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| In this world with a lot of problems All we need is a little loving Thank you, thank you, oh, you make me Thank you, thank you for your love Jon Batiste – I Need You, 2021 On this holiday weekend during Treaty Month here in Nova Scotia, we are so grateful to everyone who helps make this place possible and to the people who have been here since time immemorial for the beautiful place that Ross Creek inhabits. As part of our thank you, we are doing a Thanksgiving special on all camps for 2025 for this weekend (see below). As we watch events around the world, politics in the US, and our own in Ottawa, I was struck this morning by something on the CBC news site about how the African proverb: “it takes a village to raise a child” has been frustrating parents who are struggling with isolation without extended family or a sense of community. While that proverb can feel almost an empty cliche, said so much that it has lost its meaning, the diminishment of civic and cultural time for families does have an impact. As I would say (often) when our children were little “ we aren’t meant to do this alone.” If we say the proverb sardonically, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t true, but rather that we feel bereft of the possibilities of that kind of community for our families (whatever kind of family that is). And it isn’t just the children who need that village, but all of us. So that has me thinking about gratitude and what’s important. How simple gratitude can lead to a more civil and essentially human society, one where we honour each other and see what we each bring to the world. The simple act of saying thank you and acknowledging each other, I believe, makes a difference. It lets people know they have been seen, and from the smallest act of kindness of holding a door, to the biggest acts of generosity or selflessness, if we recognize all of those acts with humility and honesty, we are seeingeach other. If we see others, and are seen, whether strangers simply moving past each other through a doorway with respect, to people we love most, then we are becoming community. It could lead to conversation, and even finding understanding or commonality, paying attention to the places where we intersect. If we are in the habit of expressing gratitude, it makes a difference, and expressing gratitude can also make us feel better and more positive when we acknowledge others – that we are more connected. But gratitude won’t stop isolation and disconnection by itself. Coming together does that, and not just in our own families, but in opportunities for village life – and this is where culture comes in. Whether you live in a city or in the woods, there are places where you can gather and experience something together with others. It could be a play, a concert, a community meal, a visit to a local market, a parent and tot story-time at the local library, or a drop-in cultural event. These are places of connection, of meeting and engaging with our collective humanity, and they bring a sense of the village back to our fragmented and technological lives. They provide us with places to tell our own stories, and to see our own stories reflected back to ourselves through the creations of others. They can make us feel less alone. As with gratitude, they can help us feel seen. Our Community Arts Days, our community suppers, and the theatre, the camps, all the things we do here, are about so much more than specific skill building or entertainment, while those are important. They are about being together in one place and experiencing something together. About making memories and conversation, engaging curiosity and understanding. About diminishing isolation and embracing our humanity. They are about making a village. All of this needs protecting. Just like with families, our villages and our places of community need to be supported, shored up, embraced. We need to ensure that they are here now and for future generations. The best way is to protect them is to show up, to be part of the cultural fabric and make the village your village. And of course supporting however you are able – with funds, with volunteering, with knowledge and expertise and caring. And by ensuring that others are or can be part of the village. So on this Thanksgiving weekend (in Canada), I wanted to take a moment to say thank you. We know that the world is full of competing interests and things that demand your attention, but you are here with us at this moment reading this, and that is something for which we are profoundly grateful. We are also so grateful to our staff and volunteers, to all the theatre company members and all the artists who teach and create and the youth leaders who give so much. We are grateful to the suppliers and trades who help us make the place run. We also don’t often enough express our gratitude for the civil servants who care deeply about how to ensure public funds are supporting communities effectively. And we are grateful to politicians and candidates who support arts and culture and civil society through mechanisms like Arts Councils, which are vital to the future of places like Ross Creek and Two Planks. We give thanks to the donors who give what they can and help us make this space for all. It is impossible to overstate the difference every dollar makes. And you. You are receiving this because you have already shown up in some way and that is what makes everything possible. So we thank you. And we see you. And we hope that you continue to join us, to make a village together and to make the world brighter, one door held open at a time. With love for a peaceful and safe weekend, Chris and Ken |
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