By Jeffrey Wilson
Creativity + Social Change
University
of Connecticut
February 24, 2012 -- Friday morning, 6:30 a.m. and I decided to take a peek at this week's writing assignment, and suddenly I realized I wasn't listening to Steve as close as I should have. I was both distracted and amused at how different people see things. A movie, screened at class, message, and a fine one it was, seemed so clear to me. But a fine gentleman and fellow classmate got a totally different message, and as he made his point, to use a 60s term, "it blew me away." Made me realize that we all see things differently, act differently and are different and I guess that's the beauty of community.
Multilayered, multicolored etc, just "multi" -- in general. His comments were so far from what I thought was a very simple message -- return local economies, think globally, act locally, etc. etc. -- that I got distracted. So I've decided to do a free-form, sort-of-jazz response to your community assignment.
Community, COMMUNITY, community cOmMuNiTy
C Common Good
O Outside, Always thinking and acting outside the box, a smart thinking community is always looking many generations into the future
M Mutual Respect, Mutual respect and caring for the beauty of the different economic, social and ethnic cultures within the community
M Multi Multi-directions in positive ways, social, infrastructure, educational, cultural, and on and on
U User Friendly Easy one, user-friendly
N Nurturing Nurturing, take any good seed from anywhere and grow it. The most important, your most valuable resource, your children. But all resources from any direction if they are good, need to be nurtured. Your community's future and the nurturing of it is the children's future, and yours too
I Interest Interest breeds success and growth. It gets people out and involved
T Transparency Transparency, in the new totally linked world, there can be no "good old boys club" and "backroom politics," if true community growth is the goal
Y Yours Yours, never forget that the community is yours, and that GREAT GIFT brings a stewardship responsibility. Where you live is where you grow, so always aspire to be great, in your people, your infrastructure, your museums, your parks, your schools, and on and on. Wherever your eye takes you within your community and beyond, is where you should be seeking out greatness and in doing that, you end up with community, in its truest sense!
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
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Jeff I loved this! One question/comment though. Under nurturing you mention, the good seeds, let them grow. What about the bad seeds? Perhaps they won't grow up the same way as the good, but does that mean they shouldn’t be nurtured to grow whatever way they choose? As the nurturer, is there is something we can do to make them grown up right the way, the way a good seed would? Okay I lied. Lots of questions! I think, in terms of youth, sometimes the “bad seeds” are just poorly nurtured. The person in charge of caring for them boxes them in and doesn’t “give them sunlight” so they may not grow at all. As we’ve spoken about in class, children who are labeled bad seeds generally are missing something; a creative outlet, direction, affection. That’s not their fault, we all deserve these things. Some parents just aren’t willing or able to give it. I think at this point it’s the responsibility of the community to step in take over where the nurturer is lacking.
ReplyDeleteI think this format is wonderful and my favorite letter was the Y – Yours. It would certainly be a much easier go if we all focused on what’s in us and what is ours, rather then trying to live up to someone else. We certainly all do have a gift, a wonderful gift and though it may not always come in as handy as others, we shouldn’t be ashamed to use it!
this is very interesting, the words/phrases you used for each letter are definitely ones i wouldn't use or think to use. they are very outside the box yet you tie them in wonderfully. i do agree with Christina though, there are always bad seeds and we cant just ignore them because they too are a part of life and growing up. the Y letter pulls everything together and reminds you that life is indeed yours and is essentially what you make it and it is up to you to fulfill everything you want!
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