DR. SEUSS AND UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS
I CAN LICK 30 TIGERS TODAY

(NOTE: Please review the Introduction before using this Session Plan. Thank you.)

SETTING THE STAGE
STORY SYNPOSIS: Teller starts by boasting about licking 30 tigers, and dismisses them all except one, then goes for lunch! (1 minute)

AFFIRMATION(S): We are always learning about and for ourselves

THEME(S): Know our own limits

PREPARATION: Reflection: How do you respond when you have a task that seems overwhelming?

NEEDED:
I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today and Other Stories, Random House, 1969

SESSION PLAN
OPENING: Selected by the group. This can be used each session.

CHECK-IN: Welcome. Each person says his or her name. Allow time for each person to briefly tell something that went well since the group last met, or something that did not go well.

Leave an empty chair or space for someone who is missing from the group that day, or to recognize that others are welcome to be invited to join the group.

STORY
I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today

EXPLORING
Reflections
Have you ever had a really big job to do and felt that you just couldn't do? Examples: Move a big stone or log.
Have you ever told someone you would do something then found out that you couldn't? What did you do?

Activity
This activity is designed to be too big for one person. Create a pile of something too big for one person to move alone, such as chairs. Discuss as a group how to move the chairs. Gradually take chairs off the stack, and have each participant take one to the location of the new stack. The point of the activity is to recognize ability, but not to encourage bragging about ability, or the tendency to so more than is wise to do.

Social Justice
Take a social justice issue, such as world hunger or homelessness.
Can we-- in this group-- end hunger in the world, right now? Why not? (Too many people hungry; we do not have enough money; if we just give them food, they will be hungry again. This is like the 30 tigers.)
Can we -- in this group -- end hunger in this country? Why not? (Similar to reasons above. Maybe this is like 22 tigers.)
Can we -- in this group -- end hunger in this state? (13 tigers)
Can we -- in this group -- end hunger in this town or city? (3 tigers)
Can we -- in this group -- help to end hunger in this neighborhood? What can each of us do? Include discussion of food banks and soup kitchens, and other activities in your congregation or community. Possibly include

CLOSING:
I am only one
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the
Something that I can do.
Edward Everett Hale (Singing the Living Tradition, Beacon Press, 1993, #457)

GROUP REVIEW AND ANNOUNCEMENTS.
What did they like about the session? (theme, activities, someone special being there, etc.)

Announce the story for the next session and who will be the adult facilitator, or if there are special events in the time before the group meets again.

Rev. Helen Zidowecki, May 2003