group, rather than going around in a circle. If a child wishes to pass, that is fine.
ACTIVITY 3: WEAVING GOD'S EYES (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Show the group the sample God's Eye you have made. Tell them:
God's Eyes, or "ojos de dios", are a traditional craft of the Huichol Indians of Mexico and the Aymara Indians of Bolivia. This depiction of Divine sight can be an emblem of seeing the truth in all situations, and of ever-present love, even in the face of difficult truths.
Invite the children to make their own God's Eyes:
1. Cross two sticks, one over the other, in the shape of a plus sign. Tie them together by wrapping yarn around the plus sign, making an X.
2. Secure one end of the yarn with a knot on the back of the sticks.
3. Continue wrapping the yarn around the X, weaving over and under the crossed sticks. You will start to see a pattern—a series of diamond shapes, all tight up against each other, with no gaps between.
4. To switch colors, cut the yarn, tie a new color of yarn to the end, and continue weaving.
5. Keep weaving, over and under, changing colors as you wish. Stop as you approach the ends of the sticks, so the woven yarn will not slip off the edges.
6. To finish, wrap the yarn several times around the top stick, and then tie a loop of yarn which you can use to hang the God's Eye. Wrap the end of the yarn around the top stick a few more times, and then tie a knot in the back.
Allow participants to make more than one God's Eye if there is time.
You may wish to invite volunteers to hang a God's Eye on the Rainbow Wall Hanging, now or during your Closing. Or, encourage participants to display their God's Eyes in their rooms when they get home, as a reminder to look on their own actions with both honesty and self-love.
As children finish, ask them to reflect on what a God's Eye could mean. Ask:
Including All Participants
Some participants will have the dexterity to create a God's Eye with toothpicks and embroidery floss, while participants who have more difficulty with fine motor skills can weave a God's Eye using craft sticks and yarn.
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Explain that the session is almost over and that we will now work together as a community to clean the meeting space. Ask everyone to clean up their own area and the materials they were using first, and then to clean another area or help someone else. No one should sit in the circle until the meeting space is clean.
If you have not done so during Activity 3, invite volunteers to tie God's Eyes they have woven to the group's Rainbow Wall Hanging.
When the group is gathered, ask them to cross their arms in front of their body before taking the hands of the people next to them. Say "We are tied together in the spirit of truth when we... " and ask anyone who wishes to fill in a word or phrase about how we are tied together in truth. When everyone who wishes to share has done so, open the circle by having everyone, while still holding hands, turn to their right, so that everyone is facing out and no longer has their arms crossed in front of their body. (Be mindful of participants' physical mobility; use this closing activity only if you are sure all children can comfortably participate. As an alternative, simply invite the entire group to hold hands.)
Distribute copies of Taking It Home that you have prepared. Thank and dismiss participants.
FAITH IN ACTION: POLITICAL ISSUES RESEARCH
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Find out as much as possible about a significant and controversial issue, and present your findings as a letter to the editor and/or a letter to a relevant political figure.
This will work best in two meetings, with time for research in between. Do this as a group, or prepare the group to lead the activity with others in the congregation (e.g., older children, teens, and/or adults). Having the children and their parents work together could be ideal.
To save time, choose the topic yourself; write it on the newsprint. Or, lead the group to brainstorm topics (write suggestions on newsprint) and then choose one by voting. Possible topics are health care reform, mandatory testing in public schools, bans on particular breeds of dogs, the legal age for driving or voting, or an issue particular to your community, such as decisions about the use of public spaces.
Once you have a topic, have participants brainstorm questions they could use to pursue information; write the questions on newsprint. Be ready to suggest some leading questions to model participation.
Once the group has generated a rich set of questions, assign volunteers to research each question. Share ideas about how and where they might find information. Ask that their reports be brief—a few sentences or bullet points.
Time and technology constraints will probably mean that volunteers will need to go home to do their research, and then report back at a later gathering. At the second meeting, compile the information participants have gathered in the form of a Letter to the Editor or a report to a public official or committee.
If you cannot hold a second meeting, have participant/researchers email or mail their findings to a designated co-leader who can turn the findings into a report or a Letter to the Editor. Make sure you send all the researchers a copy of the report or letter, and inform the whole group about any response you receive.
Including All Participants
If any participants lack Internet access, assign researchers to work in pairs or small groups. If possible, arrange for participants to do their research using computers and the Internet at your congregation.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Reflect on and discuss with your co-leader(s):
Approach your religious educator for guidance, as needed.
TAKING IT HOME
Truth, like surgery, may hurt, but it cures. — Han Suyin, writer, A Many Splendored Thing
IN TODAY'S SESSION... we explored what it means to "seek the truth in love" through a true story of the Rev. David Pettee's research to learn about his slave-holding ancestors. Rev. Pettee's "hard truth" brought pain, but also joy, after he sought a connection with a descendant of a slave owned by his ancestor. We played a game in which we had to determine which personal statements people shared were true and which were lies. We wove God's Eyes, a traditional craft of indigenous people of the Americas, to embody the "tied together" theme of this program with an emblem of true seeing.
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. How do we seek the truth at school? Among friends? In our family? In our congregation? Talk about how you feel when you learn someone has lied to you. How do you feel when you lie, or hold back parts of the truth? How is seeking the truth in love different from seeking the truth without worrying about the love part?
A Family Adventure. You may want to explore your family ancestry as Rev. Pettee did, seeking the good, the bad, and the ugly about your own ancestors. You can find a great deal of information available online, often for free, at sites such as the Ancestor Hunt website (at www.ancestorhunt.com). If you have ancestors who lived and died locally, you might take a trip to the place they were buried. What you can learn from their graves and the graves of those around them?
A Family Game. During this session the children played a game in which we tried to distinguish true statements from false ones. "Two Truths and a Lie" may be harder to play in your family, since you know one another so well, but give it a try! Each participant writes down two things about themselves that are true, but which others might not know or might find surprising. They also write down one lie—a statement that they have done or experienced something they really haven't. Encourage everyone to mix up the order of the truths and the lie. Each person then has a turn to read their statements aloud once, and then a second time so the others can vote for the statement they think is a lie. After everyone votes, the reader tells which statement was a lie.
Since parents are likely to know most of the things family members have done (or at least what the children have done), you may want to begin all three statements with "I wish... ." Invite each player to write two of their real wishes (preferably, wishes that would surprise other family members), and one thing that they do not actually wish for.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: INTERVIEW ABOUT HARD CONGREGATIONAL TRUTHS (15 MINUTES)
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Congregations, like individuals, have family histories. Some stories of a congregation's past spark pride—congregational growth, involvement in important social issues, acts of caring. But congregations, like families, also have difficult or embarrassing episodes. Your group can "seek the truth in love" about your congregation's history in much the same way that Rev. Pettee did with his family history. Invite a long-term member or congregational historian to come speak with the group. Ask them to share, in particular, difficult or embarrassing times in the congregation's history. Prepare the children to ask follow-up questions. You might start the questions with these:
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: SHARING JOYS AND CONCERNS (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Description of Activity
In addition to building community through sharing information about important events in participants' lives, this version of sharing joys and concerns uses a ritual activity based on the metaphor of knots, allowing children to experience being literally "tied together".
Gather participants in a seated circle. Say:
We are all tied together by the bonds of community. What affects any one of us affects us all. We take time now to share our greatest joys and deepest concerns, events that have happened since last time we met which we hold in our hearts.
Invite a volunteer to go first, and give them the ball of yarn. Ask them to share their joy or concern and then, holding the end of the yarn, throw the ball of yarn to another child in the circle. This child may either share a joy or concern or choose to pass, but in either case they keep hold of the strand of yarn as they throw the ball of yarn to another participant. Continue until everyone has had a chance to share or pass, and the whole group is connected by a web of yarn.
At the end of the sharing you may invite participants to take turns winding the yarn back onto the ball. Or, pass around scissors and invite the children to cut a short piece of the yarn and tie it around their wrist as a sign of the covenant of caring which the group shares.
LOVE CONNECTS US: SESSION 12:
STORY: HARD TRUTHS
By the Reverend David Pettee.
One of the more important things that Unitarian Universalists try to do is to "seek the truth in love." This might sound easy to do. "So, what's so hard about it?" you might ask. Well, what happens when you think you know one story, but while seeking the truth about it, an entirely different story comes out? This happened to me a few years ago.
In my family, I am the person who knows more than anyone else about our ancestors. My grandfather used to be this person, as was his father before him. Over time, lots of great stories about our family were collected and passed down. I was so proud of all that my ancestors had done that I decided to keep learning as much about them as I could.
The Internet has made the search for old records so much easier! While my grandfather needed to use his vacation time to go and do research, I can sit at my computer and find these same records at my fingertips. And one day, in 2006, I found that an old record from the 1770's was searchable online. I typed in an ancestor's name, and living in his house in Rhode Island were four enslaved Africans. This was a huge surprise! I think the story made my ancestors feel embarrassed, so they had stopped talking about it, and gradually it was forgotten.
That there had been slavery in New England was also a surprise. I had thought that slavery only existed in the South. But slavery was practiced in the North for two hundred years! The more I learned about the truth, the more I wanted to know what really had happened. And after a year of researching, I learned that not only did I have several family members who enslaved Africans, I also had an ancestor who was a captain of a ship that brought slaves from Africa. This news was hard to accept at first, and made me feel ashamed about my family.
But my decision to "seek the truth in love" did not stop there. Because I came to know so much about my ancestor who was a ship's captain, I decided to go to Africa. I wanted to see with my own eyes the places that he visited. Amazingly, some of the buildings were still standing. Walking in his footsteps made the history come alive even more. The most unexpected thing was that I began to feel different inside. While the story was about bondage, I began to feel liberated from feeling so ashamed... free to talk truthfully about a story that still is so uncomfortable for so many people.
When I got back home, there was even more work to be done! I wanted to locate a person whose ancestor had been enslaved by my ancestor. I wanted to share all that I had learned, hoping that this information might help this person better understand their own family history. I felt that our two families were already joined by our common history.
Even though the life stories of African Americans were often not recorded in official public records, I learned that African Americans kept their own records. They did the best they could to leave a trail behind for others to follow. One day, looking at records of my ancestor, I found mention of an African American with the same last name! I began researching him, and gradually, his life story began to emerge. It became clear that he was one of the enslaved Africans from my ancestor's home. I found out who his descendants were, who their descendants were... and traced that family all the way to the present day.
A year and a half after I first began seeking the truth, I called Pat, who lived in New York City. I was really afraid she would be mad at me because of what my ancestor had done to her ancestor. But she wasn't mad at all. She was grateful that I had made the effort to learn as much as I could, and that I was willing to share it all. Pat knew very little about her family history. My information filled in a lot of gaps of missing information.
Pat and I have become good friends. We refer to one another as cousins. We have since met other people, those with ancestors who were enslaved and those with ancestors who enslaved others—for important and truthful conversation. While the legacy of slavery still makes a lot of people unhappy, we are learning that by being willing to face the truth together, we can build a new legacy. What started out as something so embarrassing and shameful for me now feels very hopeful, and I've made a number of great new friends!
FIND OUT MORE
The Caron-Net website has illustrated instructions for making God's Eyes (at www.caron-net.com/kidfiles/kidsapr.html).
Ancestor Hunt is a free website for searching ancestry (at www.ancestorhunt.com/). The Mormon church (at www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp) also offers help with genealogy research.
A UU World (at www.uuworld.org/) article about the Unitarian Universalist Association's efforts at truth and reconciliation (at www.uuworld.org/news/articles/112833.shtml) regarding our own history also contains a link to a radio interview with David Pettee.
Read a sermon (at clf.uua.org/quest/2007/10/index.html#pettee) by David Pettee about searching for his slave-holding ancestors, in the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Larger Fellowship publication, Quest (at clf.uua.org/quest).