The Imagine Bus Project
Today is one of those days when I’m glad that I rummaged through mainstream news. Lately, it’s hard work to find anything worthwhile that they report. But this time, the NY Times put out an article on a journalism project that I find awesomely inspiring because of the subject’s offerings of creative arts projects to kids in under-served areas in the San Francisco Bay area. Susan Little, the founder of The Imagine Bus Project, wanted to offer these kids opportunities to discover what a positive affect art can have in their lives, and perhaps even help them to pave the way to their future through their own efforts. It’s always amazing to find these groups who understand the necessity of creativity in ones life.
We all tend to focus on the teaching of absolutes that are concrete such as math & science, but this tunnel-visioned focus is creating a new generation of people who are not always deeply thoughtful in their thoughts and actions. The more esoteric forms of understanding, such as the arts, have been put to the way side simply because they don’t prove long-term demonstrable profitable benefits. Again, we’re using the wrong measurement tools. Because if you look throughout human history, art has always been the one form that builds those nebulous visions into concrete structures that we admire and revere.
You can’t walk into a museum without seeing those wondrous creations in their visual, tangible, or auditory essences. Look at our most revered institutions and their symbols: buildings that contain the shapes and colors that come from an artist’s mind. While the logical teachings helped to build them, they were conceived by a spark of inspiration that comes from the arts. Nothing in our world would exist without the help of the arts in all of its forms.
If we’re planning on continuing our evolution (whether you’re a believer of it or not, it’s happening and it can be traced), then we need to nuture our spirit as well as our mind. Simply so that we can be the total being that we’re meant to be: simultaneously logical and creative. Yin and Yang co-existing as they should.
On a side note:
If you read the NY Times article, you’ll read that there are people who are skeptical that these kids who have been in the juvenile detention system aren’t dangerous. That group’s words and actions are also a secondary reason as to why I feel compelled to cover this amazing group of people who are working so hard to give these kids a chance in life. For me, it would take an unimaginably grotesque act for me to write anyone off. Many of these kids are victims of a system that was never built to nuture and teach. It’s organizations like The Imagine Bus Project and so many others that are giving society a chance to become better human beings – with the emphasis on humanity.
I read another article by David Brooks talking about the over-emphasis on empathy, and I couldn’t disagree more with his sentiment. He claims that codes are the motivators of our actions and that “empathy is a side show”. Perhaps he feels this way, because like he said, “Empathy orients you toward moral action, but it doesn’t seem to help much when that action comes at a personal cost. You may feel a pang for the homeless guy on the other side of the street, but the odds are that you are not going to cross the street to give him a dollar.” I beg to differ because there are many people, including myself, who would cross that road for that homeless person. The way I figure, fate works in mysterious ways, and with one wrong turn that could be me. Those codes that he speaks of need empathy in order for morality to make any sense. I guess that we really haven’t come as far as I had thought when we can still question the viability of empathy. Look around, we living in a world that doesn’t have enough empathy. It shows, doesn’t it? We need to change that!
More coverage on The Imagine Bus Project:
Stacie Krajchir’s article in the Huffington Post
Volunteer for the Imagine Bus Project
