Thank. you for sharing these positive thoughts during challnenging time for artists struggling to remain creative in what can quickly become very depressing unless you can remain above the clouds to always see the sunshine.
You mention feeling a sense of energy from her words and yet, as I read your essay, I feel a sense that my current decade of life is heading in the right way for me personally. I am reconnecting to my truly creative self and am reaching that peace. Thank you.
Thank you, because now more than ever, we need to keep creating and operating from a place of joy. It is the bravest response to a troubled world.Bravo!
Connecting to the "real world" in real ways appears to be what your speaker has discovered as a true medium for actively changing things. Her awakening that started in Springville, I certainly understand, having left Monticello in 1968 and only briefly touching base with it's narrowness over the next several decades, gave rise to a project that I have had success. I was looking for a way to change people's attitudes about their fears of "others" in the world that they have absolutely no connection with. My years of living elsewhere, have taught me much of what to expect from interacting with people culturally different on all sorts of levels. Because my home locality is directly connected to one primary location in Germany and I sought out ways to connect my genealogy in real ways to it. This birthed an idea of simply "moving the mountain to Mohamad", as a way to open people up to the fact people who don't speak your language and come from a foreign country are NOT YOUR ENEMY! You don't have to tell them that, you let them figure it out on their own! I have a tour group that comes to Iowa based primarily with people who continue to speak plat of "low" German, a language probably more closely related to English than German, but not understood be either! Many of the older people I grew up with spoke this plat dialect, but it has all but disappeared today. So, these are people who have a curiousity of where did their relatives go? What became of them? At the same time bringing them into the fold of many distantly related people has excited some interest in my hometown Iowan's. So when they come, we have "meet and greets" often with people discovering family that haven't connected in over 100 years! Most German's have ruditentary knowledge of english from High School, some are profecient to serve as translators. Suddenly you begin to see people reaching out to each other, talking and laughing, some are being invited to family get togethers created on the spot in the homes of locals, and the conversations continue from there! It is a simple move to crack the nut that surrounds so many people who maintain a level of distrust of others because of unfounded fear of anything different. Is it an answer? No, but it is a start that hasn't ever happened before in Monticello! Just to be clear, you have a connection to this as well, your grand mother, Janice Goodyear, was a Wilken, many of the names around Monticello that end in "en" are all from this same place in Germany! Hanken, Wolken, Bohlken, Doden, Eden, Eiben, etc.. There are even more that end in "s", such as Siebels, Eilers, Behrends, Eilts, Caspers, etc. Just to show how divergent this is, your mother is my 2nd cousin, once removed. Phillip Owen, another person who has written you, his late wife, Lavonne, was my 3rd cousin. So, I agree, if you want change to happen, find a way to start and include others anyway you can!
Thank you, Macey. A thought provoking read that has inspired me more to add more to my creative portfolio!
Thank. you for sharing these positive thoughts during challnenging time for artists struggling to remain creative in what can quickly become very depressing unless you can remain above the clouds to always see the sunshine.
Take Care
You mention feeling a sense of energy from her words and yet, as I read your essay, I feel a sense that my current decade of life is heading in the right way for me personally. I am reconnecting to my truly creative self and am reaching that peace. Thank you.
Thank you, because now more than ever, we need to keep creating and operating from a place of joy. It is the bravest response to a troubled world.Bravo!
Connecting to the "real world" in real ways appears to be what your speaker has discovered as a true medium for actively changing things. Her awakening that started in Springville, I certainly understand, having left Monticello in 1968 and only briefly touching base with it's narrowness over the next several decades, gave rise to a project that I have had success. I was looking for a way to change people's attitudes about their fears of "others" in the world that they have absolutely no connection with. My years of living elsewhere, have taught me much of what to expect from interacting with people culturally different on all sorts of levels. Because my home locality is directly connected to one primary location in Germany and I sought out ways to connect my genealogy in real ways to it. This birthed an idea of simply "moving the mountain to Mohamad", as a way to open people up to the fact people who don't speak your language and come from a foreign country are NOT YOUR ENEMY! You don't have to tell them that, you let them figure it out on their own! I have a tour group that comes to Iowa based primarily with people who continue to speak plat of "low" German, a language probably more closely related to English than German, but not understood be either! Many of the older people I grew up with spoke this plat dialect, but it has all but disappeared today. So, these are people who have a curiousity of where did their relatives go? What became of them? At the same time bringing them into the fold of many distantly related people has excited some interest in my hometown Iowan's. So when they come, we have "meet and greets" often with people discovering family that haven't connected in over 100 years! Most German's have ruditentary knowledge of english from High School, some are profecient to serve as translators. Suddenly you begin to see people reaching out to each other, talking and laughing, some are being invited to family get togethers created on the spot in the homes of locals, and the conversations continue from there! It is a simple move to crack the nut that surrounds so many people who maintain a level of distrust of others because of unfounded fear of anything different. Is it an answer? No, but it is a start that hasn't ever happened before in Monticello! Just to be clear, you have a connection to this as well, your grand mother, Janice Goodyear, was a Wilken, many of the names around Monticello that end in "en" are all from this same place in Germany! Hanken, Wolken, Bohlken, Doden, Eden, Eiben, etc.. There are even more that end in "s", such as Siebels, Eilers, Behrends, Eilts, Caspers, etc. Just to show how divergent this is, your mother is my 2nd cousin, once removed. Phillip Owen, another person who has written you, his late wife, Lavonne, was my 3rd cousin. So, I agree, if you want change to happen, find a way to start and include others anyway you can!