The Theatre Kids

I didn't get involved at all with theatre when I was in school. Sometimes the kids involved were labeled weird or dramatic. None of that really bothered me and I never teased anybody in theatre. It's more that it was just kind of a foreign thing to me. There was nothing that led me in that direction. As an adult, I kind of see the theatre kids with fresh eyes and think that I would have fit in there. It is a warm, welcoming, inviting place for all, free of judgment and bursting with creativity. I substituted a theatre class on Thursday and just want to say that it was AMAZING (emphasis on the zing)!!!

I keep thinking back to all the little things of the day. Each class had different improv exercises they worked on. The last class was doing half-life and a character emerged, Cleveland the Cow. "I'm Cleveland the Cow..." As we rotated through different exercises-onion, freeze, interpreter, hitchhiker and machine, Cleveland the Cow kept having a front and center roll. A plot began to develop. Carter the Caterpillar came on the scene and the two of them had a budding but school-appropriate romance brewing. The students were getting very creative with both the ways they incorporated Cleveland and Carter as well as the unfolding of a story of these creatures. When the student in charge for the day was exasperated about the overuse of Cleveland the Cow, students adapted and started saying, they were calling from Cleveland (in interpreter) or going to Cleveland in hitchhiker. As time went on, the students came up with a plan. First of all they would dress up like their teacher for his return next week. Also, they would refer to Cleveland and Carter but they would act like it's a popular show on TV and they would bring it up and talk about it a lot to see if the teacher catches on and how he responds. They panicked and asked if I was going to be able to keep the secret. Creative students were thinking of constructive and healthy ways to have fun and I had a blooming opportunity to destroy everything...but how does that reward healthy creativity? I thought they had a brilliant plan that endeared me to those students. I wish I could be a fly on the wall in that class on Monday. I would love to see everything unfold. If this is how one day in theatre goes, what would a whole year there look like?

Passion Project Community

I remembered something I had wanted to write about. Last year during an hour & a half long drive in the car, my kids started asking each other this: if you were in charge of creating a world or community, how would you do it? What would the rules be? What would the living arrangements be? What would the consequences be if somebody didn't follow the rules? How would you rehabilitate people with problems? They covered a variety of ideas with this. As somebody would present their ideas, the other kids would ask for more information about certain aspects or reveal how the plan might not go as smoothly as you would think. Based on this, we heard plans get revised and more solutions were considered. Each of our kids had some ideas that were different and some that were the same. It got pretty interesting and I felt like it was a proud mom moment. I LOVED hearing my kids have this discussion unprovoked in the back of the car!

Eventually, my daughter asked me my thoughts on this and I had recently come across beautiful ideas in the book The Cleansing of America by W. Cleon Skousen. Some of the ideas are based on the Founding Fathers, particularly Thomas Jefferson's views. Basically, the first thing is to take inventory of the people. How many families are there? Anybody married is a family. If you're an adult but not yet married, you would be considered part of your parents' family until marriage. (Of course this is where I branch off a litle. I'm okay with adults being counted as part of the parents' family but would also advocate some space and independence for them. Maybe they live on the same property but in their own structure, etc. Putting them together would be for support purposes but they should also be aptly considered viable and independent to the extent they desire.) Figure out how to get good leadership in place. The example here is that every 10 adults pick somebody to represent them. Every 50 adults pick somebody to represent them. Every 100 adults, pick somebody to represent them. Out of 600,000 adults (such as in Moses' time and according to what's understood about this system then), there would be 78,000 representatives. 1 rep per 10= 60,000, 1 rep per 50=12,000 more, 1 rep per 100=6,000 more for a total of 78,000 reps. That really helps represent everybody's true interest. Divide people into communities of 100 adults and allow them as much opportunity as possible to self-govern. Public lands get divided so that every adult has their own adequate and equal space. Each of these communities would develop their own schools, their own militia, their own justice situation, their own welfare program, their own roads, their own police, their own jury selection system, their own town hall and elections. When there is a close-knit group like this and somebody in the community starts to struggle, a lot of care and effort will be put into helping that person. It becomes a situation where everybody is really looking out for everybody else. Thomas Jefferson's version of this is called a ward republic.

Idealistically, this is a beautiful proposal. As you dive in, it gets more complicated. How do you keep this system in place, particularly as communities have children that turn into adults and grow? Do you let the community of 100 turn into whatever it ends up as when everybody there grows up or do you constantly re-figure the communities to max out at 100? There are pros and cons to both ideas. What if people don't comply with the system of representation? What if communities start to compete and/or corrupt themselves or others? This, is of course, the problem with every idea that seems good as an ideal but it seems flawed when put into practice. However, this is the basic idea for a possible way to set up a community that includes local control, good representation, and neighbors really looking out for each other.

Now shift to this week. My daughter and I were out and we got into a discussion about ideal communities again. I brought up the idea of a place where the community let everybody in society pursue what they're passionate about for a year when they turn 20 and supports them. Give everybody reasonable resources to pursue their passion and see how much it would change society. A passion project is a piece of work or an endeavor that someone gets involved in because they love it or feel it is very good and important, not in order to make money. It demonstrates your initiative, creativity, determination, and personal values and interests. It should be something that would inspire and excite you. Some examples include starting a non-profit charity, small business, or blog, building an online community around an issue, doing independent research, writing a book, or making a film. Because of the idea that something is created and it revolves around what matters to somebody, it's likely to contribute to the building up of a society in tangible and intangible ways.

My daughter talked to me about the two ideas that she'd be torn between (making a docu-series that covers social issues she's concerned about or creating a tiny house community that offers up solutions for the current housing crisis). We talked through lots of details and then another idea hit me. What if you could also do another year of pursuing a passion when you turn 50? Sometimes when you're 20, there's a lot about life you don't know about. By 50, you might have learned about things you never even knew existed when you're 20 so you should get another chance to pursue something then. This would keep people's vitality, too, at an age often associated with burnout. Plus, I think many 50 year-olds could do things that would really affect the community for good and this goodness would help the community embrace an older part of society more and realize their value. This is all just ideals, not real day-to-day life but it was fun to think about and fun to talk about.

Little Tidbits

These are some of the things on my mind these days: 1)I'M SURPRISED I HAVE ANY FRIENDS...I try my best to be a kind and friendly person and yet there are times when I see myself in ways that I think others might see me and I'm surprised I have any friends.

Last Friday night, we met up with a bunch of friends from the neighborhood for a somewhat spontaneous get-together. The text had said there might be some volleyball, some card games, some board games. I've never gone to this particular kind of thing before so I interpreted it as you could play volleyball or you could play other things. We showed up and everybody was just playing volleyball and pressuring us to play. My son & hubbie were happy to play. They did great. I DON'T play volleyball. I've tried again and again. I have years of attempts. I played on a church team as a youth. I played in elementary, middle school, and high school (not on the school team, just playing regularly as an activity to do). I played a little after getting married. I have practiced with my boys in the last few years and I would still do that a little because it's meaningful to them but by this point in time, I don't dislike volleyball because I haven't tried enough. I dislike it because I genuinely dislike it and I've had enough experience to know.

I said, "Oh, I'm here to be a cheerleader" and tried to say no graciously. Some neighbors accepted that and went about their way but some were VERY pressuring. As I overthought this later (which I'm great at by the way), I realized that over the years, this isn't the first thing I've hesitated to participate in with some of these neighbors. There are some games I have offered to observe instead of play over the years at their homes or on campouts and things like that. I feel like I do willingly participate in most things but there are several games that came to my mind that I have hesitated to engage in. I can see how that could seem annoying to them. How do I still have any friends? I realized the root of it though. My family used to play games growing up and we were all expected to play. Most of us were happy to do it. However, if we didn't play in a way that was acceptable to my dad, he would yell at us, berate us, and sometimes throw things. It was scary and it didn't feel good. I think deep down, I do have a little bit of performance anxiety when it comes to playing games with people. I don't feel good enough at volleyball to want to reveal my weaknesses to the neighbors so I just don't want to play around them. Other games that I hesitate with are things that I feel afraid I won't be able to pick up or that I will do something humiliating during and I'm afraid of how people will react. This is a new epiphany for me so I don't know if this can get better or not but I can finally begin to understand why I hesitate. Most people have only played games for fun and even though I'm sure everybody has experienced things going awry, I hope most people have had a little less trauma from making mistakes at games. ************************************************************************************************ Next topic: I just finished the thesis for my master's degree and it's 42,827 words. What I've learned doing it is exponentially more, although wording all the things I've learned is hard to do. I love learning so deeply. I admit this has become an obsession for me and I don't yet know if it's a healthy obsession.

********************************************************************************* Finally, I had many things I wanted to write about but now that I'm sitting here doing it, the thoughts are gone for the most part. I guess this is it for today. It feels good to say I'm out of words for now.