 Welcome to First Unitarian Society. Happy Mother's Day to all of our moms out there. This is a community where curious seekers gather to explore spiritual, ethical, and social issues in an accepting and nurturing environment. Unitarian Universalism supports the freedom of conscience of each individual as together we seek to be a force for good in this world. My name is Leslie Ross, and on behalf of the congregation, I'd like to extend a special welcome to our many visitors here today. We are a welcoming congregation, so whoever you are, and wherever you are on your life's journey, we celebrate your presence among us. I have one announcement for today, and it has to do with our peace polls. They are up and ready to be decorated today over by University Drive on the Lawn out there, and there will be a peace poll celebration at 12.30 this afternoon. We really hope that you can come join us. So welcome to our coming of age worship service. Today we are privileged to hear from an impressive group of teens who have spent the past eight months in our coming of age program. As many of you know, coming of age is the final class in our children's religious education program, and it's our rite of passage marking the transition from child to adolescence. The coming of age program offers experiences that help our youth to better understand who they are, who they hope to be, and what beliefs ground and guide them on their way. Their time has been richly spent with classroom experiences, time with their elders and self-reflection. This I believe is an international program that engages people in writing and sharing essays that describe the core values that guide their daily lives. Our coming of age teens have heard and discussed many of these essays during the year. They then set themselves down to writing their own this I believe essays, which they will bravely share with you today. Their words, as well as their musical contributions to today's service, are sure to inspire hope and awe. And now let's welcome our coming of age team of teachers, facilitators, and elders. Bared itself to my view. It's limbs and branches. It's hitting complexity exposed. So this is the framework that holds the thick leaves. So many leaves as to block the sun, the lost sun, the sunken sun. Now it's only spindle-thin wood cast a shadow on the earth. Not for me this display of basics, of skeletal function, of inner structure and meaning. Today I seek insulation, refuge, boundaries. I bundle, wrap, cover. Please rise in all the ways we do and join hands while we join in saying the chalice-lighting affirmation on the screen. May we know once again that we are not isolated beings but connected in mystery and miracle to the universe, to this community, and to each other. Please turn to your neighbor and exchange friendly greetings. Please join us in singing our opening hymn, number 210. Long ago and far away, there lived six blind. Although these men could not see, they learned about the world in many ways. They could hear the music of the flute with their ears and they could feel the softness of silk with their fingers. They could smell the scent of food cooking and taste its spicy flavor. Together they took care of their home and they were very happy. Then one day the blind men heard some exciting news. The prince had received a new elephant at the palace. The blind men had heard of elephants but they had never met one. They did not know what an elephant was like. Let us go to the prince's palace, said one of the blind men. Then we can find out what the elephant is really like. Off they went. It was a long walk to the palace. The blind men grew hot and thirsty but they did not stop. They could not wait to touch the elephant. Finally they reached the palace. A guard came to greet them. The blind men told him why they had come. Of course you may touch the elephant, said the guard. I'm sure the prince will not mind. The guard led the six men to the animal, which stood quietly in the garden. The first blind man touched the elephant's side. It is drawn in wide, he thought. I think an elephant is like a wall. The second blind man, man, touched the elephant's long round trunk. Oh, it is just like a snake, he decided. The third man grabbed the elephant's smooth ivory tusk. Why an elephant is as sharp as a spear. The fourth man held the elephant's leg. He thought it was as round and firm as a tree. The fifth blind man held the elephant's ear. The ear was very, very big. The elephant flapped it gently. The fifth man laughed. It's just like a fan. The sixth blind man touched the animal's long, thin tail. An elephant is like a rope, he thought. By now it was midday. The sun burned hot in the sky. The guard took the sixth man over to a tall, shady tree. Why don't you rest here, he said. I will bring you some water. While they walked, the sixth blind man talked about the elephant. No one told me that the elephant was like a wall, said the first man. A wall, said the second man. Oh no, it is like a snake. The third man shook his head. An elephant is clearly like a spear. What, said the fourth man. An elephant is like a tree. The fifth man started to shout. A wall, a snake, a spear, a tree, you are all wrong. An elephant is like a fan. No, it is like a rope, yelled the sixth blind man. The sound of angry voices filled the garden. It was the sound of the sixth blind man fighting about the elephant. A wall, a snake, a spear, a tree, a fan, a rope. All the noise woke the prince. He had been taking his midday nap. Quiet, he called, I am trying to sleep. We are sorry, said the first blind man. But we cannot agree on what the elephant is like. We each touched the same animal. But to each of us, the animal is completely different. The prince spoke gently. The elephant is a very large animal. Its side is like a wall, its trunk is like a snake. Its tusks are like spears, its legs are like trees. The ears are like fans, and its tail is like a rope. So you are all right, but you are all wrong too. For each of you only touched one part of the animal. To know what an elephant is really like, you must put all of those parts together. The blind man thought about the prince's words. They realized that he was very wise. I will tell you something else about the elephant, said the prince. It's very good to ride on. Now you will ride on it all the way home. And so they did. And they all agreed that was the best part of all. Thank you for being such good listeners. You can go to your class now. He states, rain seems random. But if we could stand somewhere else, we would see the order in it. I believe in rain. Rain is water, so I believe in that too. And rain fertilizes plants, so I believe in it too. But rain can also cause floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes. So I believe in them too. I believe in the pretty streak of lightning and the ominous crackle of thunder. I believe in the bloom of a flower and the ugly muddy water. Rain both has a good side to it and a bad side to it. A couple of years ago, one summer day in July, my parents and I were sitting during a rainstorm in the garage. There was no thunder nor lightning, nor was there wind. Just the rain peacefully, but randomly streaming down, wave after wave. And spontaneously, I decided to run down the driveway and to run around, breaking the peace with a yelling, but chaotic kid, but also breaking the somber rain with a streak of happiness. This memory is probably one of my most prized memories I have from elementary school. Someone may hear that and say, that's sad, that's your most prized memory. But I think it's one of my most prized memories because I felt nothing holding me back under the blanket of rain that drenched my clothes. I had no bounds. But rain isn't always dancing a happy song and can dance a deadly waltz. And last August was a very destructive waltz. My area had a rainstorm that was the worst one in 20 years. My street held a river that looked more like the Wisconsin River than a street. Halfway up my driveway at one point. It was flooded for about two days, but the effects lasted. Multiple trees had fallen down and a nearby stairway of cement collapsed apart. Not to mention all the wire damages and cars that got stuck during the flooding. But it also showed that we needed to improve our flood control and that our new small pond reservoirs next to our bigger pond was not enough. Rain has many personalities. It can play a chaotic joyful or a peaceful somber tune. It can grant a fun time to escape the chain of the world or can cause stress and damage and leave treads of destruction wherever it goes. But what really matters is how you see it. So let me end with a question. Is your glass of water half full, half empty, or is it both? This is what I believe, thank you. I believe in the three wolves. Many people talk about the two wolves, the good wolf and the bad wolf. They talk about how you feed the good wolf by being good, doing good actions and all that jazz. They talk about feeding the bad wolf by being bad, doing bad actions and so on. People don't talk about how flawed that idea really is. The two wolves deal with only black and white, but not all the countless shades of gray. What would it be considered good wolf or bad wolf if you lied but you lied to help somebody? What if you told the truth but it really hurt somebody? That wouldn't be feeding the good wolf even though telling the truth is good, right? Many people don't talk about these things. They don't talk about the third wolf that is often ignored and forgotten about. The third wolf is that sort of like that weird neon yellow green color that you recognize. Like, hey, I've seen that before but you never actually know what it's called. You never know if it's really more green or more yellow or the perfect mix of both. You know that color, right? Anyway, how the good wolf is fed by good actions and the bad wolf is fed by bad actions, the situational wolf is fed. It is fed by using your judgment, common sense and following your ethics. That's why I call it the situational wolf. If you can find the moments that are few and far between that are either truly good or truly bad that only feed the good wolf or the bad wolf they'll change your life. They determine whether you are a good person or a bad person. They're rare but the third wolf it's not rare. It's in every decision that you make. The third wolf tells you what sort of person you are. It tells you if you are a person who is true to yourself or if you're not. It tells you if you are a strong-minded person who prioritizes their own values not something somebody else wants you to believe or if you set those values down. To finish my statement off with probably the most important part of it Penelope goes on pizza. Believe in death. Pets are very important too as you grow up. The first pets I got were rats, Hermit and Gwen. Hermit's life did not last long as she was diagnosed with brain cancer not long after we got her. Eventually Gwen passed away as well. I remember setting up her funeral and being immensely sad. It was the first death I had to deal with. I would always bring flowers to where I had buried her in a shoebox and about a year after the rats I convinced my parents to bring me to a pet store so I could buy a hamster. I bought a hamster with my own money and named him Winter. My pet was always there for me whenever I needed him. It was like having a friend but they are quiet and they have to deal with everything you tell them to do. Eventually I got a non-rodent pet, a cat. I spent two days thinking of names for my cat and eventually settled on the name Higgs. My cat was everything to me when I got him for Christmas in fourth grade. Every day I would go home and play with him and as I went into middle school he was always there to support me through the stress of a bad day. He was there to support me through the stresses of finals week. He always pulled the dumbest stunts like the time he ran head on into a wall because he was running too fast or the time I dropped him assuming he would land on his feet because that is what cats do but he landed on his back. I have always had a pet of some sort to keep me company growing up. Something useless that depended on me. It helped me have more compassion as a whole to care for a pet my whole life. Having to deal with the many deaths of my enumerous pets growing up taught me that it is the connection that matters, the time that you have with a being and when that relationship ends to move on. When someone dies, they can't feel pain anymore. You are the one left to suffer. When someone dies, they don't want you to forget them but to remember them. They want you to remember them standing and living their best life, carrying out their beliefs. I believe that death is the end of your connection with a being whether it is an animal or a human. And I kept on coming back for that for more pets because I loved having that connection with another living being. I believe that death is an end but an end to be remembered and loved, not hated. The world has a carrying capacity. If everything lived forever, we would all be dead. Death is a natural part of life and it needs to be treated as such. I believe that as a person's legacy is what should be carried on. I fear being forgotten, not death. When I die, I want to be remembered going skiing and carrying for my pets, living my best life. All religions spring from the idea of something after death. Science claiming its harsh end is hard for people to comprehend. Things like heaven and hell were created for people to feel comforted. I understand why people would want to live in an eternal paradise. I believe that religions are all just cushions from the real truth that many would proclaim as harsh but I believe that is wrong. Death is an end of your connection to a world or to a person. I look at life as a gift, one not to be wasted or to be saved but to be spent with happiness. To see death as a taboo hurts the situation more. Death is a natural part of the carbon cycle. It is a part of the environment. Death is a natural part of life and it needs to be talked about more because there's so much negative stigma behind it. Life is a gift that many don't get to live to the fullest. It is a blip in the darkness. Thank you. I believe in working hard so I'm able to help those in need. I believe that helping people is something every person should learn how to do. Helping others was something Jesus did on a daily basis. He was always being approached by people but he always managed to find time and stop and help them. There are many people in this world that need help and I want to be able to give them the help they need. I believe in receiving joy by helping people. Starting at a young age, I wanted to have a profession that involved helping people or animals. First it was a vet, then a dentist, now it's a surgeon. One of my inspirations for becoming a surgeon was the show Grey's Anatomy. If you know anything about that show, you're probably thinking, does she know that show isn't really medically accurate? And yes, I'm aware of that. But the medical part isn't really what drew me to the profession. What drew me to it was being able to do life-saving procedures or even just giving someone a few stitches and being able to experience the joy that you can bring into someone's life. Even if it doesn't turn out the way that it was hoped for, what matters is that you gave it your best. As Jesus said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. I believe in giving people a better life by helping them. One of the things I've learned as I've grown up is sometimes you need to let people help you even if you don't want their help. And sometimes when you're doing something you need people to help you to be able to enjoy it. Letting people help you can help you have a better life. I believe in letting people support you throughout your journey. From the time I was born until this day, my parents have given me all the support I could ever ask for. I cannot be more thankful to have them in my life. They have helped me become the person I am today by teaching me the most important life lessons and always being there for me. I believe in letting people help you so you can help others. I hope that when I grow up and hopefully become a surgeon, I'm able to use the skills I've learned by experience and apply them to the many people I will help throughout my career. I believe that people who help you find yourself will be some of the most important people to remember in your life. I want to thank not only my parents for helping me find myself, but I also want to thank the facilitators and the elders. They have been able to help not only me, but all the teens in connecting all the dots to shape who we are and who we want to be. I believe the most important thing is life is both receiving help and learning to help others. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. My name is Fawn Channis and I'm an introvert. So if I faint at some point during my speech, don't be too alarmed. No. With my coming of age group, I have been creating a statement of my beliefs to share with you all. It is composed of the values and principles I find most helpful in governing my life. I have spent my year discussing and discovering, asking myself who I really am. Here are the results. I believe in imagination and creativity. When I was younger, I used to design machines to accomplish some imaginative task. These were never created. Instead, I drew them, wrote about them, or otherwise recorded them. Now that I am older, I have retained my imaginative qualities, albeit in a different form. Balancing schoolwork with extracurricular activities and my personal health has made it difficult to maintain the imagination natural to a youngster. However, doing so is a goal of mine. I believe that imagination is an important power that allows one to think of many solutions to a problem. I think creativity has a place in science, innovation, and discovery. Art should also find its place into technology. Blending form and function produces helpful devices that are easy to use. A creative mind can achieve these goals. Second, I also value knowledge and learning. It is a goal of mine to learn all that there is to know. I am especially interested in languages. I once learned about a diplomat who was fluent in 34 distinct languages and it is a very optimistic goal of mine to break that record. I am especially fascinated by Brazilian and Japanese cultures and I hope to travel abroad. Language differences are the first barriers to understanding and I want to reduce those divisions. I also enjoy learning as much as I can about natural sciences such as chemistry and biology. My curiosity about natural phenomena leads me to research and discover more in an attempt to answer my questions about the workings of the world. I also appreciate the wisdom shared by Bill Nye at the 2014 University of Massachusetts Lowell Graduation Ceremony where he stated, "'Everyone you will ever meet has something to teach you.'" I thoroughly agree with this statement. Much of my knowledge has come from random people I met through my life's journey, a journey that is not yet finished. Those who discriminate cannot learn from others' knowledge because they don't prepare themselves to receive that wisdom. Learning is like trying to complete a puzzle where others have some of the pieces. Prejudice will only impede the search for truth. Finally, I believe in fairness, justice, and equality. I value the worth of every person regardless of social class, race, gender, sex or sexuality and physical or mental ability. As a principle, we are all equal. But in practice, we aren't treated as such. If some famous personage held a conversation with me, I would likely use a title of respect. I would never address them as if they were one of my friends. While we are all of equal value, some people in society are given more respect than others. We must strike a balance between respecting ourselves and others. Being committed, sorry, we say that we are equal but then we act in a different way. Being committed to the principle of equality requires interrogation of racist, misogynist or homophobic systems, a willingness to question myself and others and a willingness to speak up. As I discover more about my beliefs, I hope my speech has fueled some part of you or that some piece of my statement resonates with one of your beliefs. I certainly have not accomplished my journey alone. My FUS facilitators have guided me along this path. I have been given many tools to help me. In this church, I have learned about meditation, which I used for the majority of my time at the wilderness retreat. The form of meditation I used is known as mantra meditation in which a single mantra or motto is repeated, verbally or in thought, throughout the entire period of meditation. I will leave you with one of my favorite mantras, which itself comes from my teacher of Japanese at West High School, Higisensei. It is, breathe in the peace, breathe out the love, and most importantly, never give up. Thank you. I believe in not being that deep. Lots of things in the world have been over-analyzed and or romanticized to make them seem much more important. I believe that not everything is worth losing sleep over or over-analyzing. Take people, for example. Throughout history, many philosophers have tried to break down what makes people tick, what drives them. They're trying to generalize a whole species. Lots of people say it's greed or self-interest or laziness. Personally, I don't know what drives people. Unless you're trying to write a character, you don't really need to, you don't need to try to reduce someone to such a simple concept. People are complicated, and trying to pin them down, trying to pin even just three things about one person is difficult, let alone all of them. Take myself, for an example. I'm pretty sure nobody else knows me like I do, and I'm certainly not closer to anyone else than I am with myself, so I'm gonna try and pin down three things about me. One, what motivates me? Two, what do I hold above all else? And three, what do I hate above all else? These are the three things you need to consider most when writing a good character, but it's hard to find them on an actual person. One, what motivates me? Well, right now, it's that after this speech, I get to go to theater, but during the school day, it's getting into college. When I'm around people, it's making them smile, but depending on who they are, it might just be making them frown. My motivations fluctuate. I could write a 10 page thesis on just what motivates me, or I could keep being motivated by those things. Why spend a couple hours writing about my motivations when I could just go to sleep? One thing that doesn't motivate me is worrying about things that I can't change and my motivations for living are one of those. They're simply a part of why I am and who I am and they'll change along with me as I grow. Two, what do I hold above all else or what do I love above all else? Once again, we have a problem. It's situational. A philosopher could say humans hold themselves above all other people, but I would disagree. I don't think I'm better than other people. I just don't think that anyone's better than me without reason. Just having certain skills doesn't make you a better person, being like nice and cool does. If someone was holding a gun to my head and I was forced to answer this question, I would probably just say my friends, because I love them. But during the long hours of school, I would skip out on hanging out with the whole world just to go home a few minutes earlier. It's all situational. Three, what do I hate above all else? Right off the top of my head, I'd say climate change is what I'd fix if I could, but it doesn't get my blood boiling as often or as easily as my English teacher. So I don't know. What even is hate? How do we quantify it? I think that hate isn't worth quantifying. It's gonna be there and anger is as natural and emotion is anything else. Now, hate against people for no reason is a problem, however, because just like everything else, hate is situational in its intensity, its target and its validity. The moral of the story is that most things are either not that deep or just really not worth looking into. Why stay up at night anxious about who you hold in the highest or lowest regard when you can just go to sleep? Your motivations and what you love or hate are gonna grow and change just as you grow and change as a person. So instead of trying to pin down why they pin down what they are, just try to educate yourself and grow. Don't lose sleep over something that'll change overnight. Quote, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I believe in decisions. Everyone makes decisions every day. They decide to go to school or work or they decide to just lay in bed. There are harder decisions and easier decisions. A hard one being deciding on moving away from friends and family for a job or staying with what you have. An easy decision could be should I eat ice cream or cake for dessert? I also believe that there is no good or bad, just perspective. An easy example of perspective is, let's say you win a sports game. That's good, right? You want a game. Whoever the other team lost and more often than not, it's upsetting to lose games. Which some would consider bad to lose a game. Many people are happy to play whether they win or lose, which allows another variable to two perspective. I also believe in morals. Oftentimes a good moral can take you far. Whether it be for a job or for a general way of living. Being kind to people is always good and makes people like you. I also believe in what I consider a good work ethic. By good, of course, I mean what I consider good. Imagine two sports teams are playing against each other. Both equally skilled. Who's gonna win? Team one or team two? This usually depends on who wants to win more. Who works harder? Who has more tenacity? Which often loops back to a good work ethic. You could actually see a team that is not as good beat a much better team, simply because they had more tenacity. This is true for a lot of different sports, in my opinion. I also believe just because someone works hard doesn't mean they will gain from doing so. I think it makes it more possible, but it doesn't mean you will get a reward. It's not a rule of life. Same goes for the opposite. Just because you don't work hard doesn't mean you will not give what you want. Again, working hard is more likely to get you what you want, but it does not promise anything. I do not believe in fate. I believe that stuff can and will happen that you can't control. But I don't believe that a supernatural power controls such things. This brings me to my conclusion. You can decide to make good decisions and have good ethics and morals, work hard and everything could go well, but it doesn't mean everything will. End up being as you would want it. Quote, it is possible to make no mistakes, do everything right and still lose. That is not weakness, that is life. End quote, this is what I believe. Everyone has I can't. I can't because I'm too tired, too sick, too lazy, too old. The list goes on and on. We are surrounded by reasons we can't achieve something and we all have to learn to overcome them. These obstacles come in many different forms, like how Franklin Roosevelt had to overcome being paralyzed from the waist down while serving an office. How Michael Jordan was cut by his high school's basketball team before becoming the greatest basketball player of all time. How Carrie Strogg won the first Olympic gymnastics gold medal on a broken ankle. What all these famous people have in common is that they never gave up and pushed through pain and doubt. For me, I learned the power of resilience through running. I've been running for fun since second grade, but I didn't take it seriously until I started running cross-country for my high school at the beginning of this year. I started off the year hoping to run under a 23-minute 5K by the end of the season. By the end of the season, I was able to run a 5K under 20 minutes, but more importantly, I learned how to persevere. Success was not about luck, it was about hard work, and choosing to embrace pain rather than avoid it. Every single race for me was the same. At some point, I hit a wall where I questioned how much farther I can go before my legs give out, and yet at the end of every race, though I may be delirious and feel like I'm moving in slow motion, I always cross the finish line. I remember one time before one of my last cross-country meets, someone came up to my coach to say good luck to our team. Afterwards, my coach turned to us and said, I hate when people tell me good luck. I don't believe in luck, luck isn't going to win a race. Hard work and goals are the difference between success and failure. We are prepared for this race and we don't need luck. That day, despite it being snowy, windy, and still being slightly injured from pulling my back earlier in the season, I still managed to run my best time of the whole season so my team could go to the cross-country state meet just four points ahead of the next team. The conditions might have been bad, but I knew I could finish, and even when my body quit on me, I kept pushing to the finish line. Sometimes in life, the goal isn't to make hard things disappear, but to learn to embrace them and tolerate them. Growth is not a fast process, but I truly believe that it can happen for anyone, and if you work hard enough, good things will come. Everyone has their passions, whether it be music, acting, sports, academics, or something else, and it's easy to get caught up in the mindset that if you don't start out being good at something, you never will be. But being passionate about something means being willing to push yourself to the edge and find the reasons you wanna succeed. I believe that life is not about luck, it's about how hard we try, and we all have to find the motivation within ourselves to succeed. I believe in a lot of things, like going on hikes, collecting sea glass, and so much more. God, however, is not one of these things, but why talk about something I don't believe in when I could talk about much more spectacular things that actually hold importance in my heart, and enjoy it way more, like art. I believe in art. I don't know about you, but when I hear that word, the first thing that comes to mind is a plain colored dot, maybe orange, in the middle of a blank canvas in some upscale art gallery, priced at some outrageous price. Sure, some may consider that art, I don't, but art is so much more than that. Art is music, singing, playing piano, painting, drawing, acting, writing, telling stories, cooking, covering your hand in tape, making a hand sculpture, and hanging it on your ceiling at two o'clock in the morning. Poetry, crafts, sculpting. Art is literally everywhere, everything, and I love it all, some more than others, but hey, I would have to say that art, in all its glory, is something that is stuck with me all throughout my life, and really made a difference. Of course, as a child, I loved drawing, finger painting, cutting up paper, singing, and banging on the piano, but I've held on to these things throughout my life, and I'm, you know, starting to see some improvement. My squiggle of graphite has turned into a realistic looking self-portrait, the transparent stick figures of an even finger paint have turned into cool looking jellyfish. Those random notes on the piano have transposed into Chopin preludes, and Old MacDonald had a farm has slurred into Mozart arias. Art is a powerful thing, and I am very lucky to have had many experiences with it in my life. One example of this was last October when I participated in State Honors Choir. We performed a rhythmic spoken piece called the Geographical Fugue. If you're a choir director, you probably just had a flashback and died a little bit on the inside, and I am very sorry. A lyric from it is, Trinidad, and the big Mississippi, and the town Honolulu, and the lake Titicaca. The Popocapita is not in Canada, rather in Mexico, Mexico, Mexico, Canada, Malaga, Rumini, Brindisi. And even though the words may be cheesy, the experience of performing this with a choir of almost 100 people was surreal. It was as if all of our hearts were beating as one, and we were all honed in in time with each other and the director. It's hard to put into words, but it was a truly magical moment. There are only a few amounts of times where I have felt this connection to the thing I was doing, but every one of them has enhanced my devotion. One of them was six years ago when we sang a Maul and the Night Visitors for All Music Sunday. Another moment was when I worked on and finished a pastel piece in five straight hours. Even though all of these moments' genres are different, I felt the same emotion every time. It felt like that was the only thing that mattered and I had to complete it in the best way possible. All of my energy was going into what I was doing and that was the only thing I was focused on. It felt good. Obviously, all of this is very important to me. Music takes up most of my after-school time. I take as many art classes at school as I can, and I'm even taking online classes to make more time for art and music classes in my schedule. In trying to imagine my life without art, I can see it becoming an extremely dark place. I've had some hard times mentally and school is the main source of my anxiety and sadness, and I know it would truly be a lot worse without art. It's kind of been a thing I could turn to for help that doesn't involve people. Doing something I enjoy really makes a difference. I've had many bad days, but the last class of the day I have is painting. Instead of going home depressed, worn out, and discouraged, I go home rejuvenated because I end my day doing something I love and can be proud of. Art helps me out and betters my life. So even though I may not believe in God or have a strong connection to spirituality, I still have that sense of purpose in the world through art. In this, I believe. Thank you. I now invite you into the giving and receiving of today's offering. Today's offering will go towards the continued support of our coming of age program. Thank you. And magic. Superimposed without my knowledge, the effects of magic have been in my life for a long time. The first books I spent afternoons reading in the sunlight radiating through my living room were fairy books. The first thing I would do on a nice afternoon was to build a little fairy house at the crook of some tree in my backyard. By the time that my fondness towards fairies turned to Harry Potter, I was obsessed with magic. From the outside, I was a normal elementary school kid, but inside, my mind, mystical and magical stories were flourishing. Recently, I have realized how lucky I truly am. This gratefulness has caught me off guard and the realization that everything in my life was made by choices that affect one another has left me in awe. The pure chance that my life turned out the way it did is almost magical. This is just one of the many things that are a little more than mystical. My math teacher would probably yell at me for saying this, but if you take a good hard think and go back to your years of algebra, trig or geometry, however recent that might be, remember the moment that you got it. Everything clicked in your brain and suddenly the lengthy and perplexing formula on the board didn't seem so lengthy or perplexing. This aha moment is purely magical. Yes, I know that in your brain neurons are firing and making connections. Electronic signals are sent and suddenly you understand magic. I would trade most anything for a collection of aha moments that I could take and do with what I please. Magic comes in all shapes and forms. Last summer, I inefficiently rode my bike home from cross-country practice every day up the very, very gradual incline that leads back to my house from west. Right before you arrive at this hill, there is a not so long and not so gradual hill that I love to zoom down. Letting my hair down and feeling the wind whip the sweat off of me after a long practice exhilarates me and so I speed down this hill. Of course, one day while I was rushing past low hanging trees, something fell on me. It was a little something, probably a seed or a leaf, and instead of reacting how any normal person would, I braked very suddenly. My bike flipped and the next minute I had sailed through the air and landed on my hips. My bike was a solid seven feet behind me and I was on the ground. Amazingly, I didn't have a scratch. Nothing was broken, sprained or bruised. I was astounded. To this day, the only thing I can say to figure out how the heck I was just fine is that it was magical. Yes, I know that it was probably because I landed with my weight distributed over my entire body and it was a pretty smooth surface to land on, but otherwise I have no clue. Many people would call this experience an awakening or that I could feel God's presence. I'm not denying that after this experience, I felt confused, but other experiences have led me other places. That is not to say that God is not always present and my beliefs may evolve throughout my life. The possibility that they will change to believe in God is always there. I believe in magic. For the rest of my life, I know that I will try to find magic in everything that I do and every person that I meet. Thank you. I believe in home, my home. It's a thing that means more than anything to me. It means many more things too. I felt like one of the unitary universalist principles would recognize that and the closest one is probably the seventh principle. It refers to respect for the interdependent web of all of existence of which we are all a part of. The kid's version of that says earth is our home. We care for it and all the living things we share with it. I like this because it recognizes the value of the home we all share. Whether it's every living being in the world or just my family. I've been to Europe four times. Being 14 years old, I think that's a lot. But being 14, most of my interests consist of video games and sports. So I find those places pretty boring. Every time I go somewhere, I always look forward to coming home. Your home has everything. Your bed, your dog, your family. Your home is the place you spend a lot of your life. It's the place you grow up in. Your home is not just your house though. It's everything around you that shapes your world. All the places you go and all the people you meet, you always go back home. I believe in my home. It's the place that you always turn back to. My family has always backed me up. Even when I don't want their help with homework, they still help me because they care. Both of my sisters are in college now. So having a family dinner with all five of us is rare. But I've come to appreciate it and be more thankful for when it happens. Even though sometimes it looks like I don't care when they go back to college, I do a lot because they're family. And there's nothing like family. I don't believe in God. I don't believe in a greater power. But I believe everything will work its way out. And I wanna thank my family for helping me through this process. And I believe in them too. I believe in traditions. Not just singing songs at Christmas, but also more unique and different ones, such as finding the almond in the rumigret on Christmas Eve or Sunday night dominoes on the porch. People celebrate traditions in many different ways. For many people it revolves around religion. For my family, music and food traditions are the big ones. On the 4th of July, my family always no matter what needs to find the most dangerous and illegal fireworks. It's just something that always needs to be done. Another is my family's own coming of age ceremony that takes place in the woods of my grandparents' house when someone turns 13. I tell you more, but it's top secret. Music has been important in my family's past and has been shared throughout generations. My grandparents, my parents and I have all played the violin and many of them and my brother played the piano as well. Around holidays and special family events, we all gather together and show what we've worked towards. I really feel special playing the same music that people in my family have played and they hear what the younger generation can offer. It makes us feel connected. Not all traditions have to be big and extravagant. My family and I discuss joys and sorrows every night at dinner, make Sunday brunches and take Wednesday night saunas. We consider these our own traditions in our household. I don't always enjoy them, but ultimately they help bring me comfort. Having my family talk and listen to my feelings about what happened throughout the day helps distract me from the everyday stresses of life. In the past 10 years, coming to church has been somewhat of a tradition itself and a large one at that. Every morning at nine this past year we've worked to discover in what we all believe in and for everyone it has been a different journey. It has been hard and going into the woods for such a long time was tough and now I find that this tradition is ending for me but I'm sure a new one will take its place. My extended family has various religious and political beliefs, which means disputes can come up. Traditions help us connect and get along with each other. They help take down borders between family disputes. They help fill in gaps and differences we have with each other and help us relate more with each other. My family, despite all our differences, love each other very much and I believe in the traditions we have. Thank you. I believe in balance. Throughout my life my parents have taught me the power of equality and how it can change your life. Their marriage works more like a partnership, dividing the work, picking up the slack and overall living a symbiotic relationship. Their love for me never faltered which encouraged me to do the same for others. I believe that the world is not made up of black and white. Our choices and actions are shades of gray and affect everything for the better or for the worse. When we grew up we were taught the simplest of ideals. Be nice, always share. Never put pineapple on pizza, that's disgusting. But life never prepares you for that swarm cloud of gray that you cannot fit in a box. I was taught good and bad choices for a holy hell of society. I know to care for others but balance out the care I have for myself as well. I understand when to embrace the good and bad as a whole. I know I seem wrong when doing the right thing and the vice versa. Good and evil are relative, just like beauty's in the eye of the beholder. My mom's life advice to me has always been, you're a person, not a project. Life isn't about success, it's about growing as a person and being open to where life has to take you. My dad, on the other hand, says that my biggest achievement in my life will be when I am miraculously belching fart at the same time. I want to carry both of these lessons through my life. The serious and the not so serious. The ultimate harmony of the universe is an equilibrium between positive and negative and everything in between. There is no God, but that doesn't mean we aren't capable of godly things. The people's choices bring out the conflicts and the miracles in the world, no higher being acting like a puppeteer. Yin and yang are polar opposites in our lives which can both consist of chaos if you take too much of it. Too much or too little of light and dark can change the course of the earth. I always look at either side of someone's decisions to discover their reasons and understand their mix of good and bad decisions. We are a fusion of right and wrong. None of us are inherently malicious or gracious. That's how our globe hasn't been blown to bits yet. We all have our own blends of faults and successes which I have now accepted. When life as a teenager gets crazy, I always think back to my parents, how their opposite personalities compliment each other, how they love each other as much as they love themselves, how they work together to create a humble and accepting environment while teaching the goods and bads and middles of ever being. And that's exactly how I wanna live my life with balance, as I believe. Please join us in our next gathering, in our, please rise in body and spirit for our next Tim, 1064, Blue Boat Home. Please be seated. What a joy it is to be celebrating another coming of age ceremony and the culmination of another coming of age year. This is truly a moment to stop and give gratitude for our youth, for the gift of their insights and their wisdom to recognize that their classroom learning at First Unitarian Society may be over, but their journey of lifelong learning on their own has just begun. Throughout this year, our youth have begun in earnest to study themselves, to get to know themselves, examining their beliefs and values, ideals and aspirations. With their statements, our youth have given us just a glimpse of where this process has led them and we would pause for a moment to thank those who've walked with them on this journey. We'll begin with those who have served as the adult facilitators for coming of age. They have given our youth direction, insight, wisdom and guidance throughout the past year. They have brought patience, good humor and much love and compassion. Rudy Moore, Olivia Mote, J. Raney and Creel's Earring. We also pause to give thanks to our coming of age elders. Each youth is matched with an elder, people who are carefully chosen to embody the thoughtfulness, kindness and commitment we hope to encourage in our youth. Throughout this past year, our elders were steadfast and took this challenge cheerfully and joyfully. We owe much thanks to this group. Alice Delaquess, Scott Harrington, Michael Johnston, Darcy Johnston, Matt Lynn and Lindsay Woodbridge. And if our youth will now come to the front. To all who are gathered here today, we ask that you remember your important role to the spiritual and moral development of these youth. Where they journey from here is not entirely up to them. It is also up to us. We must remember that the deepening responsibility of being part of their experience of unitarian universalism. It is not the responsibility of their parents or advisors alone. Helping them to blossom as loving and conscientious human beings is a responsibility we all share. And now that they have completed their coming of age year, that responsibility becomes more relevant and more immediate. These young people can serve as both example and inspiration of how people live out in everyday life, their spiritual values. And through us all, they can observe unitarian universalist faith in action. There can be no greater or more effective teaching than your good example. In that spirit, I ask, will you continue to encourage the spiritual growth of these youth you see before you? Will you value their insights and emerging convictions and recognize the gifts and talents they bring to our community and the enthusiasm and hope that they bring to our world? If so, please say we will. And now to the youth, to all of you, we recognize today the work you have done during this past year. And we are grateful for the gifts and talents you have brought to us in your time here at this society. Will you continue this journey you have begun to grow as an individual expressing your beliefs, growing in faith and continuing to question and explore? If so, please say we will. And to the parents, at this time, we would ask that the parents of our coming of age youth stand and join with your children in the response of reading that you have gotten copies for. And our parents begin. Our job. And do you say? I change you, even now, I just knew a road to accept that. Our role with you will be on track. Don't I need to do things you are not willing to do? Thank you. Parents, you may be seated. At the dedication of a child, we give to each a rosebud, fragrant symbol of beauty, promise, and love. The rose we give then has no thorn symbolizing the better world we would like to give to our children. We hope that the children whom we have dedicated will learn to recognize the beauty and the goodness in the world, that they will grow in wisdom and compassion, that they will add their own beauty and gifts to our world. Today, we give to each of these young people a rose in full bloom, symbolizing the beauty and the gifts they already give to our world, and the natural beauty that is found within each of them. Yet this time, the thorns are still intact. When you were a child, we could do our best to shield you from the harshness and the cruelty of the world. But now, as youth, we can no longer protect you from all that you encounter, both the beauty and the cruelty. But no matter where you may go and how far you may travel, you will always be with us in spirit and we will always be sending blessings your way. So accept these roses, knowing that there are harsh realities in this world, but there is much beauty as well. May you choose to see the beauty whenever possible. And now, as we do when you are young children, we ask that you be granted clarity of thought, integrity of speech, and a compassionate heart. May the blessings of an understanding heart, strength, integrity of purpose, love received and given be yours today and remain with you as you go forward into ever fuller life. If you'll join me in congratulating our youth. And if you will rise in all the ways we do, we're going to join together in our closing hymn, number 1074. Take the sunlight. Please join hands and join us in our closing words on the screen. Oh yeah, all right, so here's the deal. We always end our classes in a circle, so I'm going to have to ask you all to join hands across rows and hope for community. Keep us ever growing and changing together. Peace. Yeah, please be seated.