Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

Voices of Our Youth

2006 – 2007 Coming of Age Youth
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Palo Alto, CA

When I finally sat (well, actually lay) down to finally write this little speech, after the whole Coming of Age program dealie, I found myself oddly clear of thought. Not in a good way, though. I mean clear of all thought. So I’m sitting there, waiting for inspiration to what it is I know I believe, absolutely frustrated! How could I not know what I believe?

I finally asked the empty space in front of me why I didn’t know. I was flabbergasted when it answered back, with a curt “You haven’t asked.”

Scared out of my wits, but nonetheless desperate for something, anything to write down. I asked the question, “What do I believe?” and prepared to write down the answer.

I was surprised at how long the list was. When I looked closer, though, I found gems like my belief in the universal uniting force of live hidden in piles of “Ice Cream is Good” and “Whales exist”, those sorts of things that really aren’t what I’m looking for.

So I’ve spent the last week or so digging through those for the really good ones, the hidden gems. I can tell you about the positive power of change, or the living systems of this world, for example.

And very last on that very long list was one word on it’s own line. The very last, the most important of the things I believe.

Myself.

— Sam

 

Hi, my name is Elizabeth. Who am I? I am the daughter of Timothy and Maribea, and the sister of Katherine. But so far you do not know the rest, and neither did I. I have now completed the Coming of Age program. Because of it I believe I know what I want more out of my life, and who I want to be when I grow up. I have become more self-reliant over the past few months and believe in myself. I have become more responsible, and have taken the consequences and the pride for my actions. I have found my value in life as well. I have found out what I need from my family, my friends, my peers, my teachers, and everyone around me. I have also learned what I believe in, and what I think are the answers to the unanswerable questions of the world.

I believe:

• My family should treat me with respect, and act as if I am an intern in a company, learning from the experienced and most knowledgeable boss. You need to guide me along the route without to much help, just boundary points, to say, you’re straying off the road, so I have freedom to walk and zigzag on the dirt road, stumbling on rocks, running into horse drawn carriages, and find my own route. I can do what ever I want on the road, as long as I stay on it. My family will and have always been my boundary points. If I need to be steered in the right direction. They have the knowledge that I will learn from into my future.

• Now that I have gone through the Coming of Age program, I believe that others should treat me, as a young adult, and with the same respect you would give another member of the church.

• I have found out that my friends need to support me and let me be myself. I have found out that I need to have a person to make me laugh and make me happy. I also need someone that I can make happy, because that’s what makes me feel good.

• I have learned through the Coming of Age program, what really gets through to me, and what people have to do to really get my attention. I have found out that I need a model from which to learn, and from which to make my own goals. With a model you can find your own route, and either avoid what happened to the model or mimic in a way so that you can repeat the same joy.

• I have found out what I care about through the Coming of Age program, one thing is the environment. I believe in saving the environment, because without a clean and healthy environment, we would all die. Also there are more than humans here on the earth who need a place to live. If we continue to destroy the environment we will destroy the animals, the plants, the air, the fresh water. I want to protect this environment for those born after me.

• I believe that cruelty is in the world to show, what the world would be like without love and care. We should not tolerate cruelty, but when it happens, see thru it to truly appreciate the good things in life. Without suffering there can be no joy. Without an up there is no down. Cruelty shows us what the world would be like without compassion and tolerance.

• I believe that death is for the finishing of life if everything lasted forever and more and more things grew, we’d run out of room and we’d have chaos, and be cramped. We don’t want that and so we must die and give ourselves back to the earth where we once came, so that others can be born and have joy. Death is important to make life look so special.

• I believe that the reason for life is so that we can have a purpose, to do something new, to help others and the living world. How much good we can do! Life is meant so that things can mature, not just be cold dirty rocks, boring and useless. We have emotions so that we can grieve, laugh, smile and many other things like being creative and inventing something new.

• I believe that happiness is the best value in life, because it creates an environment where everyone feels comfortable, and ready to have fun. And if you are happy nothing seems wrong and you feel as if you’re on top of the world.

• I believe in being nice to everyone, even if they are mean to you. Because if everyone is mean to each other then everyone will be upset and isolated from the people they used to love. By being nice to everyone I am showing a loving example, and hopefully some will mimic this example, and create a nicer world.

— Elizabeth

 

Reverend Darcey gave us a sheet of paper at one of our creed meetings, and asked us to place the religious ideas from the ones we believed the most to the least. I picked one that I found interesting and that summed up my beliefs: “there can be no god because too much evil happens in the world”. Darcey read this and then told me that that was a pessimistic view point … something I never considered.

As a youth who grew up with no real religion, aside from the occasional visits to the local Christian Science church, I could never understand my grandparents’ great devotion to a diety I couldn’t see, and had no reason to believe existed. Even though I didn’t understand their beliefs I was always happy to accompany them to church and I loved to read the Bible stories.

On a trip to Florence last year, my grandparents and I visited lots of cathedrals. Our aunt was giving us talks about all of the different stories behind the paintings. But instead of wondering about the beauty of all the different works of art, I found myself wondering how these peole could believe such scientifcally impossible stories. So as a young adult I believe that there is no god … however I think that if people use the idea or belief in god as a motivation for them to do good things … all the power to them.

— Emma

 

For a long time I felt I was an atheist. I thought religion was stupid. Why would people just randomly choose to believe in some completely supernatural, irrational, unproven being? I highly doubted that there was a god up there counting all our sins and deciding if we went to heaven or hell.

But recently, I find that spirituality is necessary, at least for me. The more I thought about it, the more I found it depressing to think that there was no higher being or purpose in life. Because without a god, what am I supposed to live for? I am just one in billions. On a global scale, I matter so little. If we are completely without a higher being, then I am just one of teeming mass of people. Whether I live or die has essentially no effect on the world.

Then, recently, I visited a Baptist church. They started their service with a joyous, “Let us praise god for letting us be here today, alive and healthy and breathing.” They were so grateful just to exist and be able to go to church. It made me happy just to be. All of the imperfections, in both myself and my life, just faded away. And from then on, I decided I wanted a faith that gave me that same sense of peace and contentment. Not a constant desire for more, like that of a false god, of achievement or money. But a God that moves me beyond my small sense of self to a place of joy.

— Maya