 Excellent. and speaking of things that are different in this world, I'm Steve Goldberg, a very proud member of this congregation and I'd like to extend a special welcome not only to the mothers and grandmothers in the group today but also to any guests, visitors or newcomers. If this is your first time at First Unitarian Society, I think you'll find that it's a very special place and we invite you to join us at our fellowship hour right after the service. In a moment I'm going to ring the gong which is our signal to join in a moment of centering silence so we can be fully present with each other this morning and then you'll have a chance to sit back or lean forward to enjoy today's service. I know it will touch your heart, stir your spirit and trigger one or two new thoughts. We're glad you're here. Please remain standing for our opening words and the lighting of our chalice. One of the old ones stood up into the morning light and spoke to those who had come back to the river. Now we have come again to this place. It is a good thing. My life apart from you is not as strong. Yes, I have danced and I have told the stories at my own fire and I have sung to all six of the directions but when I am with you, my friends, I know better who it is in me that sings. And now if you will join together in our words of affirmation, love can nurture our spirits and transform the world. May the flame of this chalice, honor and embody the power and the blessing of the love we need, the love we give, the love we are challenged always to remember and to share. And if you will turn now and greet those around you. I now invite anyone who'd like to come for your best friends. That is awesome. I love it. Hi, how's your morning? Happy Mother's Day. Our story today is called Grandma in Blue with Red Hat. Have you ever heard of this one? This one's new to me. Let's see what you think about it. It's about a little boy who loves art. Do you guys love art? There he is. He loves to draw and he loves to paint both what he can see and what he sees in his mind. But Saturday is the best day for him because that's the day he goes to art class at the museum. He's been going there forever. His grandma always brings him and she says have a great day and he always says see you at home. Ms. Montabello is the art teacher. She knows everything about art. She asks them did you know that anything can be in an art exhibition, toys, hair clips, guitars, water bottles, anything. He wonders if anything can really be in a museum. Do you see what they're saying? It's brilliant and beautifully crafted. What is it that that could be an art exhibition? Ms. Montabello calls them her little Picasso's. Picasso was a famous artist who liked to paint in his underwear. Pablo put some clothes on. The Guggenheims are on their way over. So the little boy wonders could underwear be in an art exhibition? What do you think? No? Anybody think yes? Do you see how it says Calvin clean? I think that's kind of funny. Ms. Montabello always asks us can any of you little Picasso's tell me why you think this is in the museum? She always asks that when we look at art. Alice says because it's beautiful. Sasha says because it's different. Henry says because it tells a story. Thomas says because it came from somewhere far away. Jack says because it makes me feel good. Alex says because it's funny. Karina says because there's only one like it in the whole. Ms. Montabello says there are no wrong answers when it comes to art because most of the artwork was given to the museum. Maybe he thinks someday I could give artwork to the museum. Now grandma's waiting when he gets home. She says what did you do in class today? I tell her and then I realize grandma is beautiful. Grandma is different. Grandma is funny. Grandma tells me stories. Grandma comes from far away. Grandma makes me feel good. There is only one of her in the entire world. I should give grandma to the museum. The next week I tell Ms. Montabello about my idea and she tells me that I should ask the curator of the museum. He says your grandma sounds like an exceptional grandma. But as much as I would love to accept your gift we do have a rule at the museum. We do not take grandmas. And that's when he has a great idea. He worked hard at drawing and painting and reading about artists. And then the big day arrives. My dad and grandma help him get ready. As dad hangs the pictures he says a little to the right, no no too much just tilted a teensy bit to the left. My friends are there. Grandma's friends are there. Mom and dad's friends are there. And Ms. Montabello and the curator are there. Welcome to my exhibition everyone. As the guests look at the pictures they say things like this one's beautiful. This one's different. This one's funny. Do you see the funny one? Grandma on a skateboard. I think that's my favorite. This one tells a story. This one makes me feel good. I especially like this one Ms. Montabello says what do you call it? Grandma in blue with red hat. Grandma says what a wonderful exhibition. It is one of a kind. Just like grandma. So thank you all for being such great listeners. You can go out and think about what kind of art exhibition you would make. We're gonna rise in body or spirit and sing you out with him 300. Be seated. Our readings today from two of our members the first one from Claire Box. My step-grandson's are young men. Isaac the older will be graduating from college on Mother's Day. When he was born I was offered the title of Godmother. I replied okay if we can change it to goddess mother. I did and still do deeply love him and Andy his younger brother they have taught me so much. When my husband Pell known as George DeSum was obviously close to death Isaac and his mother came to our home. It just happened to be spring break. At first Pell could talk and share a bit however by Monday he became much more ill. It was a very sad and difficult time as his symptoms increased. Isaac sat with Pell and I for hours at a time. After a day or so I said to him you know you can do something else. Read or even go out for a bit. His response was no this is where I want to be. A couple of days later his father and brother arrived. Isaac continued to sit with me and we talked about what was happening to Pell. Issues like why he could not talk or could he still hear us. Such open sharing between the three of us. When Pell began to have trouble breathing we talked about the death rattle and that most likely he was aware of the struggling. We kept talking to him, memories and love. The day he died two express packages arrived. About two hours before his death Isaac came into the room picked up his grandpa's hand and put a book under it saying here is your book. Does he understand? I only nodded. It was the memoir Pell's book written in the last year. The publisher rushed an unbound copy with a cover in hopes he would receive it before his death and so he did. Isaac was 18 and applying to colleges. I didn't learn until later that he chose to write his entrance essay about that last week with his beloved grandpa and all that he felt and learned. I remain so grateful for his lessons in love, commitment and courage. And this story from Joyce Carey. On Easter Sunday Philip and Alice invited the family over for a fine spread. The whole family now extends to four great-grandchildren. The youngest Grayson is five years old. They're a healthy bunch full of energy. It's a pretty good idea to have a supply of things for the kids to do, especially when it is cold as it was on Sunday and going outside is not an option. My contribution was a variety of board games including Candyland and Battleship. Grayson couldn't interest anyone in playing Candyland so he started setting up Battleship. When I was a kid Battleship was a paper and pencil game but this one was fancy. A plastic grid to place your ships on and a corresponding plastic grid to work out the position of your opponent's ships. Grayson's opponent was Phil who was playing the game for the first time. The worthy opponent set up their battlefields three ships each on numbered grids that the other player couldn't see. The idea is to guess the location of the other player's ships by calling out coordinates like G7. If you guess right you place a red marker on your blank grid. If you guess wrong you place a white marker. All seem to be going well. Grayson called out a number and Phil would say whether it was a hit or a miss. Then it was Phil's turn to guess. I noticed that no matter what coordinate Phil guessed Grayson said it was a miss. Phil had no red hits. Grayson was giggling and having a great time. Family members started drifting over to see what was going on. That little rascal was moving his boats. If Phil guessed a hit Grayson's boat sailed to a new coordinate. Grayson's dad asked why he was moving the boats. He said because I want to. Nobody cared. The game was more fun because Grayson was so delighted in his clever strategy. The best part was watching the two players at work both intent on their game boards both having a good time. The youngest and oldest players at the party 84 years difference in age which made no difference at all. I wonder if Grayson will remember playing with his great grandfather. Will he remember how he outfoxed the old man by simply moving his game pieces? Grayson may have a future in a field that requires creativity and duplicity. Maybe he'll run for office. Thanks to the meeting house course and the Society Choir for both being here this morning and blessing us with such beautiful music of peace. If you notice there's an insert in your order of service that lists the names of all the meeting house course and society choir members and we are deeply grateful for the hours and hours of weekly rehearsals and listening to sermons multiple times. Thank you, thank you. There is news in our world today news you may not hear through the regular channels. Insurgent grandmothers are fighting the status quo successfully seeding peace, justice, education, health, human rights and a better world for grandchildren everywhere. When I heard the indigenous teaching that states there will never be peace on earth until the voices of the grandmothers are heard I wondered what was happening with grandmothers. What I found were grandmothers in India learning solar engineering to bring light to their villages. I found grandmothers in Argentina searching for and finding more than 100 grandchildren who were kidnapped during a military dictatorship returning them to their families. Their search continues. I found grandmothers in Israel monitoring military checkpoints to prevent human rights abuses against Palestinians. Grandmothers are campaigning universally and vigorously for political, economic and social change. Grandmothers around the world forming and joining groups stimulated by our tightly connected and troubled world compelled to improve the future for all the children. I will admit I wasn't too surprised partly because of the stories of my grandmother. By the time I was born my grandma Crocker was in a wheelchair debilitated with rheumatoid arthritis and multiple strokes that left her unable to walk and learning how to communicate with halting speech. Yet I heard the stories from my father the calls in the middle of the night from worried new parents because she was the town's midwife delivering babies at all hours checking on children who were feverish or had a concerning cough comforting worried parents and crying with new ones as she placed babies into waiting arms. She was also involved in the political world campaigning door to door for those she believed in whether it was the mayor of Carbondale, Pennsylvania or Eisenhower. I cherish her very shiny like Ike pins. Through her stories I learned about compassion and caring for others. I learned about passion and speaking up for what you believe and I learned about the power of grandparents and elders. This power is in teaching important lessons and doing so with strength and grace. In looking around the world I found grandmothers teaching generosity and compassion modeling resilience and mercy sustaining traditions catalyzing change seeding hope and peace. Now both of my grandmothers passed on when I was in my early 20s and there have been many days as a parent myself that I desperately wanted to pick up the phone and call them for advice wisdom a listening ear. So since they are no longer with me I reached out to seven grandmothers here at FUS women I deeply respect and admire and I asked them this what has it meant to you to be a grandmother? How has becoming a grandmother changed your life? I learned when I listened to our grandmothers they found a great joy in being in the moment part of it comes with the knowledge that they are not going to be there for this little person's whole life you do these activities with them and you think well they remember this at all what of me will they remember? You put love out they said and that love is there and you hope that they will carry that sense of well being and fun and all the things they learn from you they'll carry that into their adult lives caring for these little beings that you may not see grow is much like caring for the earth I have learned they said to do what I can let go to try and make a difference when and where I can I am always asking what can I impact today their words reminded me of a poem from Joseph Bruchak that's called Birdfoot's Grandpa the old man must have stopped our car two dozen times to climb out and gather into his hands the small toads blinded by our lights and leaping live drops of rain the rain was falling a mist about his white hair and I kept saying you can't save them all accept it get back in the car we have places to go but leathery hands full of wet brown life knee deep in the summer roadside grass just smiled and said they have places to go to too have a unique perspective of seeing the world change over time and the grandmother spoke of the importance of sharing the difficult times as well as the joyous ones to bring perspective on what is happening now when you share your stories of struggle and challenge and you talk about how you changed how you grew how you survived you teach the message of putting your energy into what you can change and where you can serve they described the power of learning from those who have gone before what they learned from their own grandparents and how communities have sustained them in times of struggle and again I thought of the words of Alice Walker that she wrote called in these dissenting times to acknowledge our ancestors means we are aware that we did not make ourselves that the line stretches all the way back we remember them because it is an easy thing to forget that we are not the first to suffer rebel fight love and die the grace with which we embrace life in spite of the pain the sorrows is always a measure of what has gone before much like the grandmothers around the globe these grandmothers remember what kind of world is being left to the next generation and how their role as an elder was to teach the importance of service the opportunity to do what you can and the willingness to support those who are taking the lead in fighting for change they spoke of lining up on the street to cheer on the high school students who marched out of classes to the capitol to rally for gun control they said they were the ones bringing cookies to the demonstrations to surprise the ones fighting for change in a lot of ways they said you realize it's no longer your fight this next generation is speaking up and out and wearing themselves down we can bring the love to the demonstration we can bring kindness we can remind them of the goodness that is still there Rachel Naomi Rehman in my grandfather's blessing tells this story often when he came to visit my grandfather would bring me a present these were never the sorts of things that other people brought dolls and books and stuffed animals my dolls and stuffed animals have been gone for more than half a century but many of my grandfather's gifts are with me still once he brought me a paper cup I looked inside it expecting something special it was full of dirt I was not allowed to play with dirt disappointed I told him this he smiled at me fondly turning he picked up the little teapot from my dolls tea set and took me to the kitchen where he filled it with water back in the nursery he put the little cup on the windowsill and handed me the teapot if you promise to put some water in the cup every day something may happen he told me at the time I was four years old and my nursery was on the sixth floor of an apartment building in Manhattan this whole thing made no sense to me at all I looked at him dubiously he nodded with encouragement every day he told me and so I promised at first curious to see what would happen I didn't mind doing this but as the days went on and nothing changed it got harder and harder to remember to put water in the cup after a week I asked my grandfather if it was time to stop yet shaking his head no he said every day the second week was even harder and I became resentful of my promise to put water in a cup when my grandfather came again I tried to give it back to him but he refused to take it saying simply every day by the third week I began to forget to water the cup often I would remember only after I had been put to bed and would have to get out of bed and water it in the dark but I didn't miss a single day and one morning there were two little green leaves that hadn't been there the night before I was completely astonished day by day they got bigger I couldn't wait to tell my grandfather certain that he would be as surprised as I was but of course he was not carefully he explained to me that life is everywhere hidden in the most ordinary and unlikely places I was delighted all it needs is water grandpa gently he touched me on the top of my head no he said all it needs is your faithfulness this was she says my first lesson in the power of service but I didn't understand it in this way then my grandfather would not have used these words he would have said that we need to remember to bless the life around us and the life within us he would have said when we remember we can bless life we can repair the world for each of the women I interviewed there was a message of blessing they wanted to get to their grandchildren a message that they hoped was being transmitted to all children and that is you are okay you are safe here you are loved grandparents are the ones who could lie down on the floor and engage in games for hours on end with no sense of being rushed to move on to the next thing they were the ones who could dance in the rain at the top of their lungs to make the rain go away without any worry of looking foolish they were the ones who listened to the heartache and figure out how to be their person in that situation how to soften the blow how to help them find wonder and joy again their deepest hope was that each child in this world had a person who taught them unconditional love a love that would be there for them throughout all life when times were rough they'd be able to call upon it they may not say oh that feeling there it is that's grandma but that feeling of love and support and the knowledge that there is at least one person in this world who thinks you are amazing and fantastic exactly as you are today that will be there to hold you and sustain you perhaps the best thing I got from the grandmothers was the realization that this is the work for all of us to do I have learned that we can all be elders regardless of age Thomas Moore said I've always found that word elder a little strange I've never had the ambition to become one I've never really known for sure what one is yet many people I run into speak of elders with a hushed reverence and recently a friend told me that the main point in growing old is to become one on reflection I can see that becoming an elder could be a good way toward feeling positive about growing old and doing some real good in the process elder means that being older is an honor and carries with it a particular role of quiet leadership and teaching what I learned from the grandmothers is this be comfortable with your years whether it's 20 or 80 how you define the required age to have the mindset of an elder is completely relative and up to you whatever your age except it speak forth rightly and calmly about it be proud of your years and become friends with the process of getting older spend time with the young and truly love them some of us can become jealous and envious of youth and become angry in the presence of the young some of us complain and criticize and judge when you learn to love exactly where you are in life and learn to love yourself in that process you can open your heart to those who are younger and are looking to you for guidance I've spoken before about my time in kindergarten since October I've been leading Owen's class in kindness and mindfulness activities to be honest with you it is the best half hour of my week there is no pretense in kindergarten they are uniquely who they are and the more time you spend with them the more they let that show and the more you can learn to meet them exactly where they are in the process they have taught me to be gentle with myself and accept myself and wherever I am in the same way I'm there every Monday and I get paid in hugs and smiles and questions and giggles it is the best volunteer gig in the world use your knowledge and wisdom to benefit others Thomas Moore tells the story of his father's desire to teach middle school students about a city's water supply not a very exciting topic for middle schoolers but when he stood in front of those children he was using his technical knowledge of plumbing and water treatment but he was also an old man talking about his life and inspiring young people to make something of themselves there's direct learning he says the understanding of the technology of water treatment but there's this indirect learning when you see how an old man found joy in his life's work an elder would be wise to keep both kinds of learning in mind you can teach technical skills but you can also teach inspiration and that's the one I'll leave you with cultivate your power to inspire the word inspire means to breathe into so you can inspire into another person a reason to work hard and be creative and engage in the world meaningfully you take your own good breath and give it to someone else your example can light a fire there's a lot of negative news out there today we see leaders that act as petulant children with bullying behavior clinging as hard as they can to power to get their own way you can inspire them with your actions your beliefs, your example to live another way we do not have to go out and create huge new movements for change if you feel called to do so please do because our world needs your wisdom and your passion and your love but each one of us can elder in small ways to our friends, children, neighbors, communities advising from our own experience and making a conscious decision to be available to be present, to spread kindness and what we have learned in our own time so may we each go forth today remembering to bless the life around us and within us for when we each remember to stop and save a toad to spend time with a child to teach the miracle of growing things we can bless this life and then we can go forth to do our part to repair the world and I now invite you into the giving and receiving of today's offering which will be shared with a fund for women you can read more about them in your red floors and we thank you for your generosity as we appreciate your monetary gifts we appreciate the gifts of all those who gave of their time this morning our greeter was Elaine Lohr Usher's Patricia Becker Wally Brinkman and Cynthia Nolan on sound Mark Schultz in the kitchen making that coffee as Jeannie Hills and our lame minister Anne Smiley Rose Detmer is our tour guide if you are interested in a tour after the service come right up here to the front and she'll meet you there and our flowers today are in honor of Joan Burns who was recognized on Friday for founding the Masters in Genetic Counseling Program at the University of Wisconsin 40 years ago we have two opportunities to let you know about today between and after all the services this weekend peace poles will be decorated along University Bay Drive you may have noticed them as you came into the parking lot some classes and families and members have signed up to do it but there are posts for you if you would like to participate just head out to the lawn choose an unclaimed post there's a craft table full of all kinds of supplies under the eaves let your peaceful creativity materialize and later this month our intern T.K. Browning will be leaving F.U.S. and in June Michael Shuler will be retiring so today and for the next few weeks there will be a table in the commons where you can write notes to T.K. and his family also to Michael and Trina and there's more details in the red floors we gather each week in this place made sacred by the presence of both the Holy and the Human brought together in this space and in this time we come together to sing and to pray to be still to be alert to celebrate to see in others their best to see reflected in their eyes our own to dream together of a world of justice to remember our sorrows and our joys this week we hold all those silent celebrations and quiet struggles that live in each of our hearts for all these and more may we lift our hearts in thankfulness today and pray only to be more aware and thus more alive blessed be and amen and if you'll rise now in body or spirit our closing hymn is number 368 if and of love there is so much work to do we have only begun to imagine justice and mercy help us hold fast to our vision of what can be may we see the hope in our history and find the courage and the voice to work for that constant rebirth of freedom and justice that is our dream may it be the song on our lips and the work of our hands as we go forward this day and all the days to come our time together in service here is ending and our time in service to the world begins again blessed be and go in peace and please be seated for the postlude