Celebrate!
November seems to be a time of feasting – the Hindu festival of Diwali; Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday which celebrates the end of Ramadan's month of fasting; and American Thanksgiving all fall during this month. On the Day of the Dead people even make a feast for relatives who have died! But our theme this month draws just as much on Veteran's Day, celebrated in some countries as Remembrance Day or Armistice Day, which honors those who have served their countries through military service.
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We Honor… |
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| Henry Whitney Bellows, a Unitarian minister who served what is now the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City for 44 years! Henry did many remarkable things, including founding the National Conference of Unitarian Churches, which was the first organization to have Unitarian congregations as its members, like we do with the UUA today.
But one of the most important things that Henry did is especially fitting to honor as we celebrate Veterans/Remembrance Day. During the terrible US Civil War thousands of soldiers were dying, not just from wounds they got on the battlefield, but also from bad food, lack of attention to preventing the spread of germs and terrible medical care. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell had started the Women's Central Organization of Relief, but the Army wouldn't cooperate with her organization enough to use their aid. So Women's Central sent Henry to lobby for official recognition and military cooperation.
It worked! Government officials agreed to start the U.S. Sanitary Commission to organize donated medical supplies and to work for better public health and medical measures for the soldiers. Bellows was made president of the organization, which took charge of the treatment of tens of thousands of wounded soldiers, as well as the task of getting them home.
The Sanitary Commission was the first health and social welfare project in the world organized on such a large scale. It coordinated the efforts of tens of thousands of volunteers spread over thousands of miles. Its policy of treating captured, wounded Rebels as well as the North's injured inspired the Geneva Convention on War that most countries honor even today. When the International Red Cross was formed, it was modeled after that of the Sanitary Commission.
So not only hundreds of thousands of soldiers, but also millions of disaster victims have reason to be grateful to Unitarian Henry Whitney Bellows. |
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Act!
There's no question that being a soldier is a terribly difficult job. In addition to being dangerous it is often full of hardships – one of the worst of which is the loneliness of being away from friends and family for months or even years at a time. This month, in honor of Veterans/Remembrance Day, maybe you'd like to remember enlisted men and women by sending a care package and/or a letter of personal support (whether or not you support the idea of the war that they have to fight). You can find information about and contact information for soldiers who'd love to hear from you. The web site will tell you how to send care packages if you want to do that, but they emphasize that the most important thing is for the real people serving in the military to hear from real people out there in the world that we remember them and care about them. Letters from families and kids are especially welcome.
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Nurturing Your Spirit
One of the most important spiritual practices the world over is that of gratitude, being thankful for all of the countless gifts that life gives us. Maybe you'd like to make November Thanksgiving Month, rather than just celebrating Thanksgiving Day. No, I'm not suggesting you eat turkey every day for a month, let alone pumpkin pie. But there are lots of things you can do to practice giving thanks. For instance, you can:
Start a practice at bedtime or dinnertime of having every person in the family name one thing they are grateful for that day. Try to come up with something different every day!
Keep a gratitude journal, in which you write down all the things you are grateful for. How many can you come up with? Feel free to e-mail me your list at RE@clfuu.org, and let me know if you'd like it posted on this page.
Make a gratitude collage, cutting out pictures from old magazines (ask permission first!) that remind you of things you're thankful for and gluing them onto a piece of paper or posterboard.
Send thank you notes to family or friends, letting them know what you appreciate about who they are or what they do. |
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Practicing the Principles
Our UU principle for this month is our sixth principle, "The goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all." In other words, Unitarian Universalists work and hope for a world where we treat everyone as one big family, in which everyone is treated in ways which are peaceful, free and fair.
One way to honor the goal of world community is to get to know about people in other countries, so that we can recognize the ways we are all alike and the ways we are all different. You may want to start with learning about our world-wide Unitarian or Unitarian Universalist family. Go to the December 2003 issue of uu&me!, which is full of great stories, craft ideas and more about UUs around the world.
Teens may want to read this article from the November 2002 Quest by Dan Harper about Unitarians in India and the Philippines. |
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Ask CLiF
Ask CLiF any questions you have about religion or living
a good life.
I would like to sell my own homemade dog biscuits. Are there any food regulations I need to know about before I start?
—Tracy
Hi Tracy,
I'm glad to hear you were inspired by the Act! section of last month's KidTalk. I'm afraid I'm not much of an expert on regulations regarding dog treats, but I don't think it should be an issue unless you're planning on creating a substantial company. I know there are regulations on the content of dog food, but I don't think they apply to dog treats anyway. It wouldn't be a bad idea to list the ingredients on your packaging, though. Like people, dogs can have allergies, so that way people buying your dog biscuits wouldn't have to worry.
Let me know how your sales go!
—CLiF
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