Earlier tonight we celebrated the end of our summer camp with our performance for the children’s parents. There was singing, dancing, and even a slide show on the big screen by yours truly. We have been preparing for this for about a month and tonight everything thing came together. Our kids danced their hearts out to Mariah Carey’s song, Hero. We made “hero medals” yesterday, and near the end of their performance they went out in the crowd and placed the medals around their parents necks. Other highlights included the 6th and 7th graders performing a mime presentation complete with painted white faces and gloves. My slideshow was a hit. The kids loved seeing themselves on the big screen.
John Perkins spoke and as he did I began to think about community. I feel so alive when im interacting with others in a personal way. It was an emotional evening for both Emily and me as we watched these kids that we’ve come to love so much, perform. John told a story about being in a prison 2 weeks ago and his interactions with the prisoners who wore the orange and black uniforms that symbolized they had committed murder. All of them were black, and he said he had never seen men so young and beautiful. He said that as he talked to them he cried and they listened and they called him grandpa. As he was telling this story tonight I looked at the faces of the children from our camp and imagined them, having made a horrible mistake, forced to spend their lives locked up in prison. Its got Emily and I thinking a lot about the importance of working with children. They are the ones who can grow up and make a difference in their depleted neighborhood. Kids in our neighborhood have very few people to affirm their dignity, to tell them that they have worth. We could have never gotten to know these kids had we not been in their community. All this to say that tonight I felt alive by being involved in community. Sometimes for me it seems easier to withdraw myself and not be known but when we are involved with people, though it’s sometimes hard, we taste life in its richest form.
1 comment:
Hi J & E--I know the feeling you've described about community. I experienced that when we were in Indianapolis and at SE. There's something about a close bond with other people. Sometimes it can almost feel like infatuation!! It has always made me feel like getting close with others is worth it, even though sometimes there's hurt, anger and disappointment. Still it's worth it because there's also the connection, being understood and "knowing" someone else who is wonderful, interesting, and amazing. Love you 2. Hey, let's have community in PDX!
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