UU Thinking Sticks

A thrift-store game of Jenga blocks, a permanent marker, and a list of juicy concepts are all you need to make a set of open-ended word toys that promote creative and critical thinking skills, interpersonal connection, and interfaith competency in a UU context.

Sandra Dodd, the homeschooling parent who helped bring unschooling out from obscurity in the 1990s and through present day, shared a fun game on her site called "Thinking Sticks." The idea is to have a set of Popsicle sticks with inviting concepts on them: Japan, shoes, pre-history, medicine, morality, rodeo, holidays, journalism, etc. Grab two sticks and try to connect the ideas and then share what you come up with. That's it. Very simple, but very open, which allows for twists and turns into interesting conversations, sharings, and realizations. She conceived of the game as a way to help people release their ideas about life being separated out into finite subjects (math, science, history, English), since that kind of thinking holds people back in unschooling.

For UU's, this could make a great get-to-know-you game, or a warm-up activity for a discussion, or a pastime for youth groups on a bus or at a lock-in. Reason is one of our sources of wisdom, and lifelong learning is an abiding characteristic of our adherents. Also, as our faith--and our future--becomes more interfaith, more integrated, and more interconnected, the ability to link ideas becomes a critical skill. (This is not my idea alone; UU religious educator Kathryn Baptista used Thinking Sticks in a sermon in the early 2000's; the text of her sermon is here.)

In the Spirit Play classroom, teachers could get together and make a list of words that were derived from the stories they intended to tell for the year. Death, neighbors, seed, grief, home, and mother might be words from "Mustard Seed Medicine." Sharing, wolves, fear, population, understanding, compromise, instinct, and enough might be words from "Who Speaks for Wolf." It would be fun for the teachers to come up with such a list at the beginning of the year, and makes a pretty sturdy classroom choice for very little money. (Jenga set was $2 at the thrift store, and I had the multicolored Sharpie markers, but you could do it with a black one just as well.)

If you wanted to make a set of more general spirituality-themed Thinking Sticks, there is a list here that might help you get started.

Pulse in Orlando

Hello, Spirit Play storytellers and others. Something we know well about Spirit Play is that the method is carefully crafted to bring reverence, delicacy, honesty, and connection to the classroom and worship environment. The tragedy at Pulse in Orlando calls for all of those qualities.

The below is not yet built, and so, hasn't been tested. I can only see it in my mind's eye, and I'm not in a position to put it together just yet. But I'm sharing it here just the same, because here in the days immediately afterward, some of you may find that building and practicing to tell the story is good therapy for you, too. Or maybe it could be an occasion to gather with your religious education team to do something constructive together.

If you are able to make it and tell it, please post back here with feedback. Thanks in advance, and love and courage to all of us.

Pulse in Orlando

Story by Teresa Honey Youngblood

6/15/16

Overview: A story about the mass shooting at the dance club, Pulse, in Orlando, Florida, on Sunday, June 12, 2016, and the Unitarian Univesalist response to it. This story is intended for children 8-10 and up.

Materials:

• Blue circular underlay, 36” across
• Large green cutout of the shape of the state of Florida
• Smaller circle, about 8” across, in rainbow colors
• 30 or so felt or wooden peg people, some in skin tones, some  in all shades of the rainbow, no features added to their faces
• Two small baskets
• One small scarf or handkerchief in a solid color
• Small, black felt gun, abstracted, but in the general shape of a large machine gun
• Large red felt heart, about 8” across
• (optional) Flowers enough to form a circle around the 30 or so felt or wooden peg people when they are formed into a circle (Maybe 60 or so blossoms the size of roses or pansies),
• and large bowl or basket to hold all the flowers

Preparation: Do the layout two or three times so you can feel comfortable with the spacing of objects around the circle, and so you can utilize the three different smaller baskets/bowls that are employed in the storytelling.

***

Have basket in hand.

This is a story about a tragedy, about many deaths, and about something very holy, and very human that happens afterward.

Spread out blue underlay.

Did you know Florida means “land of flowers” in Spanish? It’s called that because when the Spanish arrived in Florida in the 16th century, the coastlines were dotted with flowers in reds, oranges, yellows, white, pinks, and purples. Plants and flowers still grow tall and beautiful there, where it is sunny and warm almost all year long.

Spread out green cutout of shape of Florida, in the center of the circle.

This story takes place in a city in Florida called Orlando.

Point to the area where Orlando is.

One very early Sunday morning, in June of 2016, three hundred people came together at a dance club to have fun, to celebrate life, to enjoy themselves, enjoy the music, and enjoy being alive. They were dressed in their fine clothing, and held hands, and danced salsa and merengue.

Place rainbow circle in Central Florida area. Place 8-10 of the peg people (some rainbow, some skin toned) in a circle on this circle, some standing close together, some not.

A man came to the dance party. He didn’t like the people at the dance party. He didn’t like men who loved men or women who loved women or people of genders or sexualities that he didn’t understand. He was afraid of the way they loved, and he covered up his fear with anger. Instead of getting help with his anger, he found ways to feed his anger. His anger grew and grew and grew until he stopped seeing the people at the dance party as people with families and feelings and good hearts and strong minds.

Place one skin-toned figure near but outside of the circle of dancers. Place felt gun next to him.

This man came to the dance party with a gun, a gun that is especially made for killing people, such as in a war, and he began shooting into the crowd of happy, dancing people.

People ran everywhere. They ran out of the dance party. They hid in bathrooms and under tables. Many people helped others who had been injured. They carried people out as they ran. They helped as many people escape as they could.

Remove about half of the dance club people from the area and set into one small basket off to the side.

When it was all over, 49 people had been shot to death, and 53 people were hurt very badly. The man himself had been shot by the police.

Remove remaining people, including the shooter and the gun, from the underlay. Place the gun to the side, and place the people gently and slowly into the other small basket, which has been lined with the handkerchief. Slowly fold the handkerchief over the people. Bring the basket into your lap. Place your hand on the basket, and close your eyes, as if saying a brief prayer, then place it to the side.

The name of the place where the dance party happened was called “Pulse.” Maybe you’ve heard that word? A pulse is a rhythmic beat, a dance beat, or a heartbeat.

Point to rainbow circle.

The next day, people gathered to cry and hold one another. They were so sad, so confused, so scared. Unitarian Univesalists gathered in their churches to share their feelings and to comfort each other. Others gathered in their churches, too. We gathered to remember that we are loved, we are safe, and we can share each other’s hard feelings so that we know we’re not alone.

Place large red heart over the rainbow circle.

Even in the depth of their sadness, the UU’s and others in Orlando knew they could not--would not--abandon those who needed help. The Unitarian Universalists in Orlando opened up their church to anyone who needed to talk, anyone who wanted to cuddle with a gentle therapy dog to help them feel safe, anyone who needed some time and help to feel OK for a few minutes after such a terrible thing. The Unitarian Universalists hosted a blood drive. Do you know what a blood drive is? It’s where people who are strong and healthy volunteer to give some of their blood to people who are sick and injured and in great need of blood. (This is a very good thing to do any time, but it’s especially important when there are many injured people.) In so many ways, UU’s and others surrounded this huge, scary thing with a circle of love, with thousands of acts of helping and kindness, with reminders that we are all one people, and we need each other, and are there for each other.

Place all people except for those in basket with handkerchief in a circle around the heart, equally spaced.

When something awful, something terrifying, something that seems like it comes straight from a nightmare occurs, we come together to remind each other that yes, the world is hurting, but for every person who hurts another, there are 1,000 who can help, who did help, who always will help. There are so many more helpers than hurters.

Slowly trace your finger through the air above the circle of felt/peg people. Then, open your palm facing upward and indicate around the circle of those gathered, bringing everyone into this circle of love and hope.

And every day, we can choose to be one of the helpers. We can choose to love so strong that the hurts of the world will be healed.

What are we doing, as Unitarian Universalists, to be helpers?

(As you speak the below, point at one felt/peg person, then another. Or, if you are using flowers, place three or four flowers at a time in a bigger circle around the circle of peg people.)

We are writing to our politicians and demanding that they stop allowing regular people to buy these kinds of war guns. We demand that they ask people questions before selling them guns, so they know if they might be someone who intends to do harm to others with it. We spread ideas about love and acceptance of one another. We stand on the side of love, all kinds of love. We do this work for understanding through clear and nonviolent means.

(Place remaining flowers, if using them.) Bring hand to own heart.

And we reach deep into our faith to find the courage to keep doing this sacred work together for a better world.

I wonder how you feel right now?

I wonder if you have any questions?

I wonder if this story reminds you of anything else you’ve seen or heard?

I wonder where is God/the Spirit of Mystery and Wonder/the holy in this story?

I wonder what part of this story you’re thinking about the most?

I wonder if you know how deeply loved you are, by all of us in the community, loved exactly how you are?

Slowly, reverently, put pieces back in basket.

Glass Pebble Pictures

There is a beautiful story on the Spirit Play training CD called "The Buddha Bowl." It's in the Holidays-->Earth Day section of the CD. The thrust of the story is that every being in the Universe is made of the same stuff--sand and bone and stardust--though something especially nice about this story is that it introduces the concept of a koan, opens the possibility for discussing gender equality and inequality in communities, delves into the teacher-student relationship, and so many other things. (It's a story aimed at older elementary kids.)

At the end of the story, our main character, Fu, casts handfuls of sand onto the floor and the sand glitters in the moonlight. For a special work sample available after this story is told, I borrowed an idea from my friend and colleague Kathy Smith, making circular mandalas using shiny glass pebbles.

Here's how the cost breaks down:

Small bags of pebbles in six colors, plus clear--$2 each (after JoAnn's coupon and teacher discount) for a total of $14.

Thrift store silverware tray, $1.50 (You can have each color grouping in its own clear plastic box from the dollar store, or of course in baskets, too.)

Circles cut out of scrap leather, $0. (You can use felt or craft foam. What I like about the leather is that it's a natural material and it grips the surface a little bit so your circle doesn't slip as you work on it.)

So, this work sample in total cost $15.50, and took about 30 minutes to assemble, which was mostly cutting out the circles and sorting and re-sorting the colored glass pebbles after my toddler "helped" me with my work.

Two things I want to add about this project:

One, when I first saw this, it was at a conference for adults, and it was offered as an in-between time activity, or an activity to do quietly while also attending to a lecture or discussion. Kathy had sea shells, little pine cones, acorn caps, and other such things to add to the mandalas, too, in addition to the colorful glass pebbles. It was, by far, the favorite activity of those of us in attendance. I plan on using these glass pebble mosaics as an art response for a retreat that I'm helping the women's group here to organize; the theme of the retreat is "Embracing the Impermanent." While it's possible these glass pebble pictures could be glued down, the idea really is to not glue them down so that the ephemeral nature of the activity becomes part of the experience.

Two, as I've formalized this activity for use in the Spirit Play classroom, it has been sitting on my dining room table. My homeschoolers come up and make pictures with them, just for fun, to pass the time, as their own kind of response to one thing or another, while we're chatting. That last one is the best. I first learned about that idea from Sandra Dodd's essay "Doing Two Things at Once, or Leaning on a Truck and Other Parallel Play." There's good science that shows that some of us benefit from doing something open-ended and rote, such as knitting or doodling, while also listening or discussing.

Skull.

Eyeball.

 (Thanks to the homeschoolers for those last two, plus the Earth in the picture above.)

Jataka tale, "Wise Teacher's Test"

Some of you may know that Spirit Play is, shall we say, dormant at UUFF. We have no Spirit Play classrooms, and the work materials have been cannibalized for other R.E. needs. Our story baskets are stacked up in the store room, in need of some love and attention. And all the trained teachers but one have either moved away or left R.E.

But, like a seed sleeps in the soil, so too does this method lay waiting powerfully, full of potential, just below the surface.

And today was one of those days where a little shoot broke through.

I adapted and built a new story, one of my favorites, to integrate in with the churchwide theme of evolution. The whole session went really well. The parents were happy. The children were engaged and excited. I was thrilled.

My great hope is to capitalize on this visibility and energy to make a pitch for using Spirit Play as the basis for our one-room schoolhouse in the fall, where I will likely be doing double-duty some Sundays as storyteller/co-teacher and DRE. The program here is in great need of one of Spirit Play's great strengths, and that is a low degree of teacher prep week-to-week once the classroom is set up and the stories are prepared. Let's hope I can help others see what a great match this can be!

The set-up above cost about $13. The little wooden house was $7 at JoAnn's. The wooden people are from two sets, small people and large people. The small people set was $4, and I used all five figures. I used one of five large people and reserved the others for other stories. The rock was found. The fabric and the glass pebbles for the coins were object I already had. And the felt was a smaller circle leftover from another Spirit Play story, so maybe a couple of dollars worth of felt if one had to buy it new.

The Wise Teacher’s Test

A Jataka tale adapted and published in the Tapestry of Faith curriculum, "Moral Tales," by

Alice Anacheka-Nasemann and Elisa Davey Pearmain,

adapted for Spirit Play by Teresa Honey Youngblood

Materials:

Basket with the World Religions symbol or the blue triangle for the 5th Principle, right of conscience

One teacher figure

Four or five smaller student figures

Small structure to serve as the schoolhouse

Medium sized rock

Blue underlay

Small, fancy bag full of yellow or gold glass pebbles or fake coins

Rectangle of semi-translucent dark fabric or paper, under which the small bag of coins fits

Spread out dark blue background.

I remember that blue is for our promise to believe in our ideals, and act on them. I wonder if this story is going to be about doing what is right.

Place schoolhouse at a lower edge of the underlay. Place dark rectangle at upper edge of underlay. Place large rock between them.

We have what we need to get started, so let us begin.

Once upon a time on the outskirts of a big city in Japan there stood an old temple.

Touch the temple.

There was a master teacher who lived there, a Buddhist monk.

Place the monk in the building.

From a young age boys who wanted to study Buddhism would come to live in the temple and  learn from the monk.

Place the children in the building.

One day the Buddhist monk gathered the students around him, and said," My dear students, as you can see, I am growing old, and slow. I can no longer provide for the needs of the temple as I once did. I know I have not yet taught you to work for money, and so I can only think of one thing that can keep our school from closing."

Move students closer.

"Our nearby city is full of wealthy people with more money in their purses than they could ever need. I want you to go into the city and follow those rich people as they walk through the crowded streets, or when they walk down the deserted alleyways.”

Gently shake purse of coins, and place underneath dark rectangle.

“When no one is looking, and only when no one is looking, you must steal their purses from them. That way we will have enough money to keep our school alive."

Sneakily take purse from under dark rectangle and move it over to the temple, partially hidden behind the building.

Touch children figures.

"But Master," the boys said in disbelief, "you have taught us that it is wrong to take anything that does not belong to us."

Move purse on top of dark rectangle.

Touch teacher.

"Yes, indeed I have," the old monk replied. "It would be wrong to steal if it were not absolutely necessary. And remember, you must not be seen! If anyone can see you, you must not steal! Do you understand?"

Touch children figures.

The boys looked nervously from one to the other. Their teacher’s eyes shone with intensity such as they had never seen before. "Yes, Master," they said quietly.

Touch teacher.

"Good," he said. "Now go, and remember, you must not be seen!"

The boys got up and quietly began to file out of the temple building. The old monk rose slowly and watched them go.

Move all children but one out of building one at a time, and group them on the far side of the rock, where they cannot be seen from the temple. Move monk to doorway.

When he turned back inside, he saw that one student was still standing quietly in the corner of the room.

Move teacher and student closer together in middle of room. Touch teacher.

"Why did you not go with the others?" he asked the boy. "Do you not want to help save our temple?"

Touch boy.

"I do, Master," said the boy quietly. "But you said that we had to steal without being seen. I know that there is no place on Earth that I would not be seen, for I would always see myself."

Touch teacher.

"Excellent!" exclaimed the teacher. "That is just the lesson that I hoped my students would learn. Run and tell your friends to return to the temple before they get us into trouble."

Wondering questions:

I wonder how the children felt to have learned the lesson through a trick?

I wonder why the boys hid behind the rock instead of going to town like the monk told them?

I wonder if you have ever really, really wanted to take something that was not yours?

I wonder what you have heard about stealing before?

I wonder if you have ever thought to yourself that something you wanted to do, or something that another person asked you to do, was wrong?

I wonder where Spirit is in this story?

I wonder why the students were only boys, not children of other genders?

I wonder if you will share this story with anyone you know?

Piece by piece, gently put away story. You might name each piece as you do, such as “The children who left the temple to hide behind a rock,” “The rock behind which they gathered,” “The boy who stayed behind to tell his teacher what he thought,” “The teacher,” “The purse full of riches,” “The dark alleys where the monk told the boys to do the stealing,” “The school of the monastery,” “And finally, our blue underlay, which reminds us of our 5th Promise to believe in our ideals, and act on them.”

Remember that if you’d like to make this story your work, it will be on the shelf with the others. I hope you enjoy working with it.

Spirit Play Cart

I've been thinking lately about capacity as it pertains to RE programs, in the sense of having the resources and ability to function to our fullest. Different factors affect that, right? How many and how skilled the volunteers, the size and other particulars of the space, the quality of the partnership with the minister (if there is a minister) and other church leaders, the attitude and presence of the parents, funding, training, the degree of buy-in and support of the congregation at large, the nature of the community where we're situated, etc.

And I think capacity is often in flux. A longtime board member and once-RE chair described it as the "biorhythm of RE" when I approached her for insight into plummeting numbers.

So, rather than feel bad about our low capacity at present, I'm trying to find ways to work with it. Adaptive change.

In that spirit, I created this set-up on a rolling cart today around the Seven Promises lesson to present on Sunday. It's an attempt to scale down our Sunday offering to something that could be managed by one person (me, with another there for safety policy compliance) in any location that was fit to hold children. It's not technically Spirit Play. With no prepared classroom, and no second trained adult, there is not the opportunity for ritualized arrivals and leave-takings; nor the guarantee of tidy, well-thought-out spaces to occupy; and no way to offer past story and lesson baskets to engage with after their told. But, it is one of many examples where my Spirit Play training and short experience has allowed me to put together something that I hope will be meaningful and enjoyable for the children, and that might be useful as an example of ways to do RE without fixed spaces or even a regular crowd of children to count on coming.

"Who Speaks for Wolf?" puppet

The Spirit Play class heard and saw the "Who Speaks for Wolf?" story a couple of Sundays ago. It was a hit. At this congregation, environmental issues are felt very powerfully, and I have found that what the "Big Church" makes its priority and passion, so too will be felt by the young folks.

I got the template for this wolf at a French primary school's website that Google translates--preciously--to "a small corner of shares." With the particular puppet, we tried three different art media: markers (on the face), colored pencils (tail), and watercolors. We had two choices of brads--large gold ones, seen here, and small silver ones.

One special work choice that we had for this story was the making of wolf puppets. Two of the six children chose to work on these together. One nice thing about these particular puppets was that the pieces were moveable, so we could open up a discussion about how wolves--and dogs and coyotes and foxes--use their tails to communicate with each other; we could move the tail up and down to illustrate the idea. The story focused on the idea that caring humans need to take it upon themselves to speak for wildlife in matters of human affairs that will have an impact on the earth. But through this work choice we also could broaden the conversation to bring in the idea that animals often have sophisticated and nuanced ways of talking to each other.

Our second special work choice that, again, two of the six children chose, was working on a coloring page that had a stained-glass style picture of a wolf. It occurred to me that with themed coloring pages, and with our RE hour being just before service, it might be nice to have a few clipboards set up with these to color during service itself. 

Inventory night!

Heading into the second half of the year, I sat down with all our story baskets and did a good, thorough inventory. Lots of stories needed to be reunited with their texts. Some story pieces had broken pieces. Some needed refills of used materials. But all in all, we were in pretty good shape.

But you know, I'd almost have rather they be worn right out! I guess it's possible that the stories were played with everso gently by nimble-fingered children in dainty and unobtrusive ways. But my guess is they weren't taken off the shelves much. Next year, I want some serious smudges, nicks, bumps, and tears!