 Here. Alright, I'll just stay here. Yes, yes. Please join me in a moment of centering silence. Our in-gathering hymn is number 70. Welcome to the First Unitarian Society of Madison. This is a community where curious seekers gather to explore spiritual, ethical, and social issues in an accepting environment. Unitarian Universalism supports the freedom of conscience of each individual as together we seek to be a force for good in the world. I'm Maureen Friend. And on behalf of the congregation, I'd like to extend a special welcome to visitors. We're a welcoming congregation, so whoever you are, wherever you are on your life's journey, we celebrate your presence among us. Visitors are encouraged to stay for the fellowship hour after the service. Look for people carrying a teal mug. These are FUS members knowledgeable about our program and community life, and they look forward to the chance to speak with you. You can also stop by our information table outside of the library, where you can find more information about our upcoming events and programs. In this lively, acoustical environment, it can become difficult for those in attendance to hear what's happening in our service. So remind you that the Child Haven and the Commons area are excellent places to go when anyone needs to talk or move around. The service can be seen and heard from those areas. We do have hearing-assisted devices available, assistance devices. Please see one of the ushers if that would be helpful for you. So this is a good time to turn off all your electronics. Science guides are generally available to give a building tour after each service. So if you'd like to learn more about the sustainably designed addition to our landmark meeting house, please meet near the large glass windows on the left side of the auditorium. And now I'd like to acknowledge those people who volunteer their time to help our services run smoothly. The lay minister today is Ann Smiley, and your greeters are Hannah Pinkerton, Tom Dolmage, and March Switzer. Ann Smiley was also an usher today. The hospitality coffee was made again by Jeannie Hills. Yay, Jeannie. She does it a lot. She does it well. Thank you. Thank you very much. And the palms get taken care of, I know, by Hannah very lovingly. She was expressing this morning about how she's been doing this for, I think, 30 years. That sounds familiar. So I don't know exactly who is at the book table this morning, but please stop by and visit the wonderful selections we have for sale and look for the guest at our table, which TK is going to explain more about that in the service today. Please note the announcements on the red floors insert of your order of service, which describe upcoming events at the society and provide more information about today's activities. Again welcome. We hope that today's service will stimulate your mind, touch your heart, and stir your spirit. Welcome to our Thanksgiving intergenerational service. Our opening words for today. Look everyone, it's Persephone the Purple Unicorn. Fui. You don't seem to be in a very good mood today, Persephone. You don't seem to be in a very good mood today, Persephone. Well, listen, I need to do this opening reading if that's okay with you. Sure, sure. If you want to make everybody fall asleep again. Look, we do this every week. And every week it's boring. I'm still going to do it if that's okay. Your career on the line, buddy, not mine. So our opening words today come from Mary Oliver. Oh, real original. From Mary Oliver entitled The Place I Want to Get Back To. The place I want to get back to is where in the pine woods and the moments between the darkness and the first light, two deer came walking down the hill. And when they saw me, they said to each other, okay, this one is okay. Let's see what she is and why she is sitting on the ground like that, so quiet as a sleep or in a dream. But anyway, harmless. And so they came on their slender legs and gazed upon me, not unlike the way I go out to the dunes and look and look and look into the faces of the flowers. And then one of them leaned forward and nuzzled my hand. And what can life bring to me that could exceed that brief moment? For 20 years I have gone out into the same woods, not waiting exactly, just lingering. Such gifts bestowed can't be repeated. If you want to talk about this, come to visit. I live in the house near the corner, which I have named Gratitude. Now we are going to light the chalice. Careful, I'm flammable, you know. I'll try to be careful. Please join me in a responsive reading found in your order of service. If you can rise, read along with me, embody your spirit. Life is a gift for which we are grateful. We gather in the community to celebrate the glories and the mysteries of this great gift. Now what? Well, now we are going to turn to our neighbors. And pretend that we're glad to see them, right? That's right. Please turn to your neighbor and pretend that you're happy to see them. Now this is the part where we invite all the noisy kids to come up and then we shoe them out the door and off to their classes, right? Actually not today and you can all take a seat. Thank goodness, that is so excruciating. Today they stay in the service the whole time. Oh Lord, I sense trouble. It's going to be great. They come up in just a bit, but first I have a few words, if you want to mind sitting down for just a bit. I'm going to skip the readings today and I'm going to go straight to my reflection and then we're going to go back to the special music. I'm going to do my words from up here and I'm going to turn off my headset again. What is the difference between gratitude and greed? On the surface that's a super easy question, right? But doesn't the Thanksgiving season kind of open up that question in a pretty significant way? We top off a day of eating as much as we possibly can with ritual gladiator matches involving the inflated skin of a dead pig and then we shop till we drop. We used to wait until the day after to shop till we drop, but apparently that was far too long to wait so now it starts at 6 p.m. I guess. And that's how we spend our day dedicated to gratitude. It's almost like the whole holiday is based on a story we made up and now we have to pretend together. So what's the difference then between gratitude and greed? On the front of your order of service, if it had printed correctly, you would have seen a quote from my favorite philosopher Epicurus and it went something along the lines of, remember that what you have now is what you once most dearly desired. Epicurus is by far my favorite philosopher, although I haven't read too many. He taught that the most important thing in life was to be honest. Honest with ourselves and honest with the world. The second most important thing though was to be grateful. For Epicurus, gratitude was really a form of honesty. We associate Epicurus in our mind with someone who encouraged extravagant feasts and indulging. But he taught that all he needed for a feast was some bread, some cheese, and some cheap wine with his friends. When we are honest about what we truly need to be content, we can begin to see that we almost certainly have most, if not all, that we need. The difference between gratitude and greed is that gratitude moves us to share and greed scares us into consuming. This is particularly true of men, I think, during Thanksgiving, when we sit in the den waiting to be served watching our games. Waking up early on Black Friday to get presents for your loved ones can be a great act of love when done from a place of gratitude. But as an exercise in futility, when we do so to prove that we are enough, rich enough, giving enough to be worthy of love, sharing a meal together when done from a place of gratitude can be a truly giving experience. But when it is done to prove how good of a host we are, how rich a banquet we can provide, then it is done from a place of greed. Today we're going to go on a journey, me and Persephone the Purple Unicorn, to see if we can't see this a bit for ourselves and explore together. First, we're going to have the special music by Trevor. He's going to give us a little introduction to his instrument. So, that's the way it goes. This is an 18th century forked piano. It's designed after one that we know most art loves dearly, but this particular instrument we're seeing right here is a copy that Norman Shepard and I made about 10 years ago. It weighs about 150 pounds, not 700 pounds, like his modern brother over there. It's all wood and it's framing, which is part of why it speaks so immediately. It's almost like a speaker, an actor, really. It has a tiny little hammer covered with buckskin, the deer skin, and everything wired with almost a cinch of guitar strings on it. Young Mozart is going to play this instrument we know and love in this particular model, played by Stein and Beethoven as a young man. In the end, I'm going to play it on this type of instrument, up until the point where it goes deaf around the age of 30. The piece I'm going to play now is one that he wrote in that area just before, which is here in the interior exactly. We call it the Moonlight Stada, which is the title of Beethoven. Never would have given to it, but it's one. Well, he did, it's like a publisher in that hand. There's some other allusions there, and it has a nice poetic ring to it. Beethoven was a great improviser, and this piece is our best window onto what he would have been after keyboard just making things up. Everyone wants to come up and they want to participate in this story for all ages today. It's going to be a long one with a lot of moving around. Not too long though. You didn't see that, just sit on there. Now, Persephone the Purple Unicorn is a very ungrateful unicorn. Oh, me? And today we are going on a journey with Persephone to learn a little bit about gratitude. First we're going to meet the kind folks of the north, the people of the shawl. Our shawl ministry group, our shawl ministry group provides blankets and shawls for people going through sad times as well as for children just joining our congregation. Does anybody still have their blanket that the shawl ministry group made for them when they were born? Yeah, you still have them? Not born maybe, but when you started coming to church. We have a group of shawls here that have their homes at the back of the congregation. Would anyone here today like a shawl and would any kid be able to bring that person the shawl when they raise their hand? Can you bring and take a shawl? Can you go find someone that's raising their hand out there and take it to them? You want to do it, Owen? Anyone else want to take a shawl? Nobody else? There's some over here. Over here. And while they're doing that, Dord, if you could tell us a little bit about why you like being a part of the shawl ministry. So I heard a few of you say that you have the blanket here. So that's one of the things we make and then we make the shawls that you're handing out and we also make lap ropes and I help with that because I like to knit and because when we give people something that we make with our own hands it's pretty special and they usually like it a lot and it makes them feel good and I enjoy being part of that. Thanks, Dord. Now, Persephone, I noticed that you didn't give anyone a shawl. Who needs a shawl when you have this? Well, you might be warm in there but there's a different kind of warmth that comes from helping others get warm when they are cold or sad. Is there one more person out there who would like a shawl so that Persephone could hand them one and share that kind of warmth? Does any of the kids want a shawl? Oh, you got one right there. Was it so bad, was it? No, it's okay. Since you've visited with me you get a reward. I have part of your treasure here. It's a flower. Somebody want to come and get it? We're going to keep moving so if ever all the kids can stand up we're going to take a lap around the back and then we're going to visit our next person, the lay ministers of the east. What are we going to make with that ingredient? Unicorn cake. Hello, Karen Rose of the east. How are the people of the lay ministry? Friends, we are well. Persephone, the lay ministers are people who, like the shawl people of the north, seek out those who are lonely or sad and try to do what they can to bring up their spirits. Like what? Well, sometimes we visit sad or sick people. Sometimes we take them shawls made by the shawl ministry people of the north. And sometimes we call members or even send them cards. Cards? Yes. I have cards here for sending to some people who can't come with us, come and be with us today. Would you like to help decorate some of them? But they're just simple little cards. I don't know if I see how that would make anybody feel better. The Willy Street food co-op and unicorn feed store has tons of cards on the racks. Well, it's not the card itself that's so special, but the decorations that some people make on them and the notes and thoughts put in them by people who care about them. In fact, would you like to help me decorate one of these cards for Stephanie? Only if I can use purple. I figured you'd say that. It's fun they're having. Karen Rose, would you mind telling us why you like being a part of the lay ministry? No, I'm happy to. Maybe you folks remember a time when you were sad or sick and somebody told you they were very sorry that you felt bad and then they helped you. The lay ministers do and I am very grateful to be able to help our members in this way. In fact, one big reason why many people think it's a great idea to be a member of FUS is because they like knowing that they are here with others who care about them and will be with them not only for celebrations and fun activities but also for difficult times when they need some support. Thanks, we're going to let you draw for just a little minute more and then we're going to save these and you can take them home and finish the drawings and bring them back and Karen Rose will make sure they get to people that need them. Yes, I'll make sure they get to people who need them as soon as I have them back. So you can either give them to Karen Rose today but we're going to start heading on our way. Thanks for all your work, TK and friends and Persephone Yes I have a special card for you that I made for me. Yes Thank you, how kind Yes, and I also have a gift for your treasure who wants to take this one It's sugar. All right you can leave your cards at your seat we're going to take another lap around the room and meet our next people the kind Unitarian Universalist Service Committee of the South Hello Nancy from the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee of the South That's a mouthful What are their good deeds? Well, go ahead The ways they collect money to help others is through the guest at your table program where every day where we distribute boxes to families in the holiday season families can put their spare change into the box every day bring it back to services after the holidays and the UUSC will make sure that the money gets to organizations all over the planet that are helping to create a more just world Do you have any extra boxes that we could give out right now that we could put together right now I do Are there some helpers who would like to help me put together some boxes? Yes Okay Would you pass some around to everyone else too please You take one and then pass them and TJ is going to show you how to put together the box you fold over the little wings and then you fold over the top We're going to take you down and set up on a table out there where you can get more information about the UUSC and it will be staffed by one of the agencies Can you tell us a little bit about why you volunteer for the UUSC? I could It makes me feel proud and happy that Unitarian Universalism has its own service organization human rights organization that helps to protect people all over the world It helps families who have had to leave their homes due to floods or hurricanes or war or cruel treatment Our service committee works side by side with other groups in these places to protect families safe from harm and that makes me feel good Wait, is it possible for Unicorn to donate money? It is and I have an extra box right here Thank you and I also have a gift, a treasure for someone Great Everyone say thank you to Nancy and we're going to get up there for this next one but Nancy is going to continue on It's been quite the journey so far so we're going to take a little moment to stop and reflect How are we going to do that? We're going to do a simple meditation There's a few different meditation groups here at FUS and they do different forms of meditation so we're going to do a very simple one and meditate about our bodies Have you ever meditated before? There's lots of different ways to do meditation If the audience want to join in with us on this one first we're going to put our hands out and shake them and then stop and feel what our hands feel like and then we're going to shake our toes and our shoes or hooves and then stop and feel what your toes feel like and then we're going to shake our ears and stop and feel what our ears feel like What else? What other body parts need to be shaken? Nose? Shake the nose and then feel what your nose feels like Your horns and then feel what your horns feel like Now we're going to close our eyes and take three deep breaths Now how did that feel Persephone? That felt pretty good Since our meditation person couldn't be here today I have the prize for this one Let's do Sorry, there's something for everybody What is it? That is vanilla Which I learned is a bean the other day We're going to take one more trip We're going to stand up one more time and this is the one everyone will get part of the prize after this one This will be our very last one Even if you already have a prize So one more trip around and we're going to meet the kind food hauling people of the central land Oh yeah, and bring your boxes if you can and we'll set them out here on this table I think our journey is nearing its end We've collected four ingredients so far and I think we're getting close to knowing what the final treasure is Does anyone have any guesses what the final treasure would be? What's your guess Lou? Cinnamon? That's not going to be the last treasure Popcorn? Or what we're going to make different treasures combined Cake? Might be milk Now we're ready to meet the kind food hauling folks of the central land Oh food This trip has made me very hungry The food haulers work hard to make sure that we have good healthy food at many of our events and the church would have a hard time going forward without them Can you speak for just a minute Cricket about why you like being a part of the food haulers? Sure, I love to cook Who here likes to eat? Breaking bread together reminds us of our common humanity and where the previous generation of stone haulers hauled the stones for our meeting house we hauled food for meetings like parish meetings and new member luncheons all those fun things where people need to eat before they make big decisions Cooking and serving food is a great way for both new and long term members to meet others and work together We welcome and teach all who are interested and we are always looking for more volunteers So see me after the service if you are interested On that note, today we have a special treat and it is Can you tell me what these are? And berries, that's right And they are also the very last ingredient of our treasure So, you can have one but I am going to warn you like I didn't in the last service but these are very tart so if you are little and you've never had a cranberry you might be a little surprised if you put it in your mouth and chew it You can try it Alright, we are going to combine all of our ingredients with this basket We got the flour and the vanilla You don't have to throw in your cranberry We will throw in the paper cranberry And what do we got? Sugar Is that it? Alright We are going to shake them up They made cranberry bread We are going to distribute this to the congregation This is the gluten free and vegan option So if that is you please raise your hand and we will do that first The other ones will just ask you to pass back and forth Some of the kids will bring them to the rows and will ask you to just pass them back and forth So, Atticus You want to be the big helper This is a very special job of distributing the gluten free option So, raise your hand if you would like a vegan or gluten free and it will be brought to you Everyone that has their hand raised Can you hold it with both hands please And while we are doing this we are going to do joys and sorrows So if you have a joy and sorrow that you would like to share with the congregation Please come up and RLA ministers will help you to light a candle and we will have this microphone for you to share your joy and sorrow You can grab your cranberry bread as you come up if you'd like as well Thanks, Anne This candle I lit for a friend of mine who didn't want anything after he passed away which he did last Monday I was obviously very sad but I was also very honored because I was asked to be part of an amazingly moving procession that Grace Hospice conducted for him and with him I'm lighting this candle for three joys One is that we got to spend Thanksgiving with close friends and family and because my aunt in law just finished her chemo and everything went well and finally because close friends who recently lost his wife to cancer and two children have befriended us afresh and have found a resource in our family and are spending time with us in recovery from that loss Thanks, Anne Is there anyone that did not get bread that would like some? Back here Anybody else? Today's offering is to the River Food Pantry which is Dane County's busiest food pantry offering free groceries, meals and clothing to anyone who comes for help Please be generous with your donations Thanks, you can be seated Well Persephone, do you feel like you learned a little bit something about gratitude today? I think I did, thank you You're welcome Just one more thing What's that? I think it would be nice on this Thanksgiving weekend to give everyone in the audience a chance to say thanks for how lucky they are to have been able to spend an hour with a unicorn If everyone can give Persephone a hand Thank you so much, Lorna and a special hand to all our ministry groups that participated today I really appreciate them coming out Please be seated and enjoy the postludes Thanks everybody