RIDDLE AND MYSTERY
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 11: TOUCHING ALL
BY RICHARD S. KIMBALL
© Copyright 2010 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/8/2014 8:11:52 AM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
SESSION OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. — John Muir
Big Question: How am I connected with everything else?
Sixth graders stand at the brink of adolescence, finding new relationships, new challenges and a new sense of the self's place in the universe. This session makes the conceptual UU "interconnected web of all existence" concrete and meaningful for them. The youth consider their place in the many spheres that comprise their expanding lives. They learn about Henry Bergh, founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a Unitarian who created a new way for humans to connect respectfully with other species. A Faith in Action activity focused on animal welfare invites sixth graders to make a tangible connection on the web of life. In WCUU, youth consider that being well-connected means accepting responsible membership in community. The final activity asks youth to express their ideas about connection on a tee shirt design.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Story — Henry Bergh | 7 |
Activity 2: Concentric Circles | 15 |
Activity 3: WCUU — Good Connections | 20 |
Activity 4: WIT Time — Tee Shirt Design | 10 |
Faith in Action: Working Together in Community | |
Closing | 3 |
Alternate Activity 1: Notable Thoughts | 5 |
Alternate Activity 2: Song — The Earth Is Our Mother | 5 |
Alternate Activity 3: Challenge Question | 5 |
Alternate Activity 4: Making Message Tee Shirts | 45 |
Alternate Activity 5: Connection Fruit Basket | 10 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
With everything set to go, carve out a meditative moment for yourself. Relax. Take several deep breaths. Consider the connective nature of spirituality. In spiritual moments, we connect with deepest self, with other, with ultimate other, with Great Mystery. Smile in the knowledge that simply joining your youth in their search of life's mysteries is good and rewarding.
SESSION PLAN
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Greet youth as they enter, and introduce yourself to any you do not already know. If the group uses nametags, invite everyone to (make and) wear one. If new youth join this session, add their names on card stock to the Kid for the Day bag or box.
Sound the bell or tingsha chimes to call for silence.
Reach into the Kid for the Day bag or box and select a name without looking. Announce the name and place the paper back in the bag or box. Or, if the group decided during Session 8 (Activity 1) to change how the Kid for the Day is selected, follow the new procedure now.
If a Kid for the Day seems reluctant, allow them to pass. Draw another name or invite the participant to select one.
Indicate where you have posted the chalice lighting words. Invite the Kid for the Day to light the chalice while you lead the group in reciting "May this chalice light show the way as we search for answers to our biggest questions and seek to understand life's deepest mysteries."
Invite the group to share a moment of silence. End the silence by sounding the bell or tingshas. Explain that you use this same ritual—chalice lighting, followed by silence—at each session.
If new participants have joined the group, invite all, in turn, to introduce themselves. You can do more of a check-in, but keep it focused.
You may wish to ask if anyone did any Taking It Home activities from the previous session and would like to briefly share what they did.
If you have posted a covenant made by the group in Session 1, direct the group's attention to it and ask if anybody wants to suggest changes. Process any suggestions quickly, and amend the covenant as needed.
Announce that it is time to hear the Big Question of the day. Hand the Kid for the Day a copy of Handout 1 and help them understand and implement the instructions. Write the question—How am I connected with everything else?—on the newsprint under the "Today's Big Question" sign.
Ask the Kid for the Day to extinguish the chalice. Move the chalice table aside as necessary to allow movement in the room.
Set aside the "Today's Big Question" sign and the Kid for the Day bag or box, with the names and extra pieces of card stock, for re-use.
Including All Participants
If the group includes youth who may have difficulty reading, be sure you routinely allow the Kid for the Day to pass.
ACTIVITY 1: STORY — HENRY BERGH (7 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Read the story aloud. Then ask:
ACTIVITY 2: CONCENTRIC CIRCLES (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
In this activity, participants draw concentric circles indicating the various circles and spheres within which they live. To these circles they add radii showing how they connect with the circles and spheres beyond themselves. The results look like spider webs to reinforce the meaning of the seventh UU Principle.
Explain that "concentric circles" means one circle inside another. Illustrate the point on newsprint. Put a dot in the center of the circle you have drawn and say, "Imagine that this dot is you. You are standing inside concentric circles. The first circle might be your family." (Draw a small circle around the dot.) "The second, wider circle might include your friends." (Draw a second circle around the first.) "And so on, one circle around the other, as far as you can imagine."
Divide participants into groups of three or four. Give each small group a sheet of newsprint and several markers. Invite them to start with a dot or an X in the middle to represent a single person (like one of them), then draw a series of concentric circles around the point to represent some of the groups to which they belong, such as family, schools, clubs and organizations, their community, state, nation, etc. and label each circle with very small letters. (Demonstrate the lettering on the newsprint.)
You may offer Leader Resource 1, Circle Possibilities; invite the youth to use these ideas along with their own. After about five minutes, ask the groups to add some lines to show how the person in the center connects to everything else. They can add as many such lines as they want, spacing them more or less evenly around the circles and drawing them out to the circle where they might logically go. For example, they might draw a straight line from the center to the family circle, and write the word "love" along the line; "taking care of" might go to a world or environment circle, or somewhere in a family circle. Demonstrate on your newsprint.
You might provide Leader Resource 2.
When the small groups have finished their drawings or time is running out, call them together to compare results.
ACTIVITY 3: WCUU — GOOD CONNECTIONS (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants present a televised WCUU segment involving eight On-Air People—Anchor, a NUUs Analyst, Lost Soul, Little Kid, Sixth Grade Kid, Teen Kid, Adult, and UU Guru. The Studio Crew might include a director, a floor director, a camera operator, a sound engineer, a lighting director, a script supervisor, and production assistants.
Assign roles, using volunteers for On-Air People and Studio Crew. You might invite the Kid for the Day to be the Anchor or the NUUs Analyst. If you do not have enough youth for all the On-Air people, ask some youth to play more than one part.
Give participants who will follow the script a moment to look it over. Review the script with the youth if any may have limited reading skills.
Tell the group when the show should end to keep the session on schedule; assign a Studio Crew member (director or floor director) to watch the time.
Begin the broadcast.
After the broadcast, ask participants how it went. Ask them to summarize how typical UUs respond to today’s Big Question: How am I connected to everything else? Do they think non-UU viewers would understand Unitarian Universalism better after seeing the broadcast? Did the broadcast give your participants any new ideas about their connection to everything else? Point out that in a positive sense, every UU is like the character Lost Soul; UUs typically seek truth and answers by visiting a number of different Sources.
Including All Participants
Arrange your WCUU activity with respect for any participant limitations. If some youth have limited reading skills, review the script in advance of its use, with them or perhaps the whole group. If some youth must remain seated during the broadcast, consider having all remain seated.
ACTIVITY 4: WIT TIME — TEE SHIRT DESIGN (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Announce that it is WIT Time, when each youth says "What I Think"— this time by designing personal tee shirts with their own Unitarian Universalist messages about the connection of people to everything else.
Distribute the handout and pencils and/or markers. Ask youth to design a tee shirt that shows how they in particular, UUs together or people in general can and should connect with the rest of the Universe. Say they can use any words or graphic designs they like. Remind them that earlier they made concentric circles showing how they are connected beyond themselves (Activity 2), heard the story of Henry Bergh's work with animals and talked about how connection creates community and requires responsible action. Which ideas have spoken strongly to them? What ideas about connection do they most connect with? For example, how we connect with and treat animals, a particular meaningful connection with other people or an idea about a particular responsibility to people or other living things with which we are connected. Perhaps they will start with a slogan, perhaps a drawing; it is up to them.
Allow youth a moment or two to begin. If some seem to be struggling for ideas, you might suggest as starting points these words: like, love, help, support, care, Earth, environment, responsibility, UUs believe, dependence and interdependence. Appropriate illustrations to use might be a web, a vegetable garden, hearts, hands linked with other hands or hands linked with paws.
When the creations are complete, let youth share their efforts with the group. Consider displaying the designs where others using the room can see them. If you plan to have youth use the designs to make real tee shirts (Alternate Activity 4), collect the designs and put them with the other Alternate Activity 4 materials.
CLOSING (3 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Briefly summarize the session with words like these:
Today's Big Question asks "How am I connected with everything else?" Our story about Henry Bergh told about a man who took his responsibility to other species in the web very seriously. We drew concentric circles to show our many connections with just about everything else in the universe. These circles illustrated our seventh UU Principle. We saw how various parts of the web of life depend on each other. Today's WCUU showed what many UUs think about connection, community and responsibility. We put some of our ideas about connection into our tee shirt designs.
Distribute the Taking It Home handout. Suggest participants use the activities to continue exploring the themes of today's session.
Relight the chalice. Ask the group to say these closing words with you:
May this light shine on in each of us as we search for the answers to our own biggest questions.
Extinguish the chalice (or ask the Kid for the Day to do it). Sound the bell or tingshas to end the session.
FAITH IN ACTION: WORKING TOGETHER IN COMMUNITY
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite youth to engage your congregational community in a project that honors connections among all life that shares Earth. If the group has an ongoing Faith in Action project, broaden it to include the full congregation. To highlight this session's theme, consider an effort on behalf of stray animals locally or endangered species globally.
Help the youth plan a presentation to the congregation's Justice or Social Action Committee to gain their support to involve the congregation in a Faith in Action project. Write the principal points on newsprint. Include concrete ideas such as holding an educational workshop at your congregation, adding the action to a worship service or inviting a guest speaker to a potluck/presentation. (Consider inviting a youth who has been affected by the justice issue being addressed.) Practice the presentation. Arrange for as many youth as possible to join in making the presentation at the committee's next meeting. Gather props or handouts to strengthen the presentation.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Meet with your co-leaders after the session. How was the mix of discussion and action? Are you continuing to find ways to involve all youth fully in sessions despite any limitations they might have? Does the group have new behavioral issues you need to address?
Have you helped develop participants' sense of connection and responsibility to all parts of the web of all existence? Has the group found a Faith in Action project that excites them? If not, how might you change direction?
Session 12 asks "What should I do with my life?" Reflect on your own answers in the days ahead if you will lead Session 12.
TAKING IT HOME
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. — John Muir
Talk about the quote. Do you agree with it? Can you think of anything that is not connected to something else in some way? Note that John Muir was a well known American naturalist and conservationist who lived from 1838 to 1914.
WHAT WE DID TODAY
Today's Big Question asks, "How am I connected with everything else?" We heard the story of Henry Bergh, a famous Unitarian who felt so strongly connected to animals that he started the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He also started the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, but that is another story. We talked about our connections to the whole universe, and drew concentric circles to show how connections spread out from each of us to family and community to nation and to the whole universe. When we drew some lines out from ourselves, the circles began to look like a web, with us in the center connected to everything else. In WCUU, we talked about connections, community and responsibility. Then we designed tee shirts to show our own ideas about connection.
REFLECT ON YOUR BELIEFS
Write some poems about how you are connected with something very far away—like the moon, or the Amazon River or a kangaroo in Australia. The poems can be silly and fun or very serious.
SHARED SEARCH
Play a connection game with your friends or family. Count the people you connect with in any one day. Include anyone you communicate with by phone or computer, in person... everybody you can think of. Compare the totals.
MAKE A RECONNECTION
Reconnect to somebody you have not seen for a long time. Maybe they moved away, or just got busy. Find out where they are and phone them to say hello or send an email or a postcard. Or, reconnect with a place you used to love but have not visited for some time. Think about how hard it would be to stay connected to every person you ever meet and every place you ever visit.
PHOTO CHALLENGE
Ask somebody else to take a picture of you connecting with someone or something in one of your concentric circles. Tell the person taking the picture why this connection is important to you.
FAMILY FAITH IN ACTION — BEING RESPONSIBLE
Find a new way to be responsible for helping the environment that connects everything and everybody. Maybe it is as simple as helping clean up part of the Earth near your home. Maybe you will decide to eat more local foods to help reduce the expense and pollution of importing foods to your area.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: NOTABLE THOUGHTS (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Notable Thoughts is the first Alternate Activity in each session of Riddle and Mystery. Remind participants that this is a time for them to record their own ideas about today's Big Question. Distribute participants' notebooks and pencils or pens. Provide any new participants with notebooks. Say that the notebooks are private; you will keep them between sessions but not read them.
Tell the youth they will have about five minutes. Remind them of today's Big Question: "How am I connected with everything else?" Say they can write about anything they want. Their ideas can be as different as they wish from what you have talked about so far. If youth have nothing to record, they are free to doodle or relax.
Give them a few minutes to work quietly in their notebooks. When time is up, offer that they may seal their notebooks with masking tape before handing them in. Collect the notebooks.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: SONG — THE EARTH IS OUR MOTHER (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Remind/tell the group that Unitarian Universalists express our ideas in hymns. Introduce "The Earth Is Our Mother." Point out that the song comes from the Native American tradition, an Earth-centered tradition and thus one of the Sources of Unitarian Universalism. Ask if participants agree with the song. Do they feel that Unitarian Universalists do enough to take care of Mother Earth? How about people in general?
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 3: CHALLENGE QUESTION (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Challenge questions guide a deeper inquiry for especially thoughtful individuals and groups. For this session, ask:
What responsibility do UUs have to mosquitoes?
Extend discussion with these additional questions:
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 4: MAKING MESSAGE TEE SHIRTS (45 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Have youth decorate real tee shirts using designs they made in Activity 4, WIT Time — Tee Shirt Design.
Distribute the designs youth have made. Invite any youth who have not created a design to do so now, and give them handouts and pencils/markers.
Explain the instructions:
1. Spread the tee shirt out, flat and wrinkle-free, on the work surface.
2. Place a few sheets of newspaper inside the tee shirt so fabric markers will not bleed through.
3. Tape down the edges of the shirt to keep the fabric tight and wrinkle-free.
4. If you wish, outline your design with black marker on a white paper that you put inside the tee shirt so you can see it through the cloth.
5. Use fabric markers to apply your design to the tee shirt. Work carefully. Draw slowly so the markers saturate the cloth.
6. Give the cloth plenty of time to dry.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 5: CONNECTION FRUIT BASKET (10 MINUTES)
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Have participants explore ways they connect with one another, using a game of fruit basket.
To play "regular" Fruit Basket, invite the group to sit in chairs in a circle, except for one person who will be "It" and stand in the center. "It" calls out a word or a phrase that applies to "It," and everybody else to whom the word or phrase applies jumps up and scrambles, along with "It," to sit in an empty chair. The person left standing becomes the new "It" and calls out a new word or phrase. Anybody leaving a chair must find a new one to sit in.
In Connection Fruit Basket, "It" must chose a word or phrase showing how two or more people in the game may connect with each other. For example, "It" might say "I live on Bridge Street" or "I go to X school" and all others who live on Bridge Street or attend the same school respond. This helps youth discover connections among them. "I like" phrases are good, because they reveal similar interests that individuals share but may not know about. Connection fruit basket is particularly good for groups whose participants do not know each other well.
After playing, ask youth if they discovered connections they did not previously know existed. How does this make them feel?
Including All Participants
If physical limitations prevent some participants from jumping up and running to empty chairs, find another way to share common interests. One possibility is simply to have each person in turn say "I like to _____," and letting others who like the same thing say, "Me, too."
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 11:
STORY: HENRY BERGH
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.
Bergh was a Unitarian who lived in the 1800s. He was also the man who founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and it was his anger about the way people often treated animals which got him started.
Bergh was a rich man who liked wearing silk hats and fancy vests. He loved the opera, and he traveled a lot in Europe. When he was 50, President Abraham Lincoln asked him to go to Russia as a diplomat. There, Bergh saw a man whipping a horse. He asked a policeman to stop the beating, but the policeman said the man owned the horse and could do anything he wanted to it. People who saw Bergh trying to interfere gathered around and shook their fists at him. Bergh had to leave, but he remembered what had happened.
He also remembered what he had seen at home in America—overworked and beaten horses, dog pits where people bet on which dogs would kill the others, fights to the death between roosters or between bulldogs and bears, and pigeon shoots where birds were blinded in one eye so they would fly around crazily while wealthy hunters tried to shoot them.
After leaving Russia, Bergh went to England, where he met the president of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. This organization had the power to stop people from abusing animals. Bergh realized he could start a group like it in the United States. In 1866, he did just that—he created the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals—the ASPCA.
Bergh helped New York State pass a law making abuse of animals illegal. But he did not stop there. As president of the ASPCA, the city and state of New York gave him power to arrest people and take them to court. Soon he seemed to be everywhere at once, investigating cruelty, closing down dog pits and rooster fights, making dairy farmers clean up their barns. His battle to stop cruelty to animals became known as "Bergh's War."
Bergh made a lot of people angry right back at him. They called him "The Great Meddler," drew nasty cartoons about him and sent threatening letters with skulls and crossbones. One man attacked Bergh with an iron bar, but swung and missed. Other men threw fish heads and chicken guts at him.
But Bergh did not stop. When people gathered around while he was making an arrest on the street, Bergh preached kindness. He felt it would be a greater triumph to plant kindness in people's hearts than to build a new railroad across America, as some other men were then doing.
The ASPCA was active, but it was poor. Then an old man sent for Bergh. When Bergh entered the shabby little home, the old man said, "I've been reading about you in the papers. I like what you are doing for animals. I am ill, and I know I am dying. I'm going to leave everything in my will to the ASPCA."
Bergh thanked the old man, without expecting his gift to be of much help. But after the man died, Bergh found out he had been a millionaire who had lived as a miser. Now the ASPCA could move out of a small rental room into a building of its own. Now it could grow.
Within five years, Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals had sprung up in 19 states and Canada.
One day Henry Bergh learned about a case of cruelty involving a small girl instead of an animal. He rescued her, and then, with other leaders, helped start the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. This was the first time people in the United States had organized to protect children.
By the time Bergh died, the meddling his anger had driven him to do had accomplished great things. People wrote poems about him and built monuments to him. The best monuments to him are not statues. They are organizations and volunteers all over the world that protect children and animals—some right near here.
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 11:
HANDOUT 1: TODAY'S BIG QUESTION
To the Kid for the Day:
You have two jobs. The first is getting your group excited about hearing today's Big Question. The second is announcing the question.
1. Say to the group, "Give me a drum roll!" Then wait for a minute while the drum roll builds. (Here is how to do a drum roll: Everybody slaps their thighs, one leg first, then the other, back and forth, beginning gently and getting louder and louder.)
2. When the drum roll is good and loud, hold up your hands to signal "Stop!" Then read today's Big Question. Here it is:
How am I connected with everything else?
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 11:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: CIRCLE POSSIBILITIES
Family
Circle of friends
People we know
Organizations we belong to (bands, dance troupes, sports team, our congregation, neighborhood association, social justice group, etc.)
Town
State
Country
Continent
Environment
World
Galaxy
Universe
Whatever is beyond the Universe (e.g., God/Mystery/Spirit)
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 11:
LEADER RESOURCE 2: CONNECTION POSSIBILITIES
Liking
Loving
Taking care of (like the environment)
Caring about (as with friends)
Buying
Selling
Sharing
Trading
Listening
Telling
Enjoying
Praying
Playing with
Working
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 11:
LEADER RESOURCE 3: WCUU SCRIPT — GOOD CONNECTIONS
To the Anchor:
Today's WCUU program is a news feature about how a lost soul named Lost Soul finds happiness. Your job is to follow the script, read your part and otherwise keep things going. When the broadcast begins, you are alone, sitting or standing in front of a microphone.
[Director: Cue the station break.]
[Director: Cue the Anchor.]
Anchor: This is WCUU, Wisdom of the Community of Unitarian Universalists, on the air.
[Director: Cue the theme music.]
Anchor: Good morning. I am [give your real or stage name], and what a show we have for you today. It's a news feature about how Lost Soul found a happy new life. When I first heard the story from one of our roving reporters, I rushed out to interview Lost Soul. I found Lost Soul in an unlikely place—washing dishes in the sink of a Unitarian Universalist congregation. Let's see that clip now.
[Director: Cue Floor Director to flicker the lights briefly. Cue Lost Soul to stand next to Anchor, pretending to wash dishes.]
Anchor: Hello, there Lost Soul. I hear you have a great story to tell.
Lost Soul: Sure do.
Anchor: Let's hear it from the top.
Lost Soul: Okay. There I was, miserable me. Nothing was right for me. No money, no job, no chance of getting one. And I knew why—no connections. People say you need good connections, the right connections, to get ahead, and that's what I wanted.
Anchor: So how does somebody get the right connections?
Lost Soul: That's what I wanted to know. I decided to walk down the street and ask the first happy-looking people I met.
Anchor: And?
Lost Soul: The first one I met was Little Kid. "Okay," I said. "I'll ask Little Kid."
[Director: Cue Floor Director to flicker lights. Cue Anchor to step out and Little Kid to step into the set. Cue Lost Soul to stop washing dishes. Bring lights back up. Cue Lost Soul.]
Lost Soul: Hey, there, Little Kid. You look happy. Got a good life?
Little Kid: Yes, except when I am talking to strangers.
Lost Soul: But I'm Lost Soul, and I need help. You got any good connections?
Little Kid: Sure. I'm connected to my family. We all love each other. We support each other. Everything's cool all the time. I've got great connections.
Lost Soul: So how can I get good connections? How can I get happy?
Little Kid: I have no idea. I'm just Little Kid. But everybody has a family, so everybody has connections. But look, I have to go. I'm not supposed to talk to strangers.
Lost Soul: Well, thanks for your help.
[Director: Cue Floor Director to flicker lights. Cue Little Kid to step out, Anchor to step back in, and Lost Soul to resume washing dishes. Bring lights back up. Cue Anchor.]
Anchor: I guess that was a start. So what happened next?
Lost Soul: I met Sixth Grade Kid.
Anchor: So tell us about it.
[Director: Cue Floor Director to flicker lights. Cue Anchor to step out and Sixth Grade Kid to step into the set. Cue Lost Soul to stop washing dishes. Bring lights back up. Cue Lost Soul.]
Lost Soul: Hey Kid!
Sixth Grade Kid: Can I help you?
Lost Soul: Yes. I’m Lost, and I’ve got no connections. You look happy as a clam. Does that mean you have connections?
Sixth Grade Kid: Of course I have connections. Everybody has connections. I learned that in science class.
Lost Soul: Maybe I should have stayed in school. What did they teach you about connections?
Sixth Grade Kid: Everything and everybody is connected from the Big Bang on. That was the beginning, see, this great Big Bang. Then dust flew all over the place and swirled around and in a whole bunch of years the Big Bang turned into the whole big cosmos, the Universe, with all the planets and stuff and all the stars and the sun and you and me and we're all connected.
Lost Soul: Just like that. I guess so. Maybe I am connected, just like that. But my connections keep slipping away. How can I stay connected?
Sixth Grade Kid: How should I know? I'm just Sixth Grade Kid. Maybe you have to work at it. That's what everybody tells me whenever I'm having trouble with something. You've gotta work at it.
Lost Soul: Okay, well thanks for your time.
Sixth Grade Kid: No problem.
[Director: Cue Floor Director to flicker lights. Cue Sixth Grade Kid to step out, Anchor to step back in, and Lost Soul to resume washing dishes. Bring lights back up. Cue Anchor.]
Anchor: So, did you work on it?
Lost Soul: No. I didn't know how. So I talked to the next person I saw. That was Teen Kid.
Anchor: And?
[Director: Cue Floor Director to flicker lights. Cue Anchor to step out and Teen Kid to step into the set. Cue Lost Soul to stop washing dishes. Bring lights back up. Cue Lost Soul.]
Lost Soul: Hi, Teen. Got a minute?
Teen Kid: Yup. And you look like you can use it.
Lost Soul: I'm looking for a secret, the secret of good connections. I know I'm connected to this and that and everything else, but the connections aren't any good. How do I make them better?
Teen Kid: That's easy. The answer is love.
Lost Soul: Love? That's easy enough for you to say. But you are a teen, Teen Kid. Teenagers think about lovey-dovey stuff all the time.
Teen Kid: That's a stereotype, Lost Soul. Teens think about a whole lot more than that.
Lost Soul: So love is where it’s at?
Teen Kid: Right! But not romantic love. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about bigger love than that, the love that is all over the place. You know, universal love.
Lost Soul: But where does that universal love come from?
Teen Kid: I'm not so sure. I'm just a Teen Kid. I just know you have to have it. I also know I'm running late, so I have to go.
Lost Soul: Okay. And many thanks.
[Director: Cue Floor Director to flicker lights. Cue Teen Kid to step out, Anchor to step back in, and Lost Soul to resume washing dishes. Bring lights back up. Cue Anchor.]
Anchor: Were you feeling better by this time, Lost Soul?
Lost Soul: Yes, I sure was. But now I wanted to know more about universal love and where it comes from.
Anchor: So did you ask somebody else?
Lost Soul: Yes. The next person I met was Adult.
[Director: Cue Floor Director to flicker lights. Cue Anchor to step out and Adult to step into the set. Cue Lost Soul to stop washing dishes. Bring lights back up. Cue Lost Soul.]
Adult: Wow! Where did you come from? First I'm standing here alone, and suddenly there you are!
Lost Soul: Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I'm Lost Soul and I'm getting a little bit found, but I still have a question.
Adult: So try me.
Lost Soul: It’s about universal love. Are you up to that?
Adult: Sure. That's the love you feel when you look at the sky and say, "I love the moon, I love the stars, I love the whole big sky at night." It's the sort of love you feel when you wake up in the morning and you love being alive for another day. It's the sort of love you feel for all of life, for all the world and all the whole cosmos. Some folks call it agape [pronounced ah-GAH-pay] love.
Lost Soul: Right. But where does it come from?
Adult: It comes from me and it comes from you. That's where it comes from. At least that's what I think. That's my humanistic belief.
Lost Soul: Well this all sounds okay, but what if I don't have any love coming out of me?
Adult: I can guess at the answer to that, Lost Soul. My guess is you aren't receiving the love around you. If you don't let yourself receive, you have nothing to give. Open up and let the love come in, and then it will start going out, too. There's love all around you. That's what community is all about.
Lost Soul: Community?
Adult: Sure. Community. That's people being together and supporting each other. Working together. Caring about each other. Loving each other. And communities are all over the place. There are city communities and work communities and social communities and school communities and religious communities and more. I bet you're in one or two of 'em right now.
Lost Soul: Wow. I never thought about that. Thank you so much.
Adult: You are very welcome.
[Director: Cue Floor Director to flicker lights. Cue Adult to step out, Anchor to step back in, and Lost Soul to resume washing dishes. Bring lights back up. Cue Anchor.]
Anchor: So you solved your problem!
Lost Soul: Well almost. Something was still missing. I was just beginning to think I knew what it was, when in came UU Guru.
[Director: Cue Floor Director to flicker lights. Cue Anchor to step out and Lost Soul to stop washing dishes. Bring lights back up. Cue UU Guru to step in and surprise Lost Soul.]
Lost Soul: Hello, there, who are you?
UU Guru: UU Guru.
Lost Soul: Here's the thing. I started out wondering how to get the right connections. Then I began hearing that everybody is connected anyway, so we all have right connections. We all have love, too, or we should have, because it takes love to hold the connections together. I know this is all true, because it feels just right inside me, but something seems to be missing still, something I need to really have good connections.
UU Guru: You are right about that. What's missing is responsibility. That is the key to being part of any community. You share love to hold it together, but also responsibility. When everybody shares responsibility for their community, the community goes beautifully. Everyone feels love for each other, and everyone has wonderful connections.
Lost Soul: But does that ever really work?
UU Guru: It works in my UU community. At least it works most of the time. Nobody is perfect, but we do our best, and we have a great time trying to do better than that.
Lost Soul: Wow! It sounds great. Maybe I should try a UU community.
UU Guru: Then come along with me. I am heading to a potluck supper, and you can come as my guest. You even get to try my famous rhubarb-topped sauerkraut.
Lost Soul: Er, well, I'm not very hungry, but I'll come along.
[Director: Cue Floor Director to flicker lights. Cue UU Guru to step out, Anchor to step in and Lost Soul to resume washing dishes. Bring lights back up. Cue Anchor.]
Anchor: So that's how you wound up here, washing dishes?
Lost Soul: Right. The potluck was great. There was a lot of love... and a lot of food. I made some brand new connections with great people.
Anchor: Great people who made you wash the dishes?
Lost Soul: Nobody made me. That was my idea. I like this community and if I want to be part of it, I want to help it be a success. And you know what? I’m having a great time. Tomorrow I’m coming to the worship service and the sermon is going to be about connecting with the Great Mystery. Isn’t that remarkable?
Anchor: It surely is. Thank you, Lost Soul. Thank you for sharing your story, and the best of good luck to you. And now it's back to the WCUU studio.
[Director: Cue Lost Soul to step out. Cue Camera Operator to focus only on Anchor as Anchor moves back to studio.]
Anchor: So that is the heartwarming story of Lost Soul's journey from despair to dirty dishes. Joining me now to talk about that journey is our wonderful, talented, and wise NUUs Analyst.
[Director: Cue NUUs Analyst to join Anchor on camera. Cue Camera Operator to show both of them.]
NUUs Analyst: That was a great story, [give Anchor's real or stage name].
Anchor: Yes, it was. But tell us NUUs Analyst. Did Lost Soul really discover the truth about making connections?
NUUs Analyst: Oh, yes. Lost Soul also discovered what most Unitarian Universalists believe about connections: Everything and everybody is connected, from the Big Bang on. We are connected to each other and to the stars. We are connected from the deepest points within us. Love is what cements our connections and holds them together, the love we humans all give and receive, the love that unites us with all. Combine the connections and love and you get community. Add responsibility and you get great community—not just UU community but broader community, national community, world community, someday even universal community.
Anchor: I guess that sums it up.
NUUs Analyst: I can sum it up even better than that. I can sum it up with the seventh UU Principle: "Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part."
Anchor: Well done. Thank you, NUUs Analyst.
NUUs Analyst: Wait a minute, Anchor. Speaking of connections, did I ever tell you about mine? I traced my family tree recently, and I am connected all the way back to the time of Cleopatra! That’s a whole lot of generations! I have ancestors going way, way back. Want me to draw a diagram for our viewing audience?
Anchor: No thanks, NUUs Analyst. I think it is safe to say everyone has ancestors way, way back, or else we would not be here. It's time to sign off. We'll be back next week for a wonderful new show. Don't miss it!
[Director: Cue the theme music.]
[Director: Cue the station break.]
[Director: Cue the Anchor.]
Anchor: This is [your real or stage name] signing off for WCUU.
FIND OUT MORE
Henry Bergh
Read the Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography online article on Henry Bergh (at www25-temp.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/henrybergh.html), by Mark Ferguson. At the bottom of the article, find links to more information.
The website of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (at www.aspca.org/about-us/about-the-aspca.html) describes the organization's mission, current work and history, including biographical information about Henry Bergh (at www.aspca.org/about-us/history.html).
Find a 1967 article on Bergh,"The Great Meddler" by Gerald Carson, on the website of American Heritage Magazine.
Communities
In this session, youth identify the communities to which they belong, such as family, neighborhood or town, your congregation, school, sports team, group of friends or even the global community. Ground your own definition of "community" before the session.