Color in my World

I love diversity and I love experiencing the culture of other groups and other communities. I guess that's why I spent nearly two decades trying to bring those experiences to children each spring during our Spring Arts Festival. As an Army brat, perhaps it was my early exposure to diversity that led me to want to try to expose my own child and my own community to this beautiful world of color.

Looking back on it, I am still astonished at the resistence our festival committee experienced when trying to bring people from other cultures and traditions to Minden.  I remember the year we brought the Houma Nation  to Minden to celebrate Native Americans.  We had gotten word that one of the churches in town was planning to boycott the festival. We were going to honor the tribe's arrival with a community totem pole with colorful blocks created by area school children that included special messages. We took the news in stride and decided that we would make this a teachable moment not only for the children but for adults as well.  I guess it worked. There was no boycott after all.

And I remember the year that we decided to celebrate China. With the olympics to be held that same year, we thought it would be a great idea to honor their country.  We invited the Shreveport Chinese Society to share their art and culture with us.  They brought beautiful pieces of original Chinese art to the Farm for all to enjoy.  I think the most impressive event was when one of our Chinese guests created special calligraphy hangings for festival goers.  It was one of the brightest and most colorful festivals we had ever had.  We ordered original Chinese costumes from China for many of the children to wear for our mini parade.  We had created painted banners bearing special words in Chinese for the children to carry during the parade. We had a young Chinese exchange student sing a Chinese song on stage that brought the crowd to tears.  It was a moment when you didn't have to know what the words were to understand the significance and the meaning.

The controversy this time didn't come from our community. It came from the Chinese Society.  We shared with them the many photographs we had taken of their visit in Minden. And among the photos was one of a young girl holding one of the banners that read  "Liberty" in Chinese. We had taken the suggestion of these painted banners from a page out of a boy scout manual. Unfortunately, our guests thought that we were involved in a conspiracy to disgrace them in their homeland.  We did manage to meet with them and reassure them that everything we did was honorable and certainly not meant to harm them in any way. We were very apologetic. We did manage to smooth things over with them, thank goodness.

We have in our backyard another culture that deserves our respect and attention. And that is of our African American neighbors. My own life experiences have colored my world with such wonderful memories. From Arley James to Mr. Moore to the Thornton sisters, their friendships have given me such joy.  And during this Black History Month celebration I honor their memories and their friendships. And I hope that we can continue to keep our minds and hearts open to experiencing and understanding the cultures and traditions of others even our own.

With all the turmoil and unrest on our planet today, I think its going to take more sensitivity, respect and understanding to get us through these tough times. Our cultures and traditions may be different. Our skin may be different. Our religions and politics may be different.  But we are all still part of the same race....the human race!

There is color in my world, I hope there is color in yours!

Leading by Example

Over a decade ago I noticed a significant rise in violence among the boys at The Children’s Center.  There was more name calling and their aggressive actions were affecting the harmony we had all come to enjoy at The Children’s Center.  Without knowing the direct cause, I attempted to examine what social issues we might have been experiencing that were different than any other time in my fifteen years of care giving.

I sought the advice of professional counselors to see if they too had experienced the same thing. I examined every aspect of the Center from our policies to our supervision.  I was very careful in those days to monitor their Nintendo games and anything they watched on television.  We forbid anything that was violent down to the smallest details including not allowing toy guns at the Center and not allowing the children to make toy guns out of Lego’s (which they often did and hid them under the Lego table.)

The one thing that marked this period in time was the beginning of the Iraq War.  I’m not sure that was the catalyst for their aggressive behavior but I knew that I needed to do something about it for the sake of the kids.  At my own expense, I hired a professional counselor who at the time had designed a program for children called “Cool Waves.”  The idea was to bring youngsters together for special  sessions which included everything from role playing to leadership training exercises and even watching videos designed to teach children how to resolve problems through non violent means.

We pitched the idea of this “Cool Waves” program to the young boys who had displayed aggressive behavior above and beyond what we thought was appropriate.  I secured permission from the parents. A signed contract from the boys meant that they understood that this program was to help them with their aggressive behavior but most importantly it would help them redirect their energy towards a more productive outcome.  They also understood that we were paying for this because we believed in them and we believed them to be our leaders of tomorrow.  “Leaders of tomorrow” was the phrase that appealed to them.  The sessions were held off site each week for a number of months.  The boys were respectful and made every attempt to make this work for all of us. I was so proud of them.  They graduated from the program and were told that it was their job to pass that knowledge and newly-found behavioral skills down to the younger children.  And they did.  The whole atmosphere at the Center changed. Violence was replaced with compassion, kindness and understanding.  Peace had been restored.

I share this story today because I’ve witnessed the same aggressive behavior in society probably more these days than ever before. And not just among children.  Have we replaced compassion and kindness with hatred and violence? Has arrogance and greed along with our hunger for superiority divided us even more?  Have we become a country of bullies?  We seem to bully those who don’t believe as we do. We bully those whose political positions don’t mirror our own. ?  I feel somewhere down the road, we have allowed our egos to get the better of us.   Maybe it’s time we all took a hard look at ourselves.

I’m not excluding myself in this. I have been examining my own behavior and becoming more conscious about my actions and my reactions.  We should all be willing to fight for compassion and not mistake kindness as a weakness.

 Peace be with you!