RIDDLE AND MYSTERY
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 13: OH MY SOUL
BY RICHARD S. KIMBALL
© Copyright 2010 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/8/2014 8:16:04 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
If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person. If there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house. If there is harmony in the house, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world. — Chinese proverb
Big Question: Do I have a soul?
The word "soul" appears in Unitarian Universalism in the names of some congregations, in hymns and in readings, in articles, sermons and books. "Soul" is a word that means different things to different people and within different faith traditions. Sometimes "souls" is simply used as a synonym for "people." But as a religious term, UU youth have a right to wrestle with its meaning for them, and a right to know that it is a concept UUs can find meaningful. Help youth think about the range of possible meanings for UUs. For example, for some UUs "soul" refers to the center of individual self — one's most true self. To some, it stresses the connective nature of the spiritual self to the Divine or to all other life. To some, it means one's inner light or inner life. Conduct this session as an exploration.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Meditative Moment | 5 |
Activity 2: Soul Stands | 8 |
Activity 3: Story — Why and Where God Hides | 7 |
Activity 4: WCUU — Soul Talk | 15 |
Activity 5: WIT Time — Inside, Outside Masks | 17 |
Faith in Action: Soul Messages | |
Closing | 3 |
Alternate Activity 1: Notable Thoughts | 5 |
Alternate Activity 2: Song — Voice Still and Small | 5 |
Alternate Activity 3: Challenge Question | 5 |
Alternate Activity 4: Two Quotes | 5 |
Alternate Activity 5: Music and Art of the Soul | 15 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Carve out a meditative moment for yourself. Relax. Take several deep breaths. Explore your own soul, the central nonphysical part of your being. What does "soul" mean to you? Your core being? Your spiritual life? A concept linked to your identity? A religious concept that you do not apply to yourself? Has your concept of soul changed during your life? Think about how a concept of soul could help youth develop their sense of self and understand others. Smile in the knowledge that simply joining youth in their exploration of life and its 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 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 and select a name without looking. Announce the name and place the card 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.
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—Do I have a soul?—on the newsprint under the "Today's Big Question" sign.
Ask the Kid for the Day to extinguish the chalice.
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: MEDITATIVE MOMENT (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Description of Activity
Say that it is time for some soul-seeking. Ask the youth what they think "soul-seeking" might mean. Accept some ideas. Affirm that to do some "soul-seeking" you need to have an idea of what "soul" means. Say something like:
Some people say your soul is the core of your nonphysical self, the center of your being. If you go soul-seeking, you explore your inner self, the parts of you that are not your body. You might find your essential self.
Invite the group to try a brief meditation. Ask them to relax, sit comfortably and close their eyes or stare at one spot on the wall or in the center of the room to avoid visual distractions. Say that you will sound the tingshas, lead a meditation, and sound the tingshas again at the end of the meditation.
Sound the tingshas. Guide the group's meditation:
Let your thoughts drift away from your body . . . let the events of the day and the clutter of the room move off into space . . . let your mind float free. . . . Then gradually . . . slowly . . . move into yourself . . . center yourself . . .find the place you cannot see . . . that you still know exists . . . the core of yourself . . .the deepest part of you. . . . Experience your center, your soul . . . Let it come to you . . . let it show you who and what you are . . . let your soul be you . . . . Let it drift on beyond you . . .Let it show you who and what you are . . . . [Allow a long pause.] . . . Now slowly, gradually, come back into your body . . . return to where you were . . . return to all of us . . . .
Sound the tingshas to end the meditation. Ask youth what the meditation was like. Did they visit a nonphysical part of themselves? Did it seem like the center of them, the deepest part of them? Do they think that "soul" is a good name for the place where they looked? How do they think it differs from character? From personality? From self?
ACTIVITY 2: SOUL STANDS (8 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Familiarize yourself with Leader Resource 1 and add other statements to reflect your congregation if you wish.
Description of Activity
Explain that different people and different religions have different ideas about the concept of "soul."
Say that you will read a variety of statements about soul, and will invite everyone to move around the room to show to what degree they agree or disagree with the statements. Participants will also guess which religion or philosophy each statement represents.
Point out a wall where participants can line up according to their opinions. One end of the wall will represent strong agreement and the other end will represent strong disagreement. Youth can stand anywhere between the two ends.
Read the first statement from Leader Resource 1 and invite participants to choose a position along the wall. . Once youth are in place, invite comments on their positions. Why are they where they are? Allow them to move and change position as they like when they hear the reasoning of others.
Continue in this fashion, reading as many statements as you like, and adding some of your own if you wish. Share as much italicized information as helpful.
Including All Participants
Adapt this activity as necessary to include youth of limited mobility. One possible approach is to have youth remain seated, decide where to place themselves on an imaginary line evenly spaced from 1 to 10, write the appropriate numbers on pieces of paper, then hold the numbers up for comparison and discussion.
ACTIVITY 3: STORY — WHY AND WHERE GOD HIDES (7 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Read or tell the story aloud. Then ask:
ACTIVITY 4: WCUU — SOUL TALK (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants present a WCUU show involving seven On-Air People—an Anchor, a NUUs Analyst, First Reporter, Second Reporter, Third Reporter, Fourth Reporter and Fifth Reporter. The Studio Crew might include a director, a floor director, a camera operator, a sound engineer, a lighting director, a script supervisor and multiple 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. Tell the On-Air People that all except the Anchor and NUUs Analyst will need to improvise some of their on-air dialogue.
Distribute the reporter stories (Leader Resource 3) to the five Reporters and invite them to read their individual notes carefully so that, on the broadcast, they can say the ideas in their own words. Tell them they need not say everything on the notes, just a few key points.
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.
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.
Begin the broadcast.
At the end of the broadcast, ask participants how it went. Ask them to summarize how Unitarian Universalists respond to today's Big Question: "Do I have a soul?" Which UU responses resonate for the youth? Allow comments.
Ask whether the youth think non-UU viewers would understand Unitarian Universalism and its ideas about the soul better after seeing this WCUU show.
ACTIVITY 5: WIT TIME — INSIDE, OUTSIDE MASKS (17 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Youth explore their own souls by making simple masks. Introduce it with words spoken by Reverend Mykel Johnson at the Allen Avenue Unitarian Universalist Church in Portland, Maine:
Each of us has a mask we wear. There is a face we present to the world, perhaps more than one, which is not quite the same as the face inside of us.
Tell the group, when Reverend Johnson said these words, she held up a mask. On the outside were words like "woman" and "man," reflecting what people might see on the outside when they look at another person. On the inside of the mask were more mysterious words reflecting the inner person, words like "wisdom," "healer," "music," "goddess" and "meditate."
Here is more of what Rev. Johnson told her congregation:
It is a central purpose of the spiritual journey to learn to become our true selves, to share our true story and song. Whatever masks we wear, whatever roles we take on with society, we are called to look on the inside of the mask to see what is hidden there, what is waiting to be revealed. In some traditions, this inner side of the mask is called the soul. And even when we have sung our songs, and told our stories, the soul continues to be shy at times, to hide itself or reveal itself in mysterious ways.
Ask the group to think about that. Then distribute Handout 2, and invite youth to decorate the outside and inside of their own, simple masks.
When they have finished, let them put on their masks and walk around and display the outsides to each other. Invite them, if they like, to share some of what they have written on the insides of the masks. (Some may like to share with a few peers near them, rather than with the whole group.)
Re-gather the group. Ask if making the masks is a good way to think about their souls. Do they believe they have an inner side that nobody else sees? Might they, in the future, share the inner side? How, when, with whom?
CLOSING (3 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Briefly summarize the day's session with words like these:
Today's Big Question asks "Do I have a soul?" We talked about that in several different ways, starting with a soul-searching meditation. We responded to some statements reflecting other people's ideas about soul. Then we heard a story, "Why and Where God Hides," and talked about how a soul could be the place where something Divine and eternal hides and resides in each of us. In WCUU, we explored what various Unitarian Universalists have had to say about soul. And in WIT Time we made soul masks to help us explore our own inner selves.
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: SOUL MESSAGES
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
If the group has chosen an ongoing Faith in Action project, continue work on it.
Or, do this short-term Faith in Action activity:
Making and Distributing Soul Messages. Ask if the group has ever heard somebody described as "soul weary." Say, if participants do not, that somebody who is soul weary is tired to the very core of themselves, as the term suggests. Ask what we can do for people who are soul weary. Affirm that one response could be to try to cheer the people up. While people who are deeply, truly exhausted may need rest more than anything else, people do appreciate kind and cheerful messages. Suggest youth give the soul weary a lift, and at the same time build awareness of the need for economic justice, by making and distributing message slips like those found in restaurant fortune cookies. On one side can be a cheerful greeting and on the other brief words about economic justice.
The group may like to distribute the messages inside traditional restaurant fortune cookies. The cookies can make it fun, and tasty, to distribute the messages distribution at a congregational event such as a coffee hour. You can also, of course, wrap the messages in another tasty treat.
Ask youth to create brief, cheerful messages they can write small enough to fit on a slip of paper the size you have provided (to insert in a cookie, if you are using cookies). You might suggest they write a greeting on one side and a justice message on the other. Youth will probably have little difficulty coming up with cheerful greeting messages. If they struggle with wording about economic justice, you might suggest these possibilities: Good fortune is economic justice. Good fortune is to share. Good fortune is for U and U and all of us. Good fortune is a UU goal for all.
Invite the youth to create messages individually, in pairs or in small groups— (but watch carefully to make sure no youth feel left out of the groups). Allow five or ten minutes for the creation. Then ask youth to share what they have done. Collect the messages until it is time for the group to pass them out.
Be sure that everybody who wants to will be involved in the distribution.
Including All Participants
Check with your religious educator to make sure no children or youth in the program have an allergy or food restriction that precludes their eating of the cookies you plan to distribute.
If the youth will make cookies, make sure the work spaces and supplies are accessible to all. Assign individuals tasks they can manage safely and successfully.
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?
How do youth feel about the idea of soul? Do they speak in terms of their own souls? Or do they prefer other terms for describing their deepest selves? Is Faith in Action going well, or do you need to make some adjustments? If so, who will take the lead? Note that the Big Question for Session 14 asks, "Can we ever solve life's mysteries?" Plan to reflect on your own answers to that in the days ahead if you will be leading Session 14.
TAKING IT HOME
If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person. If there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house. If there is harmony in the house, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world. — Chinese proverb
Talk about the quote. Do you agree with what it says? What does it mean to have light in your soul? Is having light in your soul the same as having love in your soul? How do you get light into your soul? How do you get light into somebody else's soul?
WHAT WE DID TODAY
Today's Big Question asks, "Do I have a soul?" We began with a meditation and talked about the general meaning of soul. We talked about what other people say about soul, and reacted to their ideas. We heard the story "Why and Where God Hides," and learned that some people think God or the Divine is in each of us, maybe even in our souls. During WCUU, we heard about what various UUs have said about soul in different times and places. Our NUUs Analyst said that many UUs today use the word "soul" when they speak of their deepest, nonphysical selves, but they do not think of the soul as something that lives forever and goes to Hell or Heaven when we die. Most UUs are more concerned about what we are and do in life than in death. Finally, we made masks to explore our own inner selves and souls.
FIND YOURSELF
Did you ever hear about people "finding themselves"? Talk to your family about what that means. Some people say that finding yourself means learning to know your deepest self. Other people can support you while you do that, but in the end, you are the only person who can really go inside yourself, and you are the person who can understand yourself best. Do other members of your family agree with that? Do they think that "soul-searching" is a way to find yourself? Can meditation help with that?
REFLECT ON YOUR BELIEFS
Here is a traditional prayer poem that children have sometimes said just before going to bed:
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
Are you familiar with that poem? Have people in your family ever said it? How do you react to it? What do you think would happen to the soul in the poem, if the person died in the night and the Lord took the soul? What sort of religious belief about soul does the poem reflect?
SHARED SEARCH
Travel to a place where the word "soul" or the idea of "soul" is important. Maybe it is a church or a cemetery. What do you find there?
PHOTO CHALLENGE
Photograph the spirit of yourself. How do you do that? Maybe you photograph a place where you have made a difference. Or maybe you photograph something that represents an idea of yours. You decide.
FAMILY FAITH IN ACTION — DEEPER CONNECTIONS
As a family, reach out to another family of people you like but could get to know better. Try to connect, and to understand each other. (Do this together with adults, because not everybody is safe and easy to get along with). Making better connections with other people can be very rewarding. You and they get to know more about who everybody really is inside.
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: "Do I have a soul?" 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 — VOICE STILL AND SMALL (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Remind/tell the group that Unitarian Universalists often express our ideas in hymns. Introduce "Voice Still and Small" in a manner comfortable for you, being sure that the group hears the words to at least the first verse.
Ask the youth what they think of the hymn. What does the idea of the "voice" mean to them? Does it have anything to do with soul? What do they think the composer, John Corrado, meant by the words?
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:
Can your physical self affect the way the nonphysical part of you feels?
Extend discussion with these additional questions:
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 4: TWO QUOTES (5 MINUTES)
Description of Activity
Ask the group to respond to two quotes from Rabbi Harold S. Kushner. Say that he is a Jewish rabbi in the Conservative (moderately traditional) movement and a popular author. His books include When Bad Things Happen to Good People, When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough: The Search for a Life That Matters and Who Needs God?
Read aloud:
Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter, so that the world will be at least a little bit different for our having passed through it . . . . What frustrates us and robs our lives of joy is this absence of meaning . . . . Does our being alive matter?
Pause. Then read the second quote. (You may like to remind youth that they heard part of this in Activity 2.)
The soul is not a physical entity, but instead refers to everything about us that is not physical—our values, memories, identity, sense of humor. Since the soul represents the parts of the human being that are not physical, it cannot get sick, it cannot die, it cannot disappear. In short, the soul is immortal.
Ask the youth if they like Rabbi Kushner's idea of what the soul is. Extend with more questions:
Ask the youth, do they sometimes think and wonder about the meaning of life? Does the idea that we each have a soul add to their understanding? How do they think Unitarian Universalism can help them answer today's Big Question?
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 5: MUSIC AND ART OF THE SOUL (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
In this activity, youth use music and art to explore their souls. Introduce it with words like these:
A writer named Krista Tippett has said, "In many ways, religion comes from the same place in us that art comes from." Some people would say art comes from the soul. Other people might use a different word. They would say religion and art come from our centers, our cores, our deepest spirits, instead of our souls. But most would agree that both come from somewhere deep inside us. You may think of your deepest inner self as your soul, your center, your spirit—whatever you like. And I hope you will reach deep inside as you listen to music and let your art out onto a community mural.
Invite the youth to sit comfortably and listen to music you have chosen. Tell them they may, when they feel moved to, go to the mural paper and express themselves by drawing or making marks in a section of the mural paper. They can draw something realistic if that is what they feel like doing, or they can make abstract lines and figures—whatever their deepest, inner self wants to do. Ask them to work, without speaking, in their own section of the mural paper as the music continues.
Once all the youth have begun working in a section of the mural paper, ask them to step back and see if their deepest, inner self might like to move out of their section and connect to other places. Suggest they expand their art, out to the art of the next person and maybe the art of the next person beyond that. Tell them it is fine if everybody's art connects.
Give them a few minutes. Then, stop the music and ask everyone to stop drawing. Invite them to step back, without speaking, and look at the group's creation.
Ask participants to quietly put the art supplies away and resume their seats. Ask questions like these:
Including All Participants
Post the mural paper where all youth, including any with limited mobility, can draw on it.
A youth with limited sight can work creatively in their own space in a textured medium such as acrylic paint or wax crayon. Engage others to connect to the youth's work space, also using textured media and explaining what they are drawing as they do it.
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 13:
STORY: WHY AND WHERE GOD HIDES
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 Israel. But the Bible is not the only place people talk about God hiding. Stories from different times and cultures tell of the same thing.
These stories give different reasons why God wanted to hide.
Some say that God became tired of being badgered by people with requests for everything.
Some say that God decided being hard to find would help people grow in their search for the holy.
Some say that God just needed a place to live.
The stories also disagree about who helped God decide where to hide. Some say it was angels. Others say it was advisors, like a president might have. Still others say it was animals.
Many different ideas floated around. One was to have God hide on the moon. But God said no, because God could see the future and knew people would someday land on the moon. A second was to have God hide at the bottom of the sea. But God said no, because God knew people would someday visit the bottom of the sea. A third was to have God hide deep in the earth. But God said no, because God knew people would someday be mining the earth.
These things have all come to pass, of course. People have been to the moon and to the bottom of the ocean and deep into the earth, and they have not found God in any of those places.
Where did God hide that was so successful? Here's where the stories come closer together. They all say in one way or another that God decided to hide inside each of us.
And that is where God remains today.
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 13:
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:
Do I have a soul?
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 13:
HANDOUT 2: MAKING SOUL MASKS
To create a soul mask:
1. Make an outline of your head on heavy card stock. You can do this by placing the card stock on a table, pressing your face down on it, and drawing an outline around your head with a pencil. Or, ask a friend to draw around your head.
2. Use scissors to cut the mask out in the shape of your head.
3. On the outside of the mask, use markers to write words or draw pictures reflecting the self you show to the world. Words like these: boy, girl, basketball player, student, sibling, and so on.
4. On the inside of the mask, use markers to write words or draw pictures reflecting the inner self you do not show to the world. Words like these: brave, religious, deep thinker, mysterious, smart, scared and so on. You will not have to share the inside of your mask with anybody if you do not want to. If you prefer, you can use abbreviations or invent codes for the inside of the mask. Just be sure you can remember what they mean.
5. Cut a small hole on each side of your mask, where the ears would be, and attach a string so you can wear the mask. The string is optional. If you do not use it, you can hold the mask over your face. Or, glue a large wooden stick to the bottom of the mask and hold it up to your face.
6. Cut eyeholes in the mask. Add a nose hole if you like.
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 13:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: SOUL STATEMENTS
1. When you die, your soul lives on and goes to one of three places: Heaven, or Hell or Purgatory.
This is the Roman Catholic belief. Purgatory is a nasty place where souls are purified until they are ready for heaven. Some other Christians have similar beliefs about what happens to the soul after death.
2. When you die, your soul lives on and goes to one of two places: Paradise or Hell.
This is a Muslim belief. It is similar to some Christian beliefs. This is not surprising, because the religions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam have much in common. For example, the prophet Abraham plays a major role in all three religions.
3. The soul "refers to everything about us that is not physical." It "cannot get sick, it cannot die, it cannot disappear."
These thoughts are from Harold Kushner, a Jewish rabbi in the Conservative (moderately traditional) movement and a popular author. He said the soul "refers to everything about us that is not physical." He also said, "Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter."
4. The soul in us is reincarnated from one form of life into another.
This is a Hindu belief. The Hindu idea of reincarnation says that people's current lives reflect the way they lived in the past. People's present lives help determine what their next lives shall be. The better you are in this life, the better your next life will be. When you have lived enough lives, your spirit—your soul—no longer takes a human form and instead lives with God.
5. People are not the only creatures who have souls. Animals do, too
This is the belief called animism. In fact, some animists say that not just animals but plants and objects like stones have souls. Animism has sometimes been a part of pagan religions and is still a belief in some of today's other philosophies and religions.
6. Soul is God in us.
Many people who believe in God say something like this. They say that this explains why the soul is eternal and never dies.
7. Soul is the Divine or holy part of us.
This is similar to the idea that God is in us, but you can say it whether or not you believe in God. You do not have to believe in any god to believe some things are holy or Divine. You might say your divine soul connects you to the Great Mystery, or the cosmos or the spirit of life.
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 13:
LEADER RESOURCE 2: WCUU SCRIPT — SOUL TALK
To the Anchor:
Today's WCUU program is a report on UU ideas about soul. 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.]
Good morning. I am [give your real or stage name], and I am here in the WCUU newsroom with a series of stunning reports about UU ideas on soul. Today we will hear from five reporters who have risked their lives traveling through time and space in search of truth and news. We will then hear from everybody's favorite NUUs Analyst. But first things first, and here is First Reporter. [First Reporter joins Anchor at the microphone.] Tell us your story, First Reporter.
[First Reporter reports.]
Anchor: Wonderful, First Reporter. Now let's hear from Second Reporter.
[First Reporter leaves. Second Reporter joins Anchor.]
Anchor: So what's the news from you, Second Reporter?
[Second Reporter reports.]
Anchor: Fascinating. But time is short. Come in, Third Reporter.
[Second Reporter leaves. Third Reporter joins Anchor.]
Anchor: You are on, Third Reporter.
[Third Reporter reports.]
Anchor: Thank you, thank you, Third Reporter. Time for Fourth Reporter now.
[Third Reporter leaves. Fourth Reporter joins Anchor.]
Anchor: I am sure that you, too, have fascinating news for us, Fourth Reporter. What is it?
[Fourth Reporter reports.]
Anchor: Another wonderful story. Now, where is Fifth Reporter?
[Fourth Reporter leaves. Fifth Reporter joins Anchor.]
[Fifth Reporter reports.]
Anchor: Wow! Good stuff! So many different ideas from so many different times and places. I think we need our NUUs Analyst to sort it all out.
[Fifth Reporter leaves. NUUs Analyst joins Anchor.]
Anchor: Good morning, NUUs Analyst. Well we certainly have a big pile of information to sort out.
NUUs Analyst: We sure do. But I think I can help.
Anchor: Please do. So, what do most UUs have to say about soul?
NUUs Analyst: Well here is something helpful one UU minister said. He is Reverend Joel Miller. He was giving a sermon in Buffalo, New York, and he said that soul "is a frustrating word for most people." And, he added, "Soul is a word that is like Unitarian Universalism: There isn't just one right way to describe it."
NUUs Analyst: Oh yes. A lot of UUs talk about soul. But most of them are not thinking of the eternal sort of souls that some other religions believe in, souls that go to heaven or hell. UUs concentrate more on life than on death, and they think the soul counts more in life than in death.
NUUs Analyst: That is right. The soul has no weight or measurement. It is your deepest self, the place inside yourself you go to meditate or pray. From here you reach out to connect with other people's souls and centers. It is the place where you connect with the Great Mystery.
NUUs Analyst: A lot of people would say so, yes. If every human being has a divine spark, then it lives in the soul. That is how we think about connecting with the holy. And the holy is the mystery.
Anchor: Doesn't holy mean God?
NUUs Analyst: Some UUs find the concept of God helpful. Others do not. Many UUs say there is something larger than themselves, maybe larger than the Universe and all that we can ever know, maybe even more than that. It's a mystery, they say.
NUUs Analyst: Most UUs seem to think the idea of soul is helpful, and they use it to talk about themselves and their spiritual centers, all that they are in the deepest parts of themselves.
Anchor: Well thank you so much, NUUs Analyst. But our time is just about up.
NUUs Analyst: Hey, guess what? When I heard what this show was about, I had a full body X-ray taken. I was looking for my soul.
Anchor: No! We are smack dab out of time. Bring on the music!
[Director: Cue the theme music.]
[Director: Cue the station break.]
Anchor: This is [your real or stage name] signing off for WCUU.
RIDDLE AND MYSTERY: SESSION 13:
LEADER RESOURCE 3: REPORTER STORIES
First Reporter
Here's your story. Tell the WCUU audience about it in your own words.
You traveled to visit Washington, DC, in 2008. You visited a big Unitarian Universalist congregation there, called All Souls, Unitarian. You wanted to know where the name came from.
You found a large, impressive building that really looks like a church. You went in, and the people were friendly.
Where did the name come from? It was first used in 1877, and it came from words of William Ellery Channing. He was a Unitarian minister who lived from 1770 to 1842. Today he is known as one of the founders of Unitarian Universalism. Back then, he said, "I am a member of the living family of all souls." He thought everybody had souls, and he referred to people as souls.
The members and friends of All Souls still do that today. Its web site says, "For more than 180 years, All Souls has sought to live up to its name. We welcome all souls to join us in pulling down the walls that separate us so that we may see ourselves as one human family."
So, you learned that UUs sometimes refer to people as "souls." That suggests that every person has one.
Second Reporter
Here's your story. Tell the WCUU audience about it in your own words.
You have always admired Clara Barton. She was a famous nurse who helped Union soldiers during America's Civil War. She was also a Universalist, and you decided to travel back through time to see what she said about soul.
Unfortunately, people were shooting cannons and rifles at each other during that war. Some of the shells came very close to Clara Barton, and some came close to you as you wandered through time.
But you were lucky. You did not get hurt. You were lucky again when you read a letter Clara Barton wrote to her cousin. She spoke in the letter of her pain at thinking about the mothers, wives and sisters of the soldiers injured and killed in the war. She wanted God to pity and strengthen every one of them.
She said she wished that "Christ would teach my soul a prayer that would plead to the Father" God on behalf of the families.
So Clara Barton thought of the human soul as a place of prayer, and you had something to report on WCUU.
Third Reporter
Here's your story. Tell the WCUU audience about it in your own words.
You are a little irritated. All the other reporters were assigned to travel through time and space to hear what UUs have to say about soul. You were sent home to read the UU hymnals. That was not as exciting as traveling, but at least you learned about souls.
In the big gray book, Singing the Living Tradition, you found Hymn 100. It is called "I've Got Peace Like a River," and if you read the whole first verse, it says, "I've got peace like a river in my soul." The other verses say you have peace joy, love, pain, tears, and strength, all in your soul.
In Singing the Journey, the small green supplement to the hymnbook you found Hymn 1007, "There's a River Flowin' in My Soul." When you read through all the verses, you found that the river was also flowing in your heart and your mind. "Aha," you said. "The soul is connected to the heart and the mind. It is a place were we experience many strong emotions, such as peace, pain, and joy."
So you made two discoveries to report on WCUU.
Fourth Reporter
Here's your story. Tell the WCUU audience about it in your own words.
You traveled through time and space to nineteenth-century Massachusetts. You wanted to find out what Ralph Waldo Emerson had to say about soul. He was once a Unitarian minister, and he was a great and famous philosopher.
You found out that Emerson had tons and tons to say about soul. Not all of it was easy to understand. He often wrote and talked about the "over-soul." That is a huge and universal force that he said contains the individual souls of all people. The over-soul is huge to Emerson. It is a type of deep, divine thought. It unites everybody. It looks forward, toward the future, toward eternity.
Emerson also talked about the soul in every individual. Soul is the part of a person that sees and knows truth. It is deep power. It is the part of the whole in everything. It is beauty.
You wish your trip had been longer so you could have learned more. But you had to get back to give your report.
Fifth Reporter
Here's your story. Tell the WCUU audience about it in your own words.
You sort of like staying home. So you traveled by Internet, and you found a UU connection to soul you had never seen before. It was a poem written by Tess Baumberger. She was a UU minister in 2008, and here is some of what she wrote:
Wouldn't it be great if you could take a picture of your soul?
Then when your mother wanted to brag about you she could show people the picture and say,
"That's my daughter, doesn't she have a beautiful soul,
All sparkly and many-colored and flowing all around her?"
Wouldn't it be great if we walked around
Surrounded by our souls,
So that they were the first things people saw
Instead of the last things?
Then people would judge us by who we really are
Instead of how we look.
So some UUs think of the soul as an important core part of us that it might be good for other people to see. Seeing other people's souls is not easy, they add, and that is too bad.
FIND OUT MORE
Music for Souls
Unitarian Universalist Association. Singing the Journey: A Supplement to Singing the Living Tradition. Boston: Unitarian Universalist Association, 2005. This hymnbook supplement includes "There's a River Flowin' in My Soul" as Hymn 1007
Unitarian Universalist Association. Singing the Living Tradition. Boston: Unitarian Universalist Association, 1993. This hymnbook contains the hymns "I've Got Peace Like a River," Hymn 100, "My Life Flows On in Endless Song," Hymn 108, and "Spirit of Life," Hymn 123
"Song of the Soul (at www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-7yjMLNops)," sung by Cris Williamson
Tippett, Krista. Speaking of Faith. New York: Viking Penguin, 2007; This is the source of the quote in Alternate Activity 6 (on page 48)
"All Souls" and Unitarian Universalism
The Unitarian minister William Ellery Channing (1770-1842) is known today as one of the founders of Unitarian Universalism. His words, "I am a member of the living family of all souls," are echoed in the many Unitarian Universalist congregation names that include the phrase "All Souls."
Poetry about the Soul
A poem by Tess Baumberger called "Soul Lifts" (at www.uua.org/spirituallife/worshipweb/meditationsand/submissions/5541.shtml) is posted on the Unitarian Universalist Association WorshipWeb. The poem begins, "Wouldn't it be great if you could take a picture of your soul? Then when your mother wanted to brag about you/she could show people the picture... "