Candy Chang is an artist in New Orleans who uses public spaces as a shared canvas to explore what her neighbors are doing and thinking, how they are living.
I could not love her ideas more. It makes me wish I lived in an urban place so I could do something like this. Then the part of me that I am trying to address and change with these little reflections brings up the point that this is the kind of thing that I always think it would be cool to do but I just never get around to doing. She has the balls and the will to do the work to get a project like this going. It's fascinating. Also, why couldn't I do something like this in my little town? It certainly wouldn't be damaging, I think it would be enlightening. And empowering.
I'm going to think about this, maybe challenge myself to come up with some idea to bring the community together. Maybe in my little UU church. Maybe at our local playground.
Chang also discusses how, as she puts it, "thinking about death clarifies your life." It's weird how much this sentiment rings true for me right now. One of the struggles in my life at this very moment is realizing that I may be running out of time to strengthen a relationship which I always desperately wanted to be stronger. It's one of those cliched situations where I always thought I'd have more time and it's looking, quite suddenly, like perhaps I may not. Not much time at all.
I'm headed out of the country in a couple of weeks to attempt to strengthen an important and much neglected relationship, to at least tighten what ties are there but have been loosened, and possibly to simply say goodbye. It's tough trying to make a connection to someone who has a hard time offering something to connect to. But it's important. At least it is to me, in this case. I think it will be a matter of just doing it. Which, hey, would you look at that, is kind of the theme of my life right now.
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