Beacon Unitarian Church
February 2015 theme
IDENTITY
Our identity is shaped primarily through the influences from the cultural/generational/nationalistic/economic and
religious beliefs that we grow up in. Of course one will impact the other and our personalities will produce the final
definition of our self- identity. These identities are not static. Throughout our lives
we are defined by the experiences we have: the moments of success and failure, risk
and possibility, our health, education, and the relationships we develop. Many of us
seek to ‘know ourselves’ and consider self-awareness the height of maturity.
On the other hand I suggest that we also wear many masks in our lifetime. We wear
masks to protect ourselves from other parts of ourselves that we may not yet be
ready to step into. I think of the ‘good girl’ mask that protects us from conflict in the
family or the ‘ambitious’ mask that allows us to fit into our class or culture. Our masks
are not necessarily negative or a deterrent to growth. They can be experienced as
liberating.
I hope you enjoy exploring ‘Identity’ this month and consider joining a Soul Matters
Group for an even deeper experience. Warmly, Rev. Debra Thorne
The miracle of me is mine to own and keep,
and mine to guard, and mine to use,
and mine to kneel before. -Ayn Rand, 'Anthem'
Well, I try my best
To be just like I can
But everybody wants you
To be just like them.
–Bob Dylan
‘Maggie’s Farm’
Questions to Live Into
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What masks have I worn in my life? Which do I wear today? How does wearing them help me live my life?
How do I express my identity in my clothes, my music, my relationships, my activities?
How do I live my spiritual identity?
What is a core identity for me?
What piece of my identity has been a challenge?
Suggestions for Spiritual Practices
Every day through this month sing or whisper these words to yourself:
“Return again, return again, return to the home of my soul.” (#1011)
Contemplate, write or draw the transitions in your identity, from child to youth, youth to adult, adult to elder.
Find objects that represent ‘you’ and create an altar or a sculpture
Be playful with your identity: pretend to be someone you aren’t, do one thing a day that isn’t you!
Children's Books
Riding the Tiger by Eve Bunting
Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
Holes by Louis Sachar
Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen
Adult/Youth Books
Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
(Pulitzer Prize 2003)
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Grace in Aging by Kathryn Dowling Singh
Annabel by Kathleen Winter
Videos
Fabulous Fashionistas Breaking the confines of Age with
Style, 8 min clip of a longer documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PgTI1cwpfk
Identity is a 4 mins video on teenage identity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikGVWEvUzNM
BOY: 16 mins video on gender identity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwV7ENOTeek&x-ytts=1422327029&x-yt-cl=84838260
Films
Tootsie, Toy Story, Wild
Edward Scissorhands
The Hours, Beautiful Mind
Seven Pounds, Fight Club
Crash, American History X
Selma, Boyhood
Still Alice
Art by Nick Cave
“He allowed himself to
be swayed by his
conviction that human
beings are not born
once and for all, on the
day their mothers give
birth to them, but that
life obliges them over
and over again to give
birth to themselves.”
Nick Cave is a Fashion Design
Faculty member at the School
Gabriel García Márquez,
of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Love in the Time of
These sculptures are from his
Cholera
SoundSuit series, which consist
of sculptural assemblage
costumes designed using
primarily wood, fabric and
found objects. His stunning work hints at indigenous tribal garments reminiscent of various world cultures.
An excerpt from ‘In the Body of the World’.
(Eve Ensler writes from her experience working with women in the Congo healing
from horrific body tears and from her own uterine cancer.)
"What if our lives were precious only up to a point? What if we held them loosely
and understood that there were no guarantees? So that when you got sick you weren't
a stage but in a process? And cancer, just like having your heart broken, or getting a
new job, or going to school, were a teacher? What if, rather than being cast out and
defined by some terminal category, you were identified as someone in the middle of a
transformation that could deepen your soul, open your heart and all the while--even if and particularly when you
were dying--you would be supported by and be part of a community?
And what if each of these things were what we were waiting for, moments of opening, of the deepening and the
awakening of everyone around us? What if this were the point of our being here rather than acquiring and
competing and consuming and writing each other off as stage 4 cancer?”
Check out the Beacon webpage at: beaconunitarian.org
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