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« 12 People Who Are Changing Aging - No. 8 | Main | The Baltimore Sun Shines »
February 25, 2008 |Permalink |Comments (1)
What the World Needs Now...
and less of
Comments ( 1)
This comment is not specific to just this post.
I have been reflecting on my own, but certainly this has increased 10-fold in my participation in Dr. Thomas and Dr. Ronch's course in the MAgS program. It is amazing to me the polar opposite views/values and perspectives of humans and of the human spirit. It can be paralyzed and squelched in oppressive environments out of fear, survival or desensitization. This is true in any environment, be it a country in war, in a nursing home or in a family.
It is refreshing to the spirit to see individuals and groups rise above their circumstances, whatever they may be living in a war zone, poverty or sitting in a MAgS class with taking on the challenge of transformative leadership with aging services.
I am including a link of an interview with Peter Schumann who began the Bread and Puppet Theater back in the 60's. It began in New York and moved to Glover, Vermont. As Schumann states-although it is considered political theater-he does not see it as that "simple-minded." I related to his reflection in that he sees carrying signs and handing out flyers for or against a particular issue as a passive role. In his theater, he reflects that it has active involvement with the audience with the enormous puppets that have been created with community participation to reflect ideas or views. It involves the audience and play out the action of the thought. The huge masks they make are from real faces of people and he made a beautiful comment on how often you look at people sitting or standing that are often silent but that they show their lives through their faces.
It reminds me how in interacting with others, and specifically with elders in our work, there is a story and a rich life in every face. It also resonated with me that sometimes in order to facilitate change we need to step "out of the box" or take a more active role that is community involved, expressed in a human way and takes on larger communal issues in a different and sometimes radical form.
Close to 20 years ago, I went to Glover to visit the Bread and Puppet Museum and the creations/puppets are both eerie and beautiful that in many ways truly reflects life, as we know it.
Some of the art/statements of Bread and Puppet are also interesting and relative to my conversations with classmates and colleagues such as:
" Resistance-of the heart against business as usual"
"Resistance-to the worthlessness of the machine operated details of life"
"Resistance-of the mind against the supremacy of money"
Wonderful food for thought-but thinking about Schumann’s interview and class discussion- rather than mere "food for thought"- to me, it would follow suit to now move toward actually "making the bread."
Here is his interview: http://www.breadandpuppet.org/radical_jesters.html