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Easter/Earth
Day
From the Gunnison Country Times. April 2004– Maryo
Ewell
What a week. One that has both
Easter (April 20) and Earth Day (April 22) in it. It inspires reflection.
I use Easter weekend as the time when I really try to reflect on what
I do – both for my profession (the Colorado Council on the Arts)
and my work (community arts development). Snowing or not, I try to spend
the weekend in the garden, repairing winter’s ravages, turning the
compost pile, fretting about water, marveling that the tulips made it
through another winter. In taking care of my little yard, it’s a
good time to act out my belief in this planet’s goodness and my responsibility
to it. And a time to reaffirm promises to people I care about. I always
read T.S. Eliot’s The Four Quartets on Easter, too: "…for
us, there is only the trying/ The rest is not our business."
A few thoughts from the garden: you think about grass roots a lot as you
try to dig up turf, trying to limit the almost appalling amount of grass
you are supposed to take care of. Reminded of the interconnectedness of
these tiny little roots which make an almost immovable mass. You remember
that the community arts movement is aptly named "grassroots arts."
A person’s arts. People’s arts. Peoples’ arts. The interconnectedness
of neighbors whose community cannot, must not, be dominated by outside
forces, economic or artistic. You remember how important it is to talk
about your community, creatively, uniquely.
You think about how your garden nurtures your stomach, delights your eyes,
returns a little oxygen to the atmosphere – for everyone. You think
about community arts, which you have dedicated your life to, and you think
how community arts is like that, spiritually, for community arts nurture
the spirit, delight the mind, return a little identity to the community.
And then you think about Earth Day and you realize that the work of community
arts people and environmental workers is very similar – both about
ensuring life, which may be why so many community arts organizations aggressively
celebrate Earth Day.
And at the same time you remember a friend who likened your profession
to that of the ministry, caring for the soul.
And that makes you reflect on the Easter service, at which one prayer
is for the well-being of the community where you live; and also "for
the good earth…and the wisdom and will to conserve it."
And you liken that service to a piece of community art, one which celebrates
that community, in which everyone participates, in which there is a shared
ritual passed on from generation to generation, in which the language
is poetry and the music is stirring, in which everyone sings whether they
are on key or not, just because that service says something about who
they are.
And you think about the Sonofagunn at the Arts Center, and how it dares
to try and ask the Big Questions about your community, and you thank the
Gunnison Arts Center for having the courage to let the community ask itself
these questions, and you realize that this courage is one of the things
that makes the Gunnison Arts Center stand out from so many arts groups
nationwide. And you think about your own agency, the Colorado Council
on the Arts, and what it has tried to stand for, and you realize that
whatever happens, the commitment of community arts people is bigger than
that of any agency – it is about the interconnectedness of those
grassroots, that just won’t let anyone cut through them. Organizations
come and go. The grassroots are always there.
Easter. Earth Day. Recommitting yourself to your place and your people.
Saying, "This is who we are. This is creatively
saying who we are. No one else can say it like this. This is why we matter."
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