The Artists, Feelers and Thinkers will Save Us

"[I]ts the artists of this world, the feelers and thinkers, who will ultimately save us, who can articulate, educate, defy, insist, sing, and shout the big dreams. Only the artists can turn the “not-yet” into reality.

How do you do it? Find out what you can do well, uniquely well, and then do it for all you’re worth. And I don’t mean “doing your own thing” in the hip sense. That’s passivity, that’s dropping out, that’s not doing anything. I’m talking about doing, which means serving your community, whether it’s a tiny town or six continents."
(Bernstein, 1982)

Some artists, feelers and thinkers this week:

• A young woman who used to be attend our centre returns to ask for support as she decides on a less lucrative change of career to pursue her creative interests and degree subject and train to be a youth worker to share her gift in art and design with young people.
• A four year old paints a robin suncatcher for me, the same 4 year old who, in Pass-the-Parcel, when the music stops,  tries to give the next person in the circle, the parcel.
• In Circle-time with the 5-8 year olds, when asked what their Wishes for the World would be for Christmas, a 7 year old's wish was for it to rain  food for everyone who's hungry,  and a six year old's wish was for fairy lights around the world, with balloons added by a 5 year old.
• When carol singing, a man gives a £5, paying it forward because our organization gave him £5 when he was homeless.
• A teenage girl overcame her lack of confidence to help run a Christmas Party for a group of young people with complex needs and sang and learned the sign language for some carols for a video for the carol service.
• An octogenarian, who had suffered brain damage from a blow to the head years before, bed bound in hospital from a fall and on a drip for a chest infection, remembered how to play dominoes, sang When the Saints Go Marching In with me and still clapped with joy each time either of us won.

Like I said in Circle-time with the children, those creative thinkers were going to be the ones to make the world a better place. The Artists, Feelers and Thinkers will, indeed, save us. They save me every day.

Bernstein, L. (1982) Boston Globe Words and Music by Leonard Bernstein: Excerpts from Findings, Boston