Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

Weaving the Web

December 1, 2006
Rev. Amy Zucker Morgenstern

As parenthood draws close for me and Joy, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to create the kind of community we want our son or daughter to grow up in — all the kinds of people we want as role models. One thing our little family can’t provide too well just on our own is age diversity. We’ll visit grandparents and cousins, and bring our little one to play with other kids his or her age, but we and most of our friends are 30- and 40-somethings, and that seems a pretty narrow range of people to grow up with. What about all the people decades older and younger than we are? They all have something to give our child that we can’t give him or her ourselves.

Fortunately, we have our religious community. Like many churches, UUCPA has a demographic bulge at post-60 (and peaks and valleys at a few other points), but beyond offering our child lots of surrogate grandparents, there are people of all ages here. Sometimes we segregate ourselves by age more than we need to — and at other times we find ourselves in a very age-diverse group, such as the writing workshop last summer that had a span of 35 to 75 or wider, and we all look around and say “This is great!” So I’ve been thinking of ways we can each make the most of the diversity at UUCPA. Here are the first six of a baker’s dozen:

1. If you don’t have children to bring to Family Chapel, bring yourself. It’s a 20-minute service you can go to after Forum or the 9:30 service or before the 10 a.m. service, and it’s fun and inspiring.

2. We have two vibrant support groups called Elder Journey and Parent Journey. Most participants in Elder Journey are parents as well. How about bringing the two groups together for a special Elder & Parent Journey to share parenting stories from the 1940s to the 2000s? I’d love to be there and learn how parenting has changed and stayed the same.

3. If you don’t have children but you enjoy being among them, sign up for a Round Robin dinner.

4. If you have children but you enjoy an evening of adult company, get a sitter and sign up for a meal with the Circle Diners.

5. College and graduate students in our area are often looking for rides to church. If you’re not 8-30 yourself, offer a ride and enjoy a chat with someone you might not otherwise have met!

6. Elders who no longer drive are often looking for rides to church. If you’re not an elder yourself, offer a ride and enjoy a chat with someone you might not otherwise have met!

Seven more suggestions coming in the next issue.