There’s always a debate about whether the arts matter. People seem to think that development of self-expression is for children, best left behind when we grow up. Yet as adults or teens becoming adults, we need creative endeavors all the more. How fortunate we are to have Fivesparks. As a practicing artist, I know why.
It is through disciplined self-expression that we integrate day-to-day feelings with the trajectory of our lives. It is how we get through a pandemic with not a day of boredom or frivolous distraction. We experience connections with other times and places, break cultural barriers, and open our thinking to innovators we will never meet. The arts are a conversation about who we are, how we live, and what matters. They teach us to see and listen. They deepen compassion and our sense of wholeness. They enable us to join the global community and give voice to our place in it.
When a child finds pleasure in drawing, storytelling, or song, the germ of possibility is opening for a lifetime. That is all we get, a lifetime. Fivesparks, our beloved center for the arts, offers a place to nurture our nature and celebrate it.
In 2015 Harvard Medical School launched a program to integrate the arts and humanities into their training of doctors. My teacher, Catherine Kehoe, was invited to be on the advisory board; I have been to presentations and spoken with doctors who say that training in music, poetry, and painting helps them assess a patient’s health.
They become better listeners and diagnosticians. They have a way to manage the stress inherent in a profession with life-and-death consequences.
We, too, need to manage stress. The choices we make have life-and-death consequences, both personal and communal. Fivesparks needs a roof. In its historical place on the Common, Fivesparks enriches our lives. It manifests that our community has heart. It may operate as a nonprofit supported by volunteers, but it generates shared wealth. Let’s show our gratitude.
Judith Schutzman
Littleton County Road
