GATHER THE SPIRIT
A Multigenerational Tapestry of Faith Program
WORKSHOP 5: CHORUS OF LIFE RESOUNDING AS ONE
BY RICHARD S. (RICK) KIMBALL AND CHRISTINE T. RAFAL, ED.D.
© Copyright 2009 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/30/2014 12:18:55 AM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
This we know. The earth does not belong to us; we belong to the earth... All things are connected like the blood which unites one family... Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth... Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. — attributed to Chief Noah Sealth, Reading 550 in Singing the Living Tradition
We name ourselves after the land we live with. Because, not only are we breathing in, we are also drinking from the water that is flavored by that very land. Whatever is deposited in the soil is in that water is in us. So we are all one thing, and we name ourselves after the place that is our nurturing. That sustains our life. — Ramona Peters, Mashpee Wampanoag artist
This workshop asks "Who owns water?" Participants examine their ideas about what can be owned and our responsibility to promote sharing of the resources all living things on Earth need. They explore how boundaries created by people affect the distribution of nature's resources, especially water.
Activity 4, Boundary Stake-out, involves a walk around your congregational building. Alert participants before this workshop that they will need outerwear.
Alternate Activity 1, Story — Sunny Side Mary, presents an option to use in place of, or in addition to, the Activity 1 guided meditation.
Alternate Activity 2 provides a hands-on exploration of how the ground holds water. Participants make their own small, model aquifers. When they add food coloring, they can observe how pollution can contaminate fresh water as it travels underground.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Guided Meditation | 10 |
Activity 2: Story — Mabouya, Chief of the Well | 10 |
Activity 3: Water Boundary | 7 |
Activity 4: Boundary Stake-out | 15 |
Activity 5: River Scene — Whose Water Is It? | 8 |
Faith in Action: Documentary — Flow | |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: Sunny Side Mary | 15 |
Alternate Activity 2: Make An Aquifer in a Cup | 20 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Reflect on the question "Who owns water?" When have you ever thought about this before? What do you know about how Earth's water resources are distributed, who has access to clean water and who does not?
Think about your water. Do you own a well? Does your water come from a town or city water system? Who do you pay for it? To what extent do you feel you own the water you use? How does your feeling of ownership affect your use of water?
Take a few moments to sit with the idea that "your" water does not really belong to you. Feel your gratitude for access to clean drinking water. Take these thoughts and feelings into the workshop with you today.
WORKSHOP PLAN
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
In Gather the Spirit, the chalice-lighting involves water, not flame.
Gather the group in chairs around the table with the chalice bowl, cup and plant. Indicate where you have posted the chalice lighting words. Say you will "light" the chalice by pouring the cup of water into the clear bowl as the group says the words aloud. Lead the group to say:
In the clear light of this chalice we see that as the drop joins the brook, the stream, the river, and becomes a mighty sea, so do each of us gather with others and become a group strong enough to care for and change the world.
Invite the group to share an opening ritual to help everyone connect with the sounds of water. Say:
We will make the sounds of rain. Follow me and make a storm together.
Lead participants by verbally directing and physically demonstrating these sound steps. Pause on each for 10 or 15 seconds, gradually building the storm's intensity:
Then reverse the process. Go slowly back through the sound steps and bring the storm to an end.
You might ask the group to suggest additional body percussion or other effects and make another storm. (Turning lights on and off for lightning is one possibility. Making whoo sounds for wind is another.)
Ask participants to briefly report on their Gather the Spirit activities. Who tried a Taking It Home activity from the previous workshop? Does anyone have a new idea to briefly share about stewardship or water?
If you have started a Gather the Spirit blog for the group, make sure all participants know about it. Explain, as needed, that participants can post results of their explorations of Gather the Spirit topics or other comments or ideas relevant to the program; and, they can respond to one another's postings. Hand out blog access instructions to any who need them.
Suggest participants bend and stretch before sitting again for the next activity. If needed, ask a few volunteers to help re-arrange chairs and set aside the table with chalice bowl, cup and plant.
Including All Participants
Pay attention to accessibility; arrange the chairs to accommodate participants with mobility limitations or who use a wheelchair.
If any participant cannot make sound with hand motions, adapt the activity. Assign a few participants a foot-stamping part, or a vocal part such as the sound of wind starting as a breeze, becoming a howl and then calming to a breeze as the storm subsides.
ACTIVITY 1: GUIDED MEDITATION (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Read the meditation. Decide who the two readers will be. If you wish to add the drum, choose another volunteer.
Description of Activity
The Meditation for Two Voices and Optional Drum offers prayerful thoughts about rain from children in two parts of the world.
Ask participants to find a comfortable position and either close their eyes or gaze quietly at one thing. Tell the group you will lead a meditation featuring the voices of two children as they lie in bed at night waiting for sleep.
Read the meditation quietly. If you are not using a drum, pause for two or three seconds between the sections. If you are using a drum, play a soft, slow, steady three beats between sections.
Allow a moment of silence at the end of the meditation, then ask participants to open their eyes and re-join the group. Process the meditation using questions like these:
ACTIVITY 2: STORY — MABOUYA, CHIEF OF THE WELL (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
The story illustrates that water is a resource necessarily shared by all because it is critical to the very existence of all life. Many humans, too, take more than they really need.
Gather participants. Read or tell the story. Then, process with these questions:
How is needing something different from wanting something? And how do you feel when you want something you cannot have? (Children especially can want something intensely; you could also ask them to imagine how much worse that feeling is when applied to something they need.)
ACTIVITY 3: WATER BOUNDARY (7 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Form two groups. Tell one group they are "water owners" and gather them around the work table that has the pan of water. Tell the other group they are "landowners" and gather them around the work table that has the paper.
Ask the two groups to divide their resource equally so each owner gets a fair share. Do not give any further instruction.
Give the groups just a few minutes. Then, process the activity with these questions.
Explain that in many parts of the world, there are struggles happening about this very issue. People do not have free and unrestricted access to the water they need. Part of the problem is that countries or communities direct the flow of fresh water to keep more of it for themselves. Part of the problem is corporations that take water that flows through land they own, and put it in bottles to sell.
Ask:
If you are not going to do the Faith in Action, you may want to recommend the movie "Flow" for participants to watch on their own. It is a documentary that explains the struggles of people who need water being denied access because of large corporations.
ACTIVITY 4: BOUNDARY STAKE-OUT (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Tell the group they will take a short, outdoor walk to notice what kinds of things people try to own and what kinds of things we share. Invite participants to put on outerwear, as needed, and walk together.
Optional: Distribute notebooks and pencils, and ask participants to record the boundaries and shared resources they notice. Allow them to write lists, make sketches or simply tally their sightings of fences, walls, other boundaries and boundary crossings. Keeping records can focus participants' attention and aid the post-walk discussion about what everyone saw. Or, you may decide to have participants verbally announce what they see and invite just a few volunteers to make notes.
As you walk, ask participants to name ways people show they own pieces of land. Expect answers about built boundaries such as walls and gates. Ask the group to also look for natural boundaries, such as a hill or a river that separates two parcels of land or two towns.
Invite the group to observe what kinds of life do not adhere to these human boundaries. For example, animals such as birds, squirrels or other animals ignore fences. Plants grow up and over walls. You may see a stream, puddle or other water on the ground that runs across several properties.
Bring the group back to the indoor space. Ask participants to call out the boundaries they saw. Then, give each participant a chance to offer an observation of a boundary-crosser. You might say:
In many places, people try to own parts of the world, especially land, and they often mark this ownership with boundaries, to separate it off from other people. What are some examples that we saw today of animals, plants, land formation or water that do not recognize these boundaries?
Allow participants to share. If no one mentions clouds, air or rain as something that cannot be fenced in, point this out.
Say, in closing:
Just as people cannot own the air that we breathe, water belongs to all of us.
Including All Participants
Tailor the outdoor walk to participants' needs around mobility, vision or attention. Choose an accessible route that invites all participants to observe evidence of land ownership and boundary crossing.
ACTIVITY 5: RIVER SCENE — WHOSE WATER IS IT? (8 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Ask the group if anyone knows who owns the water they use. Say, if no one does, that towns, states and regions that build pipelines and treatment plants to provide clean water to their residents might consider that water "theirs." In fact, participants' families probably pay taxes or other fees to use that water. If a family or a village uses a well to pump water up as it flows by, underground, they might say that water belongs to them.
Now say:
Let's see what ownership of water could mean, using our River Scene.
Form small groups and distribute two lengths of yarn, a ruler and some pieces of masking tape to each group. Tell them how many inches of the River Scene each small group can claim. Say:
What if each group could own part of the river? Use your yarn (or string) to mark off a boundary for the part of the river your group will claim as theirs. Remember these boundaries are temporary—just for today. Be careful not to tape over any artwork on the River Scene.
Invite groups to claim their part of the River Scene by taping their yarn boundaries with masking tape. Then have everyone return to their seats.
Offer these questions for discussion:
Including All Participants
If the River Scene is posted too high for all participants to reach above it, lower the River Scene on the wall, or place it on a table or the floor.
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather the group. Briefly summarize the workshop:
Today we meditated and talked about who owns water. We heard a story about how water belongs to everyone. Together we will find ways to be good stewards of the world's waters. We will recycle our chalice water by nurturing this plant.
Invite participants into a moment in silence. Then, ask participants to offer a thought about what moved them during this workshop. Say something like:
Think about our time together. What will you take with you as we leave today?
Allow a moment for reflection, then sharing of responses. Then say:
We will recycle our chalice water by nurturing our plant.
Pour the water from the chalice bowl into the plant.
As you pour, recite the closing words:
We leave our Gather the Spirit friends now, but not our Gather the Spirit friendships. May they be with us until we meet again.
Distribute the Taking It Home handouts you have prepared.
FAITH IN ACTION: DOCUMENTARY — FLOW
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants and congregation members to a viewing of the 2008 documentary film, "Flow." Directed by Irena Salina and an official 2008 Sundance selection, the film asks "Can anyone really own water?" It explores the role of corporations in privatizing water to sell in bottles. According to the film, fresh water is a $400 billion dollar global industry; the third largest behind electricity and oil. The film offers calls to action—ways viewers can get involved and help change the course of global water usage.
For this gathering, you may wish to use the symbolic (water) chalice lighting which opens and closes Gather the Spirit workshops. Show the film, then guide a discussion. Be ready to present local opportunities for action that the Gather the Spirit group and the congregation can take. You might use these questions:
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Meet with your co-leaders after the workshop to reflect on it. How was your mix of discussion and action? In the midst of the busy-ness, did you successfully include spiritual elements? Are participants growing in their understanding of the need to protect and equitably share the Earth's water resources? An understanding of what a fair share might be based on? What should you do differently at the next workshop?
If the group will do more Gather the Spirit workshops, look ahead to assign leadership responsibilities.
TAKING IT HOME
This we know. The earth does not belong to us; we belong to the earth... All things are connected like the blood which unites one family... Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth... Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. — attributed to Chief Noah Sealth, Reading 550 in Singing the Living Tradition
We name ourselves after the land we live with. Because, not only are we breathing in, we are also drinking from the water that is flavored by that very land. Whatever is deposited in the soil is in that water is in us. So we are all one thing, and we name ourselves after the place that is our nurturing. That sustains our life. — Ramona Peters, Mashpee Wampanoag artist
IN TODAY'S WORKSHOP... We considered human ownership and just distribution of natural resources, especially water. We imagined places with different rules about ownership and sharing, and we saw how nature often ignores human boundaries. We discussed how water is a common resource that should belong to all because all life needs water, clean and in sufficient quantity, for its very existence. This workshop affirmed the Unitarian Universalist Principles that promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person; justice, equity and compassion in human relationships; and the interdependent web of existence.
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about... the ownership of water in your area. Do you pay for water? Who do you pay? Does the cost of water make you conserve water more?
What do you know about the quality of your water? Do you receive reports about your municipality's water quality? Do you read them? Have you ever taken any action—written a letter, bought a filter—to improve your water's quality?
FAMILY GAME
The Internet has many resources and games about global ownership of water issues. On the Unicef (at www.unicef.org)website, play the Water Alert! Game (at www.unicef.org/voy/wes/)which takes you through real life issues in many parts of the world.
EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Try...
FAMILY BRAINSTORMING
Brainstorm ways to reduce your water use. Select at least one method to implement. Find ideas on the Green Venture (at greenventure.ca/ecohouse/tours/wisewateruse/) website. Try to measure how much water you save with the method you choose.
FAMILY SCAVENGER HUNT
Does your water come from a well? Where does it come from? Try to trace it back to its natural source. As water travels underground to your home, how many boundaries do you think it crosses? Look at a map to find out.
FAMILY RECREATION
Inspiration to keep the environment clean can come from nature itself. Take time to enjoy a beautiful outdoor setting near you, whether that might mean canoeing a river or lake, hiking a mountain, forest, or desert trail, going on a walk to appreciate the lovely gardens city-dwellers create, or just lying in a patch of grass or a hammock to gaze up at the clouds, tree canopies or stars in the sky.
A FAMILY INVESTIGATION
Clean "green." Research the chemicals in the cleaning products you use, and what happens after you rinse them down the drain. The EPA (at www.epa.gov/oppt/epp/pubs/cleaning.htm) has gathered information to help janitorial purchases at federal agencies. View the Soap and Detergent Association's Sustainability Central (at www.sdahq.org/sustainability/index.cfm) web page for detailed, industry and product updates.
FAMILY VIDEO NIGHT
Watch the movie "Erin Brockovich" together. Erin Brockovich is a real person. While working in a law office filing papers, she became curious why medical reports belonged in a utility company's file. She engaged in an extensive search for truth about the utility's dumping of chromium which was entering the community's groundwater. It is an empowering story. Brockovich didn't need scientific degrees or impressive credentials to do something important. She needed to notice and care.
The movie can also give your family a chance to talk about work/family balance. How did her employer help her? Could they have been more helpful? Do you know other businesses that work pro bono? Were her efforts worth the time she spent away from her family?
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: SUNNY SIDE MARY (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This story examines the role of unfair social rules in unfair distribution of resources.
Read or tell the story. Process the story with these questions:
Invite participants to share ways they have helped allocate a resource more fairly by confronting an unfair practice in their own lives.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: MAKE AN AQUIFER IN A CUP (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather participants at work tables. Tell them they will make aquifers and see how the ground holds water. Show the group the aquifer you have made.
Invite participants to take an empty cup and pour white sand on the bottom, about 1/4 inch deep.
Distribute the cups filled with water. Instruct participants to pour enough water into the sand in their aquifer cup to wet the sand completely but leave no standing water on top of the sand.
Let participants see how the water is absorbed. They will notice that the water remains around the grains of sand. Suggest participants gently shake or tap their cup to level its contents.
Now invite participants to make the second layer of their aquifer with modeling clay. Tell them to pinch a small piece of the clay into a thin, flat disc that can cover about half the sand. Ask them to lay the disc on the sand and press one edge of the clay up against the side of the cup to make a tight seal. Check to make sure all participants have a good seal. This clay will represent a "confining layer"—compacted rock and soil that keeps water from passing through. Invite participants to pour a very small amount of water onto the clay. Draw their attention to how water sits on top of the clay.
Now invite participants to form a third layer, using the aquarium pebbles. Place the pebbles over the sand and clay, covering them completely. Suggest they slope the rocks to form a hill on one side of the cup and a valley on the other.
Explain that the layers in the cup represent some of the many layers of the Earth's surface.
Now invite participants to pour water into their aquifers until the water in the valley is even with top of the hill. Instruct them to watch as the porous aquarium pebbles allow water to flow and sit between them. Soon each cup should contain a small lake as well as ground water. This is a model of how the earth holds water above and within the ground. A well works because it is a hole through which ground water can be pumped to the surface.
Invite participants to use the food coloring to see how garbage, pollution or a chemical spill can affect ground water. Ask them to put a few drops of food coloring on top of their rock hill, as close to the inside wall of the cup as possible. and observe what happens. They should see the color spread through the rocks, then to the surface water and finally through the "ground" water into the white sand at the bottom of their cup.
Help participants understand that pollution or contamination of land and even air can pollute the Earth's water. Adults in the group may remember crises around acid rain, where air pollution from coal burning fell as rain into lakes and killed many fish. Others may be familiar with the story of Erin Brockovich, who uncovered corporate chemical dumping that contaminated ground water and made area residents very ill. Cleaning up our environment helps all of us live healthier lives.
Leave some time for clean-up. You might have participants add their unused clean water to your chalice bowl. Recycle used plastic cups.
Including All Participants
Some participants, such as young children, may lack the fine motor skills to build this aquifer. You could have mixed-skills or -age groups work together.
GATHER THE SPIRIT: WORKSHOP 5:
STORY: MABOUYA, CHIEF OF THE WELL
Adapted from a Haitian tale.
To whom does the water belong?
There was once a drought in the country. The streams dried up and the wells went dry. God saw there was no place for the animals to drink. God provided a well with the condition that it must be taken care of so all may use it. God said, "You'll have to take good care of my well. One of you will have to be caretaker. The caretaker will stay by the well at all times to see that no one abuses it or makes it dirty."
Mabouya, the lizard spoke up saying, "I will be the caretaker."
God looked at all the animals. He said at last, "Mabouya, the lizard, will be the caretaker. The well is over there in the mango grove."
The others animals went away. Mabouya went directly to the well. When the other animals began to come back for water, Mabouya challenged them. First the cow came to drink. The lizard sang out in a big voice:
"Who is it? Who is it? Who is walking in my grove?"
The cow replied: "It is I, the cow, I am coming for water."
Mabouya called back: "Go away! This is God's grove, and the well is dry."
So the cow went away and suffered from thirst.
Then the horse came and Mabouya challenged him, saying:
"Who is walking in my grove?"
The horse answered: "I am the horse and, I am coming for water."
And Mabouya called back:" Go away! This is God's grove, And the well is dry."
So the horse went away and he too suffered from thirst.
Other animals came to the well and the lizard challenged all of them in the same way, saying:
"Go away! This is God's grove, and the well is dry."
So the animals went away and suffered much because they had no water to drink.
God saw all the suffering going on and said, "I gave the animals a well to drink from, but they are all dying of thirst. What is the matter?" And God went to the well.
When the lizard heard footsteps, she called out:
"Who is it? Who is it? Who is walking in my grove?"
God answered: "It is I, Papa God. I am coming for water."
And Mabouya said: "Go away, Papa God. The well is dry."
God was very angry. He said once more:
"It is I, Papa God. I am coming for water."
And the lizard called back again: "Go away, Papa God. The well is dry."
God said no more to the lizard. He sent for the animals to come to the well. He said, "You came to me because you were thirsty and I gave you a well. I made Mabouya the caretaker. But she gave no thought to the suffering creatures all around her. If one has a banana tree in their garden, it is theirs. If one has a cotton tree in their garden, it is theirs. But if one has a well in their garden, only the hole in the ground belongs to that one. The water is God's and belongs to all creatures."
And it is a saying among the people:
"The hole in the ground is yours,
The water is God's."
GATHER THE SPIRIT: WORKSHOP 5:
STORY: SUNNY SIDE MARY
Searle-White, Joshua. 2007. Sunny Side Mary. In Magic Wanda's Travel Emporium: Tales of Love, Hate and Things in Between. Boston : Skinner House —Used with permission
In a medium-sized town not far from here, there was a middle school. It was just like any other middle school, except for two things. First, instead of an auditorium, it had a courtyard, a huge round covered area right in the center of the school. In the middle of the courtyard was a big round pool with fountains and lights. Right in the middle of the pool was a circular stage, connected to one side of the courtyard by a narrow bridge.
The kids who went there liked having the only school with a round stage; it was very cool. But there was one problem. Whenever there was a concert, half of the kids would always have to look at the performers' backs. Plus, that side of the courtyard didn't have very good lights, and it was always a little bit cold. Because of this, everyone called that part the shady side, while the other part of the courtyard was called the sunny side. Now, it wouldn't be too bad to have a sunny side and a shady side, if the kids sometimes got to be on one side and sometimes on the other. But that's not the way it was.
That's the second thing that was different about this school. Some kids in the school came from the North Side of town and some from the South Side. And there was a rule: during concerts in the courtyard, only the North Side kids could sit on the sunny side. The South Side kids had to sit on the shady side.
What would happen if a South Side kid went onto the sunny side? It was always the same. The North Side kids would just pick her up and dump her into the fountain. And if she came back, they'd just keep dumping her into the fountain until she went back to her side. It was pretty awful.
You're probably wondering exactly who made up this crazy rule. Well, no one exactly knows. The North Side kids always said that the principal had made the rules and they were just doing what she said. So besides getting to sit on the sunny side, the North Side kids got to feel important, too, because they said they were doing what the grown-ups wanted. However, if you asked the principal, she would say that it was the kids' choice, and that the South Side kids actually liked to be on the shady side because they were used to it. And what if you talked to the teachers? Well, some of them would say that the North Side kids behaved better than the other kids, and so the North Side kids should be on the sunny side. Besides, they would say, it was natural for kids to divide up like that. There were some other teachers who would say it probably shouldn't be that way. But none of them did anything to change it.
So the school was a great place to be, if you were from the North Side. But if you were from the South Side, it wasn't so great. It wasn't just that you couldn't really see what was going on during concerts. What was worse? Knowing that you couldn't go over to the other side, because if you did, you'd get thrown in the fountain. It just didn't seem fair.
Things went on like that for a long time, until the day that Mary went wading. A big concert was planned for lunchtime that day, with a band called the Zoot Suit Tooters. Mary had been waiting to see this band for a long time. She was a huge Zoot Suit Tooters fan. She had all the Tooters CDs and tee-shirts, and she had their posters plastered all over the walls of her bedroom. They were her absolutely favorite group. But Mary was a South Side kid so she knew she was going to have to sit on the shady side and not see the front of the band at all. That made her angry.
So Mary decided to do something different. She planned it all out. On the day of the concert, she got to the courtyard early and found a place to sit on the sunny side. Over and over, she said to herself, "I don't care what they do or what they say, I am not moving. The Tooters are my favorite band, and I am going to see them from the front, no matter what."
Well, it came time for the assembly, and the North Side kids started showing up. Of course, the first thing they saw was Mary sitting on their side. And what do you think they did? First they just looked at her like she was crazy. Mary didn't move.
Then they said, "Hey South Sider, get over on your side of the courtyard!"
Mary just pretended not to hear them. They yelled louder. They called her names. They stared at her and told her to move or else. And still Mary ignored them. So what did they do? A bunch of the biggest North Side kids picked her up and threw her in the fountain with a big splash!
Mary did not like that at all. She stood up in the water, dripping. She wasn't hurt, since the pool wasn't that deep—only up to her waist or so—and the water was pretty warm. But she did not like being thrown out of her seat. It made her angry. She glared at the North Side kids. They glared back.
Mary stepped out and went back to where she was sitting. The North Side kids threw her into the fountain again. She got up and went back to her seat. They threw her back in the fountain. She got up again, and as she got out of the fountain, they started to come after her... so she walked back into the fountain. It was better than getting thrown in, anyway.
Mary sat down in the water and thought, "This is awful! Here I am, soaking wet. If I ask the teachers to help, they'll just say that I should have stayed on my side. If I ask the principal, she'll just say that I should like the shady side better. Nobody's going to help me. What am I going to do?"
Finally, she stood up, feeling totally defeated. She started walking through the fountain back toward the shady side—slosh, slosh, slosh. As she walked, the rhythm of her feet reminded her of a song that her grandmother used to sing. It went like this:
Wade in the water
Wade in the water, children,
Wade in the water,
God's gonna trouble the water.
With that song flowing over and over again in her head, she realized with a giggle that, believe it or not, she actually was wading in the water! She looked at the shady side and all the South Side kids there. She looked at the stage, and she thought about the song. And she thought to herself, "Wait a minute. If wading in the water is good enough for God, it's good enough for me!"
And you know what Mary did? She turned right around and started sloshing back to where she had started.
Wade in the water
Wade in the water, children,
Wade in the water,
God's gonna trouble the water.
As she hummed the song and bounced along with the rhythm, the strangest thing happened. Somehow the other South Side kids must have heard the song. They got up from where they were sitting, and they walked into the fountain, too. Slosh, slosh, slosh, slosh, all together! Mary sloshed back toward the sunny side, and the other South Side kids followed. And wouldn't you know it, just as they all got to the front of the stage, the Zoot Suit Tooters ran across the bridge and onto the stage, and the concert started. Mary and the other South Side kids were on the sunny side, in the water.
The North Side kids were stunned. They had never seen anything like this! They didn't know what to do. They couldn't throw the South Side kids into the fountain because they were already in the fountain—with the best view of the concert. It was wrong! The North Side kids looked at each other, and then they all rushed into the fountain to get in front of the South Side kids. They had to be first! They were always first! So they pushed, and shoved, and squirmed, and finally they got themselves right up to the front, squished right up next to the stage, where no one could be in front of them. The Zoot Suit Tooters were playing practically right over their heads, and... and... and they looked around and suddenly realized that while they were struggling to get in front of the South Side kids, the South Side kids had all gotten out of the fountain and were now sitting in the seats on the sunny side, drying off!
The North Side kids were stunned again. What could they do? They were in the fountain, and the South Side kids had all the best seats, with Mary right in front. There was no way the North Side kids could throw all the South Side kids in the fountain at once. The teachers and principal were speechless. The Zoot Suit Tooters played, and the South Side kids listened, and there wasn't much else the North Side kids could do. They sloshed over to the shady side to dry off. And that's where they sat to watch the concert.
Things were different in that school from then on. The principal learned that if she made crazy rules, people wouldn't follow them. The teachers learned that the South Side kids didn't want to be behind the stage all the time. The North Side kids learned that if they wanted to get a good seat at an assembly, they had to get there early. The South Side kids learned that if you all stand up together for something that is right, sometimes you can win. And because Mary had helped the South Side kids get a place on the sunny side, all her friends began to call her Sunny Side Mary, the name they call her to this very day.
GATHER THE SPIRIT: WORKSHOP 5:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: MEDITATION FOR TWO VOICES AND OPTIONAL DRUM
Tomorrow the family will go to the well. Will water be there?
x x x
Tomorrow is the family reunion. It better not rain.
x x x
The well was almost dry last week. And still it has not rained.
x x x
We will play games and maybe swim. And it better not rain.
x x x
Has it rained at the well? Or is it still dry? Oh please, can it rain?
x x x
I hope it's really hot so a swim will feel good. It better not rain.
x x x
There were rain clouds on the hills but they did not come here. Why won't they come here?
x x x
If there is no place to swim, we can at least use a hose.
x x x
I remember playing at the well. We pulled out the water and the kids splashed around and we had a great time. I wish we never wasted that water. We won't play at all tomorrow if the well is dry. We will all be too sad.
x x x
The last reunion was great. Food cooked outside and drinks filled with ice. It better not rain.
x x x
Our food will be cooked with water from the river tonight. The animals use that water and it does not smell good. Oh why can't it rain?
x x x
The year before that was not so good. The drinks ran out and the ice ran out and we had to drink warm water. Yuck. Plain old water. Who needs that?
x x x
Maybe I should pray before I sleep. Shut my eyes and pray that there will soon be rain.
x x x
Maybe I should pray before I sleep. Shut my eyes and pray that there will not be rain.
x x x
Oh let there be rain. Send the clouds and let rain fall.
x x x
No rain, no rain, no rain, no, please, no rain.
x x x
We will run and splash all around the well. We will fall to our knees, our soaking wet knees, and give thanks.
x x x
I will do anything you ask, anything at all, just to have sun and not have rain.
x x x
Oh may it rain. Send us the clouds. Oh may it rain.
x x x
May it not rain. Let there be sun. May it not rain.
x x x
FIND OUT MORE
Watch this animation (at www3.interscience.wiley.com:8100/legacy/college/strahler/0471238007/animations/ch16_animations/animation1.html) online, from Geodiscoveries, for a better understanding of the water cycle and how groundwater travels and can become contaminated.