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.

A story for home

Last fall, my two boys, 5 and 8, and I read Sophia Lyon Fahs' From Long Ago and Many Lands as our bedtime stories for a few weeks. We'd read one or two a night, sometimes doing the Judith Frediani questions at the end, sometimes not. Favorites emerged right away, but what surprised me was how a handful of stories really stuck with them; they'd bring them up months later, and correct each other on the specifics of their retellings.

One of those stories was "Mustard Seed Medicine." In it, a mother has a cherished and beloved son who, at the age of 4, dies. She brings the boy's body to the Buddha, who tells her that he knows the cure to her suffering. He tells her to go gather from her neighbors mustard seeds. The catch, though, is that the mustard seeds must come from a house where no one has been touched by death. In going through this exercise, the mother realizes the sad truth that no one--not one of her neighbor's lives--has not been touched by death in some way. It was not some mystical mustard seeds that brought her relief but the knowledge that this kind of terrible and deep sorrow is part of being human.

So, I began work today on some story pieces to make that story into a story basket for us to have here at home.

That's the mother figure on the left, then her young son, the Buddha, and one neighbor character.

I am learning how to do wood burning and paint on wood with watercolors, too, for this purpose. This was an early attempt.

I envision making a few little houses, too, to represent the neighbors' homes, and one house that opens to hold the Buddha and then the mother and son when they come to him.

Here's my idea of how to facilitate the going from house to house (using a house I had around, from "The Stranger's Gift" set).

In the Fahs version, the mother carries her dead son's body around, physically carrying out the mental anguish of not being able to "let go." I think this might best be represented with a two-sided figure of the son, one side (shown above) being featureless and washed out. My own children were most fascinated by the death of the child (and second most fascinated by the fact that none of the neighbors had not known death), so I really want a way for children to be able to work through that idea--living boy on one side, dead boy on the other, living boy on one side, dead boy on the other. And I plan to have a proper row of houses so the point can really be brought home that family after family after family confronts, deals with, and moves through the death of a loved one.

The story of the Exodus and Passover

Oh, how I wanted to make a video to show you this story! Alas, I was not able to get it together in time. Hopefully, pictures throughout will help show the flow of story elements. I'll share a link, too, to the Haggadah (the text of the Exodus story told ceremoniously throughout the Passover Seder, to move the meal along and keep the story alive) that we'll be basing ours on this Sunday, though I will tell you that it is being shortened quite a bit by our guest Children's Chapel leader, Chava. If she shares with me her final text in digital form, I'll paste it up here.

So! On to the story.

*****

Exodus and the Passover Seder

Jewish and Christian Heritage Source Story

Designed for small, mixed-age group (4-12)

Overview: This is a general story of the Exodus of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, with the specifics of the plagues omitted for age-appropriateness for the youngest members. A nice follow-up to this story is an experience of an actual Passover Seder, with the reading of a Haggadah, the experience of which will close the session for the day. The focus of this story is on the journey to freedom and the remembrance of that journey.

Materials:

 For story:

                   
 Basket with Judeo-Christian symbol

 Brown or beige underlay, long rectangle

 House with unmarked door on one side, red-marked door on other  side  

 Several people together that illustrate “traveling” on one side, and gathering for a 
      meal on the other
Pyramids to indicate the desert

A representation of the sea, with some way to show people moving  through it

A small cloth to indicate a special place (first home, then the Seder gathering)

                  

          For feast:

Supplies with vary depending on Haggadah used, but consider watered-down grape juice, small celery sticks, small bowl of salt water, chopped pecans or walnuts, matzo bread, and a cup and plate for each attendee

This story comes to us from the Torah, the holy book of the Jewish people. It is also in the Christian Bible, in the part called the Old Testament. Now, some Jewish people believe that every bit of this story is true. Some Jewish people believe that parts of the story are true, and parts were added later, over time. And some Jewish people believe that this story is meant to teach a lesson, but it does not tell exactly what happened, especially the part about God punishing people. That is not the kind of God that they believe in. We are going to hear this story with an open mind and heart, and we will wonder together at the end. (You may or may not want to add that part about the "truth" of stories. That can be helpful for congregations that are just getting used to the ideas of Bible and other religious stories being "true," but it can detract some from the mythic power of the story as well.)

The story takes place at a time when the Jewish people lived in Egypt, under the rule of the Pharoh. Has anyone ever heard of a pharoh before? What is a pharoh? Yes, it’s a ruler, or a king, of ancient Egypt.

Take out underlay, and spread it out carefully. Place house, unmarked side up, to your right/children’s left. Place small knitted rug in front of house.

So, the Jewish people lived among the Egyptians. Only things were not great for them. The Jewish people in Egypt were not treated as well as other people. They didn’t have the same freedoms. They weren’t able to do the jobs of their choice. And they were forced to do things they didn’t want to do. They were slaves.

But the story goes that God did not like how the Jewish people were being treated, and that God sent 10 terrible punishments to the Egyptian people who treated them so unjustly.

For the 10^th and last punishment, God did not want the Jewish people to suffer along with the Egyptians, so God told the Jewish people to mark the doors to their houses so that the angel sent to enact the punishments would “pass over” their homes.

Turn over house to show red mark on door. Move hand to "pass over" house.

The Pharoh was very upset about the 10 punishments that God sent to him and his people. So he demanded that the Jewish people leave Egypt.

The Jewish people left their homes in a hurry, before the Pharoh could change his mind.

Carefully roll up rug. Put traveling people next to house, and with rolled-up rug with them, move away from house to your left/children’s right.

They didn’t have time to prepare in the ways they might have liked, so they left before their bread had a chance to rise. Bread that hasn’t been “fluffed up” by bubbles caused by yeast is called “unleaven.” So the Jewish people left with what they could carry, including their unleaven bread.

Place seas next.

First, they came to the sea. How would they cross it? They looked behind them and saw that the Pharoh had indeed changed his mind, and the Egyptian Army had come to re-capture them. 

But something amazing happened next in the story. God protected the Jewish people. God parted the seas.

God created a pocket of dry land going all the way across the sea so that the Jewish people could walk through safely, and without getting harmed by the Egyptians. The Egyptians could not follow them.

Part seas, and move Jewish people through waves to other side.

But their journey wasn't over. They had a long and hard journey through the desert, all on foot, all together.

Place pyramids next. Move people down below the pyramids, passing them, and moving them down again to children's lower right of underlay.

The Jewish people were finally arrived at their new homeland, safe, and truly free.

Carefully unroll and lay out small rug. Place traveling people on the rug. Then, turn traveling people over to reveal people gathered at a feast.

Together, they had a feast. Jewish people today still share this feast, to remind themselves of what their people had experienced. This special feast is called the Passover Seder, and when Jewish people gather in this way, they re-tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt and the escape to freedom.

 

(Notice here that I accidentally reversed the placement of the pyramids and the seas. My friend Chava corrected me on my first telling of this story, during Children's Chapel, so the text above has been corrected, too.)

                       

I wonder what the Jewish people had to leave behind when they left Egypt?

I wonder what the long journey must have been like, especially for the children?

I wonder if the Jewish people were scared, or sad, or doubtful when God told them to leave?

I wonder what the new homeland was like?

I wonder if this story reminds you of any other stories you have heard?

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

Now, it’s time to put this story away.

First we put away the people at the Passover Seder in the new homeland.

Next we gather up the sea, and the pyramids of the desert, where they traveled so long.

Finally, we put away the homes that the Jewish people left in Egypt.

Set basket aside and look at children. Smile.

Together, we’re going to share something special now, a real Passover Seder.

*******

The Haggadah that we're basing our feast text on is here, and there's another one here. We're ordering this children's book for the program library this year, too.

There could easily be a Moses and the burning bush element added to this story base. 

With older kids, it might be neat to bring in a geography element with Egypt, the Red Sea, and Jerusalem. 

In a classroom setting, this could be done over 2 Sundays, or even over the month of April with the story, followed by a work week, followed by the Seder, followed by a work week with a Passover/Elijah picture book read-aloud, a sharing and singing of this song (lyrics below video), or a special craft such as creating a take-home cup of Elijah.

And finally, here's a picture of me telling the story as part of a Children's Chapel service in April:

 

"Land-of-Clouds" Children's Chapel

Well, boo.

We got snowed out today, by a surprisingly voluminous snow that began about an hour before service was to begin. We had the RE hour, which is always the hour before service, but then everyone scuttled home as best they could on already-slippery roads, so no "big church" service and no Children's Chapel downstairs.

But before the rush that accompanied the cancellation, I snapped a few pictures of the Children's Chapel set-up for today. The theme was compassion and the Thirty Days of Love. 

The altar featured what was to be our special work choice for the day, a card of radiating-zigzag hearts. I thought we would introduce it with a short guided meditation on finding the center of love in ourselves, and then imagining that radiating out to our loved ones, friends, community, city, state, country, world, and out into the universe.

There's what could have been another work choice, too--the little paper heart garland made from paint color cards (and that would be great in seven hues, correlating to the seven Promises/Principles--but we are trying to simplify this aspect of our Spirit Play Sundays and find ways to focus more on the stories. So, one special work choice it was.

The general structure on which we've been basing Children's Chapel is

• Chalice lighting (a service to the group, rotated among the attendees)
• Opening reading
• Choose hymn together from children's hymn book
• Sharing Joys and Concerns
• Passing offering basket (the collection goes to a charity the children voted on at the first Children's Chapel of the year)
• Tell story
• Extinguish chalice
• Maybe work time, if there's time
• Shared feast

And this is what it looked like laid out, at the end of the story.

Here's the story itself, ready to tell next week, if the weather holds:

Land of Clouds

Adaped from Sophia Lyon Fahs’ “A Visit to the Land-of-Great-Men”

By Teresa Honey Youngblood

Suggested categories: Orange Promise (“Offer fair and kind treatment to all”), Humanist teachings (5^th of 6 UU Sources)

Materials:

One traveler figure

Four Land-of-Clouds residents

Four clouds (one rainbow, one red, one yellow or green, one gray)

Small piece of red cloth, big enough to just fit over gray cloud

Orange or peach underlay, 36” circle

Blue felt cut to about 2” diameter smaller than orange circle

Small felt island, brown

Large beige felt island (comprising about 1/2 the inner circle)

Ah, I see an orange triangle on our basket today. Does anyone remember which UU Promise that represents? Yes. Orange means Offer fair and kind treatment to all. Let’s see what we have.

Take out orange underlay and smooth it out.

Mmmm. This makes me think of one of my favorite foods—tangerines!

Take out blue ocean and place evenly on top of orange circle.

A circle within a circle. Curious.

Take out brown island and lay it in the bottom right-hand corner of the underlay (from children’s perspective).

What could this be? (Let children guess.) What’s next?

Take out beige island, and lay on blue ocean, across from brown.

These pieces seem to work together somehow. We’ll have to dig deeper to see how…

Take out traveler figure and place him on the small brown island.

Now, we’re ready to begin.

There was once a man who became discouraged by how the people in his country were treating each other. He saw people who were mean to one another. They argued constantly. They were petty. And they held grudges. He knew there must be a better way.

This  man heard of a place where the people were not like that. This place was called the Land of Clouds, and it was at the top of a mountain across the sea.

Move pointed finger from man, across sea, to bottom of beige island.

What kind of country was it? What were the people like? He was eager to learn their secret for treating each other so well. So this man hired a boat and traveled to the Land of Clouds.

Move traveler across ocean to bottom of the beige island.

When the traveler arrived at the Land of Clouds, he began to climb the mountain toward the City of Clouds.

Move traveler slowly up beige felt piece (toward you). Take rainbow cloud and accompanying figure from basket, and place them about half-way up beige island, near traveler.

Soon, he came upon someone also walking up the path. She introduced herself as a resident of this land, and greeted him warmly. They began a pleasant conversation, when the traveler finally asked a question that he’d been wondering about.

(Through this conversation, indicate the speaker with a pointed index finger. Pause between their lines so you can move to the next speaker without talking over your movement.)

“Is that…a cloud you’re walking on?” he said. It was true. She was walking on a rainbow-colored cloud about a foot off the ground.

“Yes,” she said.

“And does everyone in this land walk on clouds?”

“They do.”

“Are all the clouds as lovely as yours?”

“Well, we can do nothing about the colors of our clouds. Of course, everyone prefers to have rainbow clouds. Yellow is second best, then red, then green, and finally blue and purple. But no one wants a gray or black cloud.”

The traveler was intrigued. What did the colors mean, he wanted to know.

“When you feel content, full of love and kindness, your cloud is rainbow colored. But when you are feeling mean and stingy and quarrelsome, your cloud is gray or even black. The color of your cloud depends what is in your heart and how you are feeling.”

“And how does your cloud know how you are feeling?”

“The cloud just knows. It knows if you are feeling kindhearted or nasty, and changes its color automatically. You can’t tell it what to do.”

The man said he thought this was very strange, and perhaps a little scary. He thought it must be unsettling to have everyone know something like that about each other.

“Oh,” said the woman, “It’s the most important thing about our land. There’s no hiding how you’re feeling. No fooling others, no pretending or deceiving. Your cloud tells the truth about you, whether you like it or not.”

Move both figures up near the top of the beige island. Add the red-cloud and the yellow-cloud figures, alone with their clouds.

Just then, they approached the edge of the City of Clouds. The traveler saw busy streets full of people coming and going, and each one walked on a small cloud about a foot above the ground. Almost all of the clouds were beautiful, bright and cheery.

Point to the traveler.

“There are almost no gray or black clouds!” remarked the traveler.

Point to the rainbow cloud figure.

“That’s right. Everyone’s cloud gets blue from time to time, or even a little bit gray. But no one wants to play or do business with people with gray or black clouds. The meanness in their hearts show. So we all work to help each other brighten our clouds and we work to try to keep our own clouds colorful.”

Part red-cloud figure and yellow-cloud figure, and place gray-clouded figure (with red cloth covering his cloud) in between them.

Just then, the street began to clear of people. Everyone stepped aside and made a wide path. In a moment, a richly dressed man walked up. Though he was walking on a cloud like all the other residents of the Land of Clouds, his was covered with red silk.

Point to the traveler.

“Who is that?” asked the traveler.

Point to the rainbow-cloud figure.

“That is a very powerful man in our land. But his cloud is always black. He tries to hide this by covering his cloud with red silk, but this is silly because everyone knows the color of his cloud. He lies and cheats and tricks people for his own advantage. If he stopped this, and acted kindly, love and happiness would grow in his heart and he would have a colorful cloud. But he does not want to. So, he hides his black cloud under silk and pretends he is someone he is not.”

The man recognized this. In his own land, where people did not walk on clouds, it was sometimes like that. Sometimes, people felt dark and angry and unkind, but instead of saying so, they simply treated others badly.

The man spent many days in the City of Clouds, thinking about what it would mean for one’s friends and neighbors to know at all times how one was feeling.

Move traveler and rainbow-cloud figure slowly down the beige mountain. Then, leave cloud figure at bottom of beige island and move traveler across the sea, and back to his home island.

When he went home, he told many others about these clouds, and though the people of his country could not grow clouds of their own, they could share what was in their hearts, and they could offer one another companionship in their joys and compassion in their sorrows. The man noticed over time, as this became common practice, that there was less meanness, fewer arguments, less pettiness, and more forgiveness and understanding.

Wondering questions:

I wonder what was the best part of this story for you?

I wonder if you have ever wished others could see how you were feeling without you having to tell them?

I wonder if you ever imagined your feelings as colors, like the clouds?

I wonder what it would feel like to walk around on a cloud?

I wonder what you might say or do if your closest friend had a gray cloud?

I wonder how you try to grow kindness and happiness in your own heart?

I wonder where the Spirit of Love and Mystery was in this story?

I wonder which of our Promises this story reminds you of?

Now watch how I put this story away so that if you choose to make it your work, it will be ready for the next person.

Gather the figures with colored, rainbow, and gray clouds.

People who had all different kinds of feelings in their hearts—happiness, contentment, and maybe meanness or fear.

Pick up traveler.

The curious traveler who sought a better way for people to treat each other.

Roll up islands and ocean.

The two different lands, and the ocean between them.

Fold up orange underlay.

And our underlay, the perfect workspace for this story, and a reminder to offer each other kind treatment.