A few nights ago, I was thinking about dreams, and whether it was important to have this big dream for our lives individually. Why is it necessary to dream? What does success truly look like? Why does all of this matter so much to me, and to everyone else here?
Just as it is with great artwork, an artist might paint a masterpiece with an idea in mind, and then name the artwork, and display it in a gallery. When viewers examine the artwork, they may see something completely different to the artists original intention. It also may mean different things to different people.
We had a class at NEC with Judy Bose just before we left for Venezuela. The class was about aesthetic education. One of the group exercises involved using creative movement to express our emotion, and even tell a story. When gaining feedback from the other group, they derived so much meaning and even symbolism in our display. They even managed to extrapolate meaning that we had never even thought of or intended. This was a astounding learning point for me: The meaning derived from what is created, often completely surpasses the artists' intent. This is true for many art forms.
I believe that this is also true when working with children. If I take a good look at my life- it is made up of a string of opportunities that came at the right time, that propelled and continues to propel me into my future. When we give a child an opportunity, we are changing their world, because we are changing the possibilities for their lives. Just as my world is being changed everyday here, by this amazing opportunity, so we can change young people's worlds. The world is ever changing, yet remaining the same- especially in terms of the circumstances we grow up in. But I believe that if we can help to transform the frame or lens through which young people see the world around them, we open the window of possibility.
This is exciting and inspiring, but it also scares me to no end. Rodrigo Guererro said a number of times last week, "This is serious business!" That sentence has been etched on my heart as I realize the immense responsibility that comes with working with children. We are all in a sense stewards of these young lives. As teachers, mentors and opportunity-givers, the honor is ours, to be able to give and share music and 'life' with others. It is also our responsibility to see potential, and then help children to see this potential in themselves.
This, to me speaks about changing paradigms through changing mind-sets, through simply providing opportunities. Opportunities to learn music, opportunities to experience different things and places, opportunities to dream. These opportunities change the possibilities. In essence, if life had a doorway to success, then us empowering young people to succeed by teaching them music is giving them a key, and showing them how to open the door and walk through it. We also enable them to dream about what is on the other side of the door. Children still need to take the key and open this door, by making use of the opportunities presented to them. There are many more doors after the first one, and its this process, that enables a young person to dream, and realize that they can actually live their dream.
The thing is, we do not know the full possibilities of the opportunities we give others. I have heard the saying, "Reach for the stars, and you might land on a cloud". I have a feeling that in this kind of work, the sky is not even the limit. By providing an opportunity, we open the doorway of possibility, and inevitably a young persons world is changed.
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