BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.2.1//EN TZID:America/Los_Angeles X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:VEVENT UID:16863@uucpa.org DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250702T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250702T130000 DTSTAMP:20250629T195217Z URL:https://www.uucpa.org/events/resonant-reading-2025-07-02/ SUMMARY:Resonant Reading (Wednesday)-ULYSSES from The Human Comedy by Willi am Saroyan DESCRIPTION:Resonant Reading (Wednesday)-ULYSSES from The Human Comedy by W illiam Saroyan An exploration of ideas\, feelings\, and our life experien ces\, using a different short reading as our springboard each time. The se ssions are on Saturdays\, 4-5\, and on Wednesdays\, 12-1. All are wide ope n and you are welcome to come twice a week or once in a while.\n\nThe part icipants over the years have found that the approach we take\, and the res pectful\, affectionate community of inquirers in which we read and convers e\, are as important as the reading itself. While many small groups begin with a check-in\, with a session only an hour long\, Resonant Reading jump s right in to the conversation. Those who are frequently in the group get to know each other very well this way\, and those who are new will soon fi nd they are among friends.\n\n\n\nFacilitators use a light hand\, posting the reading in the chat and calling on whoever's Zoom hand is up. Suggesti ons for readings* come from group members\, who also take turns facilitati ng\, if they want to try that role.\n\nThe reading for this session: Wedne sday\, July 2nd\n\nULYSSES from The Human Comedy by William Saroyan\n\nThe little boy named Ulysses Macauley one day stood over the new gopher hole in the backyard of his house on Santa Clara Avenue in Ithaca\, California. The gopher of this hole pushed up fresh moist dirt and peeked out at the boy\, who was certainly a stranger but perhaps not an enemy. Before this m iracle had been fully enjoyed by the boy\, one of the birds of Ithaca flew into the old walnut tree in the backyard and after settling itself on a b ranch broke into rapture\, moving the boy’s fascination from the earth t o the tree. Next\, best of all\, a freight train puffed and roared far awa y. The boy listened and felt the earth beneath him tremble with the moving of the train. Then he broke into running\, moving (it seemed to him) swif ter than any life in the world.\n\nWhen he reached the crossing he was jus t in time to see the passing of the whole train\, from locomotive to caboo se. He waved to the engineer\, but the engineer did not wave back to him. He waved to five others who were with the train\, but not one of them wave d back. They might have done so\, but they didn’t. At last a Negro appea red leaning over the side of a gondola. Above the clatter of the train\, U lysses heard the man singing:\n\n“Weep no more\, my lady\, O weep no mor e today\nWe will sing one song for the old Kentucky home\nFor the old Kent ucky home far away”\n\nUlysses waved to the Negro too\, and then a wondr ous and unexpected thing happened. This man\, black and different from all the others\, waved back to Ulysses\, shouting: “Going home\, boy— goi ng back where I belong!”\n\nThe small boy and the Negro waved to one ano ther until the train was almost out of sight.\n\nThen Ulysses looked aroun d. There it was\, all around him\, funny and lonely— the world of his li fe. The strange\, weed-infested\, junky\, wonderful\, senseless yet beauti ful world. Walking down the track came an old man with a rolled bundle on his back. Ulysses waved to this man too\, but the man was too old and too tired to be pleased with a small boy’s friendliness. The old man glanced at Ulysses as if both he and the boy were already dead.\n\nThe little boy turned slowly and started for home. As he moved\, he still listened to th e passing of the train\, the singing of the Negro\, and the joyous words: “Going home\, boy— going back where I be- long!” He stopped to think of all this\, loitering beside a china-ball tree and kicking at the yello w\, smelly\, fallen fruit of it. After a moment he smiled the smile of the Macauley people— the gentle\, wise\, secret smile which said Yes to all things.\n\nWhen he turned the corner and saw the Macauley house\, Ulysses began to skip\, kicking up a heel. He tripped and fell because of this me rriment\, but got to his feet and went on.\n\nHis mother was in the yard\, throwing feed to the chickens. She watched the boy trip and fall and get up and skip again. He came quickly and quietly and stood beside her\, then went to the hen nest to look for eggs. He found one. He looked at it a mo ment\, picked it up\, brought it to his mother and very carefully handed i t to her\, by which he meant what no man can guess and no child can rememb er to tell.\n\n\n \;\n\n \;\n\nHow to join:\n\n\n\n Join this cla ss from your Web browser: https://zoom.us/j/96865808923\, passcode 227385\ n Join this class using the Zoom app: Meeting ID: 968 6580 8923\n Join t his class by phone: 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 968 6580 8923\n Join this class by one-tap on mobile phones: 6699006833\,\,96865808923#   (San Jose)\n Phoning in\, but not in the Bay Area?  Find your local n umber: https://zoom.us/u/abL8clvIYT\n\nThis is the Zoom link for Wednesday s. For the Zoom link for Saturday\, go to Calendar and click on a Saturday session.\n\n\nQuestions? Drop an e-mail to resonant-reading+owner@uucpa.o rg.\n\n\n \;\n\n*This activity was formerly called "Sacred Text Readin g." That proved misleading--for one thing\, more often than not our source s are secular--but it's worth describing the qualities of a sacred text\, which we still look for in the readings we choose. It is any reading that helps us to:\n\n connect to something of supreme importance to us\n feel more connected to other beings or to the universe\n feel more intensely alive\n align our lives with our values\,\n perceive or feel more deeply \n be more fully and authentically ourselves.\n ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.uucpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09 /Resonant-Reading.png CATEGORIES:Adult,Learning,Ongoing Events,Small Groups END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250309T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR