Tapestry of Faith: Riddle and Mystery: A Program on the Big Questions for Grade 6

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.