in other words
december11
Living on a Lake in the Country: Before I die I want to...
By Gayle Rich-Boxman
Living out in the country has many rewards and
I love living in it. It has inspired me to change careers,
and live my passion, to be freer and happier. Living in
the city also has rewards—like being able to see live
performances of inspirational speakers in a jam-packed
room, filled with other like-minded people. Living 90
minutes from the city affords less opportunity for that.
However, with the internet, you can bring some of
those inspirational speakers right to your dining room
table for a one-on-one conversation.
That’s how I found Candy Chang recently. She
was a speaker for “Ted Talks, Ideas Worth Spreading”,
which are live/taped presentations on the internet that
are less than six minutes
long that are empowering,
impactful and sometimes
life-changing. The title
of her presentation was
“Before I die….” which
immediately
intrigued
me. Candy is an artist
who lives in New
Orleans. Something that
she has in common with
those of us who live in
Vernonia, Birkenfeld and some of those outlying areas
on or near the Nehalem River, is that she saw firsthand
the devastation and aftermath of a flood in her city.
She personally knows how it can change the face of a
community forever. How it changed the face of many
buildings in her city, leaving them to sit abandoned for
years. How painful that can be to look at as a reminder
of life and how fast it can change.
This brings me to Candy’s simple and very
inspirational idea. She took an abandoned building and
by simply stenciling the phrase, “Before I die I want
to___________________________” on the side of a
building, along with making chalk available, it instantly
became a giant chalkboard, allowing anyone to write
the rest of the sentence in their own words, sharing
with their community their wishes, dreams, aspirations.
It is a way to reach out to others who see it and maybe
console, inspire or just make someone chuckle.
This experiment done on an abandoned
building in her own neighborhood in the post-floods
of New Orleans took off and is now done around the
world from South Africa to Australia, Argentina, Chile,
Germany, China and beyond. She and her colleagues
now offer a simple and inexpensive tool kit for doing
this along with easy-to-follow guidelines.
Here in the Vernonia area following our own
devastating flood, we banded together as a community—
as one collective—to save community and eventually
bring it back to thrive, yet some of buildings are still
damaged-looking…a
constant reminder of
what happened.
This gave me an
idea of what I want
to do before I die….
have an impact on my
community. That being
said, I feel that having
this “giant chalkboard”
would be such an easy
way to open up the lines
of communication in our community of Vernonia for
people of ANY age to take a moment to reflect on their
lives and write down what they would like to do before
they die. This is a way to look at LIVING by reflecting
on dying. To live every day like it counts. AND to
inspire those around us by sharing our dreams.
How shall I accomplish this? This is where you
come in.
I am looking for a building that is in a prominent
and accessible place. A location that will be seen by
those who are coming and going through Vernonia who
will have the opportunity to write their own wishes to
share with neighbors as well as visitors to our town.
To show the spirit of this community. To beautify, to
15
express. I was also thinking that it would be wonderful
to have one of our community artists paint a mural on
the building as well.
What are your thoughts about this idea? I
would love to see if someone would be interested in
allowing us to use the side of their abandoned building
to “bring it back to life.” Also, possibly put together a
committee and choose an artist from those who would
send us their idea of what they would do on the side of
the building. Get the city planning people involved.
As Candy said, ”Our public spaces can be
powerful if we are given an opportunity to have a voice
and share with one another.”
As the world watched what happened to us
and how well we have recovered, maybe we can show
the world with our local voices how to inspire others
who’ve also had this happen and how they, too can
have a collective voice in their community’s recovery!
Please contact Gayle Rich-Boxman at
(503)755-2905 or e-mail me with your thoughts and
ideas at: richbox@centurytel.net
If you would like to view artist and community
activist, Candy Chang’s talk about her “Before I die”
experiment, you can go online to:
http://www.ted.com/talks/candy_chang_before_i_
die_i_want_to.html
How would YOU finish this sentence?
Before I die I want to_____________________
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