How Mirth and Dignity Got Its Name

In late 2018, when the UU Hysterical Society was still just a 15,000 person Facebook group, I made a decision to try to expand things. I decided to invest a small amount in creating some stickers and an online store, with the idea that sales would eventually fund an ongoing UU humour website.  

I was even toying with the idea of applying to be a real organization--a not for profit--so we could better support our mod team with grant funds. But I couldn’t bring myself to submit a form to the Canadian government with “UU Hysterical Society” on it, and anyway… We were just messing around.

The following fall, my friend Fulgence approached me to ask for help in supporting a group of refugees who were looking to settle in Canada. They were members of the Unitarian Church of Bujumbura, forced to flee due to their community organizing to fight human rights abuses.

Unfortunately, I’d just spent all my money on stickers. For the UU Hysterical Society.

Then I thought, the UU Hysterical Society.

Together, UUHS members and I created some funny holiday pdfs, and I set them up as a donation-product. I told the story of Fulgence’s community (Flaming Chalice International didn’t exist yet), and asked people to offer what support they could. More than five hundred people stepped up, and we raised more than fifteen thousand dollars.

This was the first time I thought “this group just saved a life”. It was, of course, before the pandemic. Before we realized how important joy and connection really are.

But I was starting to realize it.

On Christmas day that year, I changed the group’s description to read:

Sometimes, a border guard or a postal worker asks me what the heck a UU Hysterical Society is. I used to look away and mumble something awkward about a group I run that makes fun of my religion. I don't do that any more.

We began in 2015, as a group organizing a prank. We didn't want the fun to end, and created a Facebook group, which shared funny memes and UU stuff, and fooled more than one innocent bystander into thinking that Unitarian Universalism is a joke religion set up for the purposes of this group. When pressed for a tagline, we'd say "Mirth and Dignity" (which is a play on words from an actual UU principle "affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person").

Then, in 2019 at nearly 30,000 people strong, we decided to do something together. It was Christmas time, which is a time when we think of people who are in need and have nowhere to go. We created funny products and sold them and collected donations and raised enough to bring three people to Canada and support them for a year so they can build a new life here.

And now, when the post office guy asks me who we are, I don't just answer that we have fun, or that we provide a way for UUism to be shared into corners it otherwise might reach. Now, I grin and say that we are about memes and refugees. Laughter, and community, and the dignity of people who deserve a new life. Now, it's all I can do not to throw back my head and howl "MIIIIRTH AAANNND DIIIGNITYYY!" like a war cry, in the middle of the post office.

That's who we are. People who believe you can change the world and smile at the same time.

Joy and laughter, and... as of today... three people whose lives will very literally never be the same.

Welcome.

The not-for-profit “Mirth and Dignity” was registered the following month.

By Liz James, Mirth and Dignity Board President. (Mirth and Dignity is the legal organization that, among other things, runs the UU Hysterical Society).

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Interested in learning more about FCI’s role in Mirth and Dignity? Check out “How Mirth and Dignity got its name”, or start the story right at the beginning with “Wait, What’s the Connection between Mirth and Dignity and Flaming Chalice International?” or go straight to those rivetting governance tips with “Learning from FCI” and “Not my potatoes”.

Interested in learning more about FCI’s work? Check out “The Not-a-Church we helped build”, or “How Flaming Chalice International got its Name” Or check out FCI’s website. We particularly recommend this story about Fulgence’s mother. It’s really beautiful.